Starting today through Tuesday, Pittsburgh will host an unusual scientific meeting that will focus on the next generation technologies that will drive green construction and sustainable water use, as well as programs to create sustainable economies, two big and important subjects to everyone in the world.

	Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette Click illustration for larger image.

Why is that unusual? As astonishing as it may sound, up to now I believe that engineers have had little to say about the strategies that are driving some of the most important initiatives introduced over the past decade -- those aimed at maintaining a livable world.

Instead, to their credit, public policy experts, economists, lawyers and environmental group leaders have led efforts to identify solutions to myriad problems, even though science and technology are at the center of those solutions.

The issues are big and worldwide, and include conserving water, conserving energy used in new buildings and pretty much anything that makes it easier for everyone to grow and prosper while better utilizing resources.

As I look at the situation as an engineer and businessman, I have to wonder why the professionals most able to innovate and design those solutions haven't been part of the movement from the first days? More important, I wonder what are the weaknesses and, eventually, the cost of developing public policies and designing action strategies for reform without the influence of those who are best able to develop innovative solutions based on technology.

To a large extent, we engineers are at fault for our lack of influence. We simply haven't, as individual leaders or as parts of national professional groups, stepped up and actively and publicly participated in the movements that are, correctly, calling attention to the need for reforms in how we build as well as how we conserve and better utilize resources.

For reasons I don't totally understand, engineers have ceded the leadership roles in the public forums that will advocate for new policies and seem satisfied to play a secondary role and help to carry out others' ideas. While others design the strategy for reform and determine the routes nations will take, engineers seem content to build the locomotives and put down the rails.

By way of example of how little public recognition shines on engineers in these matters, I'm confident that the public and public officials would identify the Sierra Club as a leader in the movement for environmental change; yet I doubt many could identify a single engineering organization as a leader in initiative and advocating strategies for green building or sustainable development.

The problem of engineers being second- and third-stage implementers rather than first-stage innovators is that there can be a cost -- either in too many dollars being spent on a solution or a solution that cannot deliver on the expectation -- when public policy is designed without adequate recognition for the technical requirements necessary for success.

We see those costs today in many ways.

One of the most disabling, I think, is the trend of government units -- following what they are told is the newest strategies for sustainability, for example -- to create complex and inflexible regulations. Too often in the name of progress, these rules stifle innovation and, in doing so, reduce the positive impact of any reform.

Again, the fault lies, in part, with engineering. My industry, the construction industry, is a good example. Construction generates about 10 percent of this country's Gross Domestic Product. By the very nature of our business, my peers and I should be initiating ideas and advocating the best of them as they relate to sustainability and green building.

Although engineers for the most part run the industry, the amount of money we spend in research and development is negligible. It can't be measured. We haven't invested a dime, as an industry, in programs that would allow our best and brightest to attack problems the way engineers do and generate solutions that promise to be effective. Until we do, we'll have to watch others lead and we'll follow.

If our nation is to find the right paths, it's essential that such a mentality changes.

"Engineering Sustainability 2005" is a big step in creating change among the engineering world. The program is bringing together engineers from throughout the world who have been hard at work refining ideas and defining engineering strategies, many of which will be instrumental in helping communities and nations carry on sustainable economies and conserve resources.

"Engineering Sustainability 2005" is a program of the 2-year-old Mascaro Sustainability Initiative at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Engineering. One premise for creating the initiative was to give engineers a platform from which to demonstrate leadership in marshaling the intellectual and technical forces needed to address the challenges our world faces.

As the Initiative grows, and is replicated in other regions, it's my hope that others seeking solutions to problems will recognize that the job will be easier and success more likely if engineers are at the table.