Graduate structural engineer with Walter P Moore here (Rice BS '17, UC Berkeley MS '18). All good questions. Through internships, when I told them I was passionate about sustainability, I was usually met with something along the lines of ‘structural engineers can’t do much with sustainability, that’s all for the architects and owners’. Which is wrong, but I didn’t quite have the knowledge, influence, or confidence to try to change their mind (especially because I had and still have a lot to learn). So it’s important to find a structural firm that shares these values and will support you in learning about embodied carbon. I didn’t do a thesis and didn’t learn much about embodied carbon through school, so you can still learn a lot in industry if you find the right spot. There’s a lot that structural engineers can and should do, it’s just about finding the right place where you can soak up a lot of knowledge.
Choosing low impact material and designing efficiently is part of it, but that’s no small task. A lot of what I do is learn about and advocate for low-carbon concrete methods/practices/implementation in the context of a WBLCA for LEED credit (largely because we do a lot of big concrete projects in our office so it’s the most relevant to me). Having a good mentor in this process has been essential for learning and getting plugged into the right conversations.
No need to pigeon-hole yourself into one material or topic now - there’s a lot to learn out there! Feel free to reach out directly if you want to chat - mtorres@walterpmoore.com
@Luke-Lombardi @KRose - anything to add?