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Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL-USA) Summit 11, The Imperative of Climate Change and the Future of Engineering, featured a deep dive into how engineering and the engineering community might be transformed by the way it responds to the emerging risks of climate change. Using the State of California as a case study for inquiry, participants in the summit explored the roles the engineering community can play within and across the private sector, public sector, and the non-profit sector to catalyze action, facilitate communication, foster collaboration, drive innovation and entrepreneurship, and shape climate change public policy.

In the final exercise of the summit, participants reflected on the potential emergence of a “noble purpose” for the engineering community centered on the climate change imperative. The intent of a “noble purpose” is to unite, energize, and motivate people within and across organizations, and to fulfill their desires for meaning and contribution in their work lives.  A noble purpose statement can quickly and clearly communicate how individuals and organizations can contribute to a cause, such as climate change, that benefits society and nature in a meaningful way…. Read More

In 1956 President Dwight Eisenhower signed the historic Federal-Aid Highway Act that authorized construction of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, which came to be considered one of the United States’ greatest public works achievements. In Nebraska, the Department of Roads (NDOR) began planning for a state-wide system of freeways. Part of their planning included an expressway system for the Omaha area. The map shown below, from 1957, illustrates the “Recommended Expressway System” for Omaha. Several years later, NDOR modified this plan to include extending the North Expressway to connect with the expressway circling the northern side of the metro area.

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8/21/21 Update

The second edition of the ECL-USA Engineering Ideas Institute will be held from October 11 – 13, 2021, at The Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder, Colorado. The 2021 Institute will offer an opportunity for participants to take deep dives into two important topics that are central to the future of engineering…. Read More

Over the coming decade, engineering firms will face significant challenges from both the external environment and from internal forces. Impacts from the external environment will be shaped by global risks (economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal, and technological), including how the clients of engineering firms respond to these risks. Internal challenges will include adapting to the aspirations, values, and needs of new generations of engineers and other young professionals that manifest as they join and build careers within firms. Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL-USA) Summit 12 explored the potential impacts of these challenges.

In the first half of Summit 12, participants looked at the external landscape of the next decade. Discussions were informed and inspired by our provocateurs.

• Stephen Brockwell, Senior Product Owner for AEC at ESRI, outlined accelerating changes in digital practice for engineering firms. He described how digital tools utilizing machine learning, artificial intelligence, and generative design are allowing collaborative teams of engineers, cloud computing service providers, intelligent machines, clients, and contractors to innovate design and construction projects and processes.
• Martha Rogers, Natural Capital Economist at The Nature Conservancy, reminded participants of growing environmental challenges that society and the clients of engineering firms will face in the future. She challenged participants to consider that nature-based solutions can provide significant means for meeting the challenges of biodiversity loss, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, population and economic growth, and providing for society’s food and energy needs. Nature-based strategies can be particularly important for the private sector by offering innovative, cost-effective solutions that work as synergistic elements of business strategies.

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Mike McMeekin & Kyle Davy

Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL-USA) Summit 11 featured a deep dive into how engineering and the engineering community can contribute to meeting the challenge of climate change and how engineering might be transformed by the way it responds to the emerging risks of climate change. To observe the journey the engineering community could follow to make this contribution, scan the “Map of The Future for Engineering and The Grand Challenge of Climate Change” that emerged from Summit 11. The map identifies ten “Key Steps” the engineering community can take to help society achieve carbon neutrality and reduce the threat of climate change.

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How will engineering firms of the future be transformed from both internal and external forces in the coming decade?  The next Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL-USA) virtual mini-summit, The Engineering Firm of the Future (2030), to be held on June 16, 2021, will explore this topic. The summit will feature deep dives into two important themes of the future – Responding to Global Risks & Technology Accelerators and Developing and Sustaining Talent Cohorts.

Register for the summit at the link below.

SUMMIT 12 REGISTRATION

Responding to Global Risks & Technology Accelerators

 How will the external landscape within which engineering firms operate be reshaped by global risks and technology accelerators?

• How will clients respond? What new needs, fears, desires, and concerns may emerge?
• How might these changing dynamics and needs drive the creation of new value propositions and transformed business/practice models for engineering firms?
• What new mindsets and capabilities will be most prized as firms navigate the coming decade?

Developing and Sustaining Talent Cohorts

• What aspirations, values, and needs will new generations of engineering talent manifest as they join and build careers within firms?
• How do social and environmental values and attitudes compare/align across talent cohorts within firms as well as with organizational values?
• How will firms respond to resulting pressures to align visions, values, strategies and practices across talent cohorts within their organizations?
• How might firms leverage evolving aspirations and values to create new ways of working and new forms of value to offer clients?
• Will this generational shift allow firms to better address issues of social and environmental justice, equity, diversity and inclusion?

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