Northeastern University and SEI Host ‘Towards Zero Carbon’ Workshop
Northeastern and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) hosted a three-day conference focused on decarbonization and new design objectives for the structural engineering industry. University Distinguished and CDM Smith Professor and CEE Department Chair Jerome Hajjar, who is also SEI president, led the conference and emphasized concepts of sustainability, equity, and resilience.
In July, the Northeastern University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers hosted a three-day workshop titled “Towards Zero Carbon.” The workshop, held on Northeastern’s Boston Campus, brought together structural engineering leaders from around the country and spurred necessary conversations around decarbonization, encouraged the rethinking design objectives, and set an end goal of “establishing priority initiatives that will share the Structural Engineering Institute’s leadership role in driving carbon reductions for the profession.”
The event was sponsored by the Structural Engineering Institute Futures Fund, Northeastern University, the Charles Pankow Foundation, the MKA Foundation, Walter P Moore, SGH, and LeMessurier.
“We launched this workshop because of the outsized role structural engineering and construction plays in the issues surrounding climate change,” said Jerry Hajjar, University Distinguished and CDM Smith Professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering, who also serves as president of the Structural Engineering Institute. “In the U.S., about 40% of all energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, material flow, and waste are from construction and use of buildings.”
Hajjar has championed a new approach to structural engineering, centering sustainability, equity, and resilience as premier design objectives. “The process of shifting the culture to these design objectives is key,” Hajjar emphasized. “Already, we are shaping our educational programs to instill this perspective in the next generation of structural engineers. I believe the industry can execute projects with these goals in a cost neutral manner and we can drive whole new markets with the choices we make.”
In his opening remarks, Hajjar offered this challenge to gathered attendees: “In these two days, let’s ask ourselves: What are whole new industries that are needed? New and innovative materials and materials extraction and processing techniques? What new supply chains? New structural systems? What new policies and standards? What new codes and design guides? What do we wish structural engineers would be doing now that we are not doing adequately?”
The workshop was attended by a variety of stakeholders in the industry, with private industry, academia, and government represented. “The federal government is perhaps the largest owner of structures in the country, and they are interested in leading the way on driving these solutions,” said Hajjar.
Breakout sessions covered many critical topics, including resource extraction, materials processing and fabrication, architectural and engineering design, life cycle assessment, databases and software construction and deconstruction, policy, advocacy, and education.
Matthew Eckelman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, who is a member of the workshop’s steering committee and an expert in carbon use and emissions, gave an overview on the first day on resource extraction, decarbonization actions, and sustainability goals of material providers. Eckelman also ran the Life Cycle Assessment, Databases, and Software breakout session, sharing expertise and underscoring the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to these issues.
“Buildings and infrastructure take up most of the materials we mobilize as a civilization,” explained Eckelman. “Structural engineers have a key role in decarbonizing the sector by designing structures that use low-carbon materials and use them efficiently.”
Hajjar and SEI Managing Director and workshop Co-Chair Jennifer Goupil will gather the ideas developed at the workshop and, together with others at the Structural Engineering Institute and the workshop steering committee, will release a report on the workshop’s findings sometime this fall.
“I anticipate our discussions will help spur initiatives at SEI, and perhaps within industry and professional societies,” Hajjar said. “This workshop is only the beginning in our push towards zero carbon.”