A Young Engineer’s Perspective on Sustainability

A key focus area of the ECAP (Embodied Carbon Action Plan) is to educate employees about embodied carbon. The sustainability group in KPFF’s Los Angeles office focuses on lessons in sustainability in our structural practice. Educating our team empowers them to directly impact the future of the built environment.

Pictured: Sandy Babich, Alex Mueller, Carmen Chen, Alex Plumb, Sydney Huynh, Kane Pithey, Sara Abou Karroum and Nick Brown

Carmen Chen, a young engineer, and participant in LA’s sustainability group explains her perspective below.

One significant way I want to contribute to the future of engineering is by increasing the profession’s sustainability efforts. An essential part of continuing the sustainability effort in engineering is through education and consistent awareness in our daily practice. Within the last year, the sustainability group at KPFF LA has held monthly meetings to discuss sustainability locally and globally. I joined the sustainability group shortly after starting at KPFF LA, and it has been an effective way to complement my career in structural engineering. After focusing on sustainable design during graduate school, I wanted to incorporate sustainability into my daily work.

There have been conscious efforts to quantify embodied carbon for KPFF LA’s projects using innovative sustainability technology. Seeing sustainability concepts applied to structural engineering projects as an integral part of the process has been rewarding. I have grown through discussions with my peers about their experiences and lessons learned with sustainability. Collaborating with peers has helped further develop the methods of defining sustainability in structural engineering, especially within the KPFF LA office. Attending the monthly sustainability group meetings and assisting with the ECAP report have also been great ways to encourage a future of more sustainable design in our local office and the general AEC industry.