President's Blog

For a recent National Science Foundation workshop on research directions in civil and environmental engineering, Ralph R. Peterson, chairman and CEO of CH2M Hill and 2005 OPAL Award winner, presented a white paper on the global influences that will shape tomorrow’s engineering workforce. Drawing on his 40-plus years of witnessing changes in our profession, Ralph looked ahead to identify five key factors.

The first is changing populations in industrialized/developed countries. We tend to focus on our own demographics in the United States, but in Japan, one out of five people will be 70 years old by 2020. The populations of other western countries are also aging and shrinking. Meanwhile, developing countries’ populations are growing rapidly. This places new demands on infrastructure, goods, and economic growth as well as putting pressure on energy, natural resources and environmental issues. Ralph noted that a few years ago, CH2M Hill was considering offshoring as a means of finding less expensive engineering talent. They now believe that the challenge is not in obtaining lower cost talent, but applying the knowledge and talent resources to a greater advantage and having them become an integral part of the project management and leadership roles that have been traditionally held by American and Western European engineers.

The second force is economic globalization and industrial consolidation. Ralph cited Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, who has stated that their firm's strategy is about "putting people in jobs anywhere in the world based on the right costs, the right skills and the right business environment."

The third factor is integrated project delivery and risk management. The stovepipe stages of the typical engineering construction project need to be knocked over, Ralph said. The integration of project delivery through visualization tools and building information management system will accelerate project delivery and will integrate the various stages of the project to create value for project owners.  Ralph also said he expected to see more projects adopt design-build, design-build-operate or design-build-own-operate-transfer (DBOOT) approaches.

The fourth factor is limitations on energy and natural resources as well as climate change. Currently, humans worldwide consume 13 terawatts of power a year. By 2030, global growth will demand another 10 terawatts a year, according to estimates. The problems resulting from this phenomenal energy growth and demand may be the primary concerns the world will face in the coming years. Ralph offered solutions such as clean coal technology, biofuel, nuclear energy, but all of these will take time and investment.

Ralph's final factor is that of stakeholder and social responsibility. More and more decisions can’t be simply made based upon an engineering/economic analysis. The social consequences and involvement of our stakeholders will be critical to the success of future projects. Nations and their citizens will demand that corporations act with a social conscience. Ethical responsibilities and expectations will be paramount. Stakeholder communication collaboration will be as significant as the pure technical aspects of a project.

Many of these points are similar to those that Ralph expressed during our summit on the civil engineer of 2025. Although that was about two years ago, I believe that they are just as valid today and will continue to be major factors influencing our engineering profession.