Engineering the Future: Global Survey Reveals Perspectives on Intergenerational Equity Seen Through an Infrastructure Lens

“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our grandchildren,” is an insightful Native American quote attributed to Chief Seattle. It’s also my personal favorite definition of sustainable infrastructure. We need to leave our home at least as good as it was for us or even better. We’re seeing climate and manmade stressors wreaking havoc on our communities; the costs to individuals, institutions, businesses and governments are growing every year to fiscally unsustainable levels. When these events put strain on old and underperforming infrastructure that’s not up to the challenges, it results in major and costly disasters.

Engineering for the future requires us to plan, design, construct and maintain resilient infrastructure systems. Future communities will need to balance physical infrastructure needs with social and financial costs to meet those needs concurrently. We simply don’t have the financial, material and human resources to waste, so efficiency needs to play a major role in future project systems.

At a CROSSROADS

During the last few years, as part of our corporate purpose “Together with our clients, we create lasting community benefit,” GHD has been developing strategies to solve some of our most pressing problems by surveying large samples of our customers and thought leaders to see what they feel are the most pressing challenges and then looking at strategies to address them. We started with “Aquanomics” in 2022 about the economics of water risk and resilience (bit.ly/3zpCRBw); followed by “SHOCKED” in 2023 to de-risk the energy transition (bit.ly/3WaLR6E); and the current release of “CROSSROADS,” which looks at future communities and “charting a course to intergenerational equity” (bit.ly/3W8HojA).

Based on a wide-ranging survey of more than 10,000 people across 10 countries, CROSSROADS presents a fascinating snapshot of community sentiment—preferences, priorities and multi-generational perspectives—through an infrastructure lens. Overlaying these key findings will be GHD insights related to each of our core markets: water, energy and resources, environment, transport, and property and buildings. CROSSROADS will spark a fresh conversation with our clients about how we can deliver fair and fit-for-purpose infrastructure, from one generation to the next.

Our sample in the United States included 4,000 individuals. A key finding is that the U.S. overall trends pessimistic for the future. Affordable housing is a critical issue identified to foster thriving communities, but there were regional nuances as well.

Californians and New Yorkers demonstrate a strong commitment to balancing housing affordability with environmental concerns, are committed to sustainability and are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products and services. Texans place a higher emphasis on protecting natural waterways through mindful drinking-water provisions.

Climate change is a pressing concern, with half of the U.S. market experiencing its impact, particularly in Texas. In response, Americans are adopting various eco-friendly practices such as recycling, composting and water-conservation strategies and are opting for repairs over new purchases. All states unite in advocating for reliable access to clean drinking water. Floridians prioritize environmental concerns with a focus on building a sustainable economy and protecting natural waterways.

Clean energy education and investment are top priorities, with Texans leading the charge in advocating for government-led initiatives and leveraging industry collaboration.

Californians and Texans are calling for safer roads and reduced transportation emissions, championing the “polluter pays” principle and expressing a willingness to use public transportation as reliability improves.

Smart systems and technologies elicit both hope and concern among Americans. There’s apprehension over internet-connected devices, while understanding that smart solutions have the potential to enhance traffic flow, improve resource management and boost quality of life through better public WiFi.

 

 

 

Using New Tools

In the past, the engineering profession didn’t have the tools to assess whether projects were indeed following environmental, social and governance best practices, even though governing legislation had been in place for decades.

Now we have LEED for habitable buildings, Envision for all other buildings and infrastructure, manuals of practice on Resilient Infrastructure, and ASCE 73-23 (adopted in October 2023) as a sustainability standard.

We also learned that clean energy education and investment are top priorities in the United States, with respondents advocating for government-led initiatives and industry collaboration. This points to a growing national awareness of and need for state and local governments to adopt the aforementioned standards into the local building codes.

Governments should be leading in this area, not lagging when their constituencies clearly support resilient infrastructure, as individuals personally have been impacted. It’s time for our profession to step up, advocate for code adoption and then ensure code compliance. We can do this, for our grandchildren’s sake..