January 2007

Sustainable Design Forum; Environmental Sustainability: Collaboration and Marketing Best Practices in the Building Industry eBook

Integrating Low Impact Sustainable Development Strategies in the Design Process: a Civil Engineer’s Perspective

By J. Chris Earley, LEED AP

While walking through the exhibit hall during a USGBC green building conference and expo a few years ago, it struck me how scarce other civil engineers were at the event. There were plenty of architects, land planners, manufacturers’ representatives, and contractors. Where were the civil engineers?

CE in Sustainable Planing and Design

Ironically, it is the civil engineer (CE) who in many instances is responsible for some of the biggest environmental impacts of a project—including storm water management, erosion, and sediment control. The civil engineer also is responsible for working closely with the regulatory authorities that decide whether to allow innovative technologies that may lessen the environmental impact of development.

This insight strengthened my belief that a collaborative design process is the only way to maximize the potential for environmentally conscious design. In many instances, I have been involved with projects where we, the civil engineer, have been added as a subcontractor to complete services for a project long after its site and architecture have been planned. This severely limits our ability to contribute to a project’s environmental goals. I also believe that there are cost and schedule benefits to having all participants in the design process involved at the earliest possible point in the project.

Many of the low-impact development or “LID” technologies touted to contribute to sustainable design are highly regulated by multiple jurisdictions. Bio-retention/infiltration technologies of any kind are part of and regulated through a project’s overall storm water management plan.

Pervious pavement, which allows runoff from parking lots to filter through the pavement— while blocking chemicals—is a form of storm water management with implications in terms of maintenance and vehicle weight loads. Green roofs, storm water reuse for irrigation and plumbing fixtures, the amount of impervious area for parking also are designed in collaboration with the civil engineer. These are a few examples of how just one team member on a project is critical to any truly environmentally sustainable project.

It is not my goal to offer dissertation on the subject of a civil engineer’s role in a project, but rather, to acknowledge that actually having a lower impact on the environment while building in it requires a collaborative effort.

In a Timmons Group project currently under permit review in the District of Columbia, we have designed a green roof, which drains into a cistern fed by the streetscape drainage. The water then re-circulates through bio-retention areas for further filtering and for streetscape and green roof irrigation. Part of the storm water flow also passes through a water feature that will be visible to passers-by. The complexity and integration of this project required a partnership of developers with vision and the creativity of the architect, the mechanical engineer, the structural engineer, and through Timmons Group, the civil engineer, landscape architect, irrigation specialist, and horticulturist.

1050 K Street Rainwater System

This project is one example of how it takes a team to make any difference in lowering the impact of development creatively. The design of the project’s complex rainwater system involved all team members’ expertise and a sensitivity to the issues of each of the disciplines involved. It required respect for the architect’s and owners’ vision for their building, while creating a system that works technically and reflects the landscape architect’s design goals for the streetscape.

Connection of the green roof to the cistern mechanically at street level required cooperation between the irrigation specialist and the mechanical engineer. The design of the bio-retention areas involved the civil engineer, the horticulturalist, the landscape architect, and the architect. The owners also were involved every step of the way.

Furthermore, Timmons Group’s construction administration personnel reviewed the plans to make sure they were feasible, while the structural engineer ensured that the water feature being so close to the building would not adversely affect his footing.

1050 K Street Bio Retention and Plaza

Colaboration in Complexity: Environmental Impact

These are all critical parts of the same whole, placing this project’s process at the opposite end of the spectrum from scenarios wherein the civil engineer is brought in to perform certain finite tasks that already are mostly defined by decisions by the owner, the land planner and/or architect.

In one of my conference presentations, I speak about the building being on a site, in a neighborhood, in a community (town or city), in a country, in the world. What this means to me is that we are all affected by and responsible for attempting to improve the environmental impact as we work on projects that develop the planet. By working together as a team in a collaborative effort, there is a much greater possibility of this happening.

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