Design Behavior

How to Save Our Planet and Influence People

Dan Bergsagel, MEng CEng MICE M.ASCE1

1
Schlaich Bergermann Partner, 555 8th Avenue, Suite 2404, New York, NY 10018; E-mail:
d.bergsagel@sbp.de

ABSTRACT

Human actions have, and continue to, cause changes to our climate. The built environment sector
is disproportionately responsible for present greenhouse gas emissions, and thus structural
engineers have a unique opportunity to reduce the quantity of future greenhouse gas emissions.
Emissions reductions can be realized through building less, refurbishing more, appropriate lean
design, completing life cycle assessments at early stages, designing with low-carbon materials,
and applying circular economy principles to new designs and material life cycles. However, the
construction industry is risk-averse, and engineers often defer to previous familiar historic design
methods which do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This paper proposes applying
knowledge from the field of Behavioral Economics to the structural engineers’ quotidian design
workflow to allow engineers to realize emission reductions. Recently implemented changes to
the workflow at Schlaich Bergermann Partner (sbp) are discussed, in addition to planned actions
within sbp and the industry at large.

MOTIVATION

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land… Global
warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in
CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades” (Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change 2021). The motivation to reduce human impact on the climate will require a
paradigm shift in engineering behavior and dominate the way structural engineers design and
build in the coming decades (Martin Powell 2020). The CO2 emissions associated with the
manufacturing, transportation and use of all construction materials for buildings are responsible
for approximately 10% of all energy sector emissions (United Nations Environment Programme
2020), and around 40% of global materials extraction was for housing, construction, and
infrastructure (de Wit, et al. 2018). giving engineers a critical role in reducing carbon emissions
(American Society of Civil Engineers 2021).

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

The construction industry in the US and Europe is actively encouraging structural engineers to
quantify and reduce their project carbon emissions through completing and recording the results
of project life cycle assessments (LCAs), and adjusting engineering design accordingly (Jeseritz
2021) (Gibbons and Orr 2020). These LCAs encourage the assessment and use of appropriate
low-carbon materials which consider the embodied CO2 emissions associated with construction