Opportunities and barriers faced by early-career civil engineers enacting global responsibility

Abstract

The term ‘global responsibility’ projects a holistic sense of ethics, sustainability, and obligation. To achieve the long-term viability of human life on Earth, civil engineering must be conducted in increasingly responsible ways, and civil engineers must value and enact global responsibility in their work. Interviews conducted with nine civil engineers in London provide insight regarding engineers’ familiarity with the term, how they learned about it, what opportunities and barriers they face, and what might be done by professional and educational institutions to help them practice more responsibly. Results indicate: the term itself is novel but underlying concepts are not; continuing professional development has played a crucial role in their understanding; material selection and Health & Safety represent primary avenues for contributing responsibly at work. This paper provides advice to professional institutions regarding transparencies, procedures, and metrics to enhance the UK workplace and ideas for educational institutions preparing engineering students for practice.