Environmental Engineering Profession
Is the water safe to drink? Is the air dangerous to breathe? Should we eat the fish we catch or the crops we grow? Do our living and work spaces pose special threats to our health?
Environmental Engineers are the technical professionals who identify and design solutions for environmental problems. They provide answers to the above and other questions about the potentially harmful interrelationships between human civilization and the environment. Environmental engineers apply scientific and technological knowledge to eliminate or reduce environmental problems. They seek to shield the environment from the harmful effects of human activity, protect human populations from adverse environmental events such as floods and disease, and restore environmental quality for ecological and human well-being.
Traditionally, environmental engineering includes:
- The identification and measurement of potentially harmful physical, chemical, and biological agents in the environment,
- The transport and fate of these agents,
- The effects of these agents on people and the environment, and
- The design and operation of engineered systems for the maintenance and improvement of the quality of our environment.
Historically, it was the sanitary and civil engineers who made cities livable for large populations. However, the role of environmental engineering has been expanding in the past few decades. Increasingly, environmental engineers are being called upon to expand the focus of their efforts to address the challenges associated with alternative energy, sustainability, climate change, ecological restoration and emerging public health threats.
Northwestern has developed an interdisciplinary approach to the education of environmental engineers. The four-year curriculum provides the students with a sound fundamental knowledge of environmental engineering principals and an opportunity to integrate other aspects such as basic science, social science, humanities, and public policy to their knowledge.
Environmental Engineers stand at the threshold between natural environmental systems and human societies!
Employment
Our graduates in environmental engineering will have many career opportunities in a spectrum of business sectors. These include engineering consulting firms that offer challenging employment in environmental planning, design, and management. The manufacturing and chemical industries, utilities, the pollution control industry, and others need engineers for the development and management of research and environmental control programs. Engineers in governmental agencies are responsible for planning and assessment of control strategies and measures to assure a clean and healthful environment. Universities and research organizations afford additional avenues of career development. Many of our graduates continued their education in schools of engineering, law, medicine, public health, and management.
Environmental engineers held about 50,610 jobs in 2009. A little over half were employed by firms providing management, scientific, and technical consulting services and other engineering consulting services. About one-quarter of the jobs were in federal, state, and local government agencies.
Job Outlook
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of environmental engineers is expected to increase about as fast as the average for all occupations through 2018 with the largest increase anticipated in the professional, scientific, and technical consulting services. The increase is spurred by general population growth and an expanding need on sustainable designs and processes and other issues such as climate changes.
Earnings
Median and average annual earnings of environmental engineers were, respectively, $77,040 and $80,750 in 2009. Average annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of environmental engineers in 2009 were: (from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Engineering and architectural services $82,980
Federal government $96,410
Local government, except education and hospitals $74,650
Professional, scientific, and technical consulting services $81,690
State government, except education and hospitals $66,470
