How to become a successful Environmental Engineer – 9 Key Points

Table of Contents

How to become an Environmental Engineer?

What is Environment Engineering?

Sub Domain within Environmental Engineering?

What does an environmental engineer do?

Educational Requirement of Environmental Engineer

Software Skills of Environmental Engineer

Professional Training, Qualification, and Titles for Environmental Engineer:

What is the Average Salary of an Environmental Engineer?

Where Does an Environmental Engineer Work?

Interview and Guidance from Environmental Experts

Key Takeaways:

How to become an Environmental Engineer?

Environmental Engineering is not a very branded discipline to the newbie civil engineers but as the issues like climate change, air pollution, and noise pollution are coming to the forefront of the general discussion/ social media and electronic media, Environmental Engineering has gained loads of traction within the civil engineering industry.

So, how to become a successful environmental Engineer?

That’s why we are here for you.

Please read this blog for details.

What is Environment Engineering?

Environmental engineering is one of the key domains of Civil Engineering and it mainly emphasises on environmental assessment, environment protection, and sustainable development. In today’s day and time, it's very important to not only protect the environment but to enhance the proposed green landscape against the existing one.

Environmental Engineers first analyze and assess the impact of proposed infrastructure on the existing environment such as air pollution, noise pollution, archaeological, arboriculture, natural habitat, water assessment, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) assessment, etc.

Thereafter, they propose mitigation measures to control the environmental impact and then they propose various improvement measures.  Various design tools and construction technologies are installed to address the issues.

Sub Domain within Environmental Engineering?

Environmental Engineering in itself is a very vast discipline so it is highly recommended to drill down the nitty-gritty before identifying a preferred sub-domain within the environmental Engineering domain.

• Air Quality
• Noise Assessment
• Water Quality Assessment
• Ecological Assessment
• Archaeological
• Landscape Engineering
• CEEQUAL Assessment

What does an environmental engineer do?

Following are some of the key activities that an Environmental Engineer performs:

• Carry out a desktop study for various sub-domains like air quality assessment, noise assessment, ecological assessment, etc based on the previously recorded data and reports.
• Carry out sitewide surveys and inspections to examine individual sub-domains.
• Carry out lab-based or software tool-based environment assessment of those sub-domains.
• Prepare the Environmental Impact Assessment Report as per the analysis and findings of the lab data and technical review. Thereafter, update environmental investigation reports with those assessment items.
• Propose mitigation measures and ecology enhancement measures to minimize environmental damage.
• Obtain statutory approvals and maintenance mechanisms from respective environmental agencies.

Environmental engineers are also required to be competent to work with other disciplines such as highway engineers, P-way engineers, Structures, etc because most of infrastructure projects are led by a principal discipline. In that case, close coordination is necessary to achieve the core objectives of the project.

Environmental Engineers are generally required to understand a delicate balance between a pro-infrastructure development and pro-environmental conservation approach because both are important for sustainable development.

Educational Requirement of Environmental Engineer

Environmental Engineer jobs are vastly skilled and delicate jobs. The minimum educational requirement to become an Environmental Engineer is a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, but you need to have additional training in any sub-domain of environmental engineering such as air quality assessment or noise assessment or water quality assessment, etc.

Further study in Environmental Engineering or a doctorate degree would surely augment a student’s professional competency as Environmental Engineer and high possibility to receiving a job offer from decent MNCs from consulting engineering or corporate sectors or construction firms.

Software Skills of Environmental Engineer

Air Quality Assessment:

Air Quality Assessment is required for various reasons such as compliance with Planning Applications, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), dust assessment during the demolition or construction stage of a project, minerals extraction and waste management, Habitats Regulations Assessment, etc.

ADMS 5, ADMS-Roads, AERMOD, etc are some well know Air Quality Assessment software that Environmental Engineers are recommended to learn and get the competency.

Noise and Vibration Assessment:

Live Enviro is one of the well-known software for noise and vibration assessment. INSUL is another software tool to perform similar operations. CadnaA is another well-known software for noise calculation, assessment, presentation, and estimation purposes.

CEEQUAL Assessment:

The full form of CEEQUAL is Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment. CEEQUAL is an assessment process to demonstrate if an infrastructure project actually provides a meaningful development via the implementation of superlative practices including resource efficiency (materials, energy, water), whole-life costing, climate change effects, waste minimization, project management, collaboration with public and other stakeholders, value engineering, environmental conservation, etc.

CEEQUAL provides a comprehensive XL-based tool to evaluate the project quality on the above criteria and it helps clients and funding agencies to make a go-ahead or further improvement decisions.

Professional Training, Qualification, and Titles for Environmental Engineer:

Professional training and professional titles are very important to demonstrate competency levels. Professional membership from reputed institutions like ICE UK, CIHT UK, Engineers Ireland, etc are recommended and they play an important role in career development.

Online or offline technical training for skill development helps newbie civil engineers significantly to develop their professional capabilities. The gcelab.com or parallel firms provide professional training to their business client and to the professionals.

What is the Average Salary of an Environmental Engineer?

The average salary of an entry-level Environmental Engineer in the USA is approx. $72,000. Though it varies from big cities to small towns, software skill levels, professional experience, etc. It’s a very challenging and exhilarating discipline with an excellent remuneration package, so it is highly recommended to make a profession as an Environmental Engineer.

Where Does an Environmental Engineer Work?

Environmental Engineers generally work within an office-based environment with a partial prerequisite of site visits to appreciate the existing ecology of the site and surroundings.

Environmental Engineering consulting firms, air quality, noise & vibration assessment firms, water quality assessment firms, environmental products providers (noise barriers, air purifiers,  water treatment plants, landscapers, acoustic barriers, solar panels installers, windmill installers, etc), Construction firms, Government organizations, environmental conservation firms, NGO, etc are the potential employers of Environmental Engineers.

Interview and Guidance from Environmental Experts

Becoming an Environmental Engineer doesn’t mean that you need to do something new from scratch. There are many Environmental Engineers and experts who share their professional experiences through interviews. I would recommend listening to those experts and learning from their experiences.

The gcelab.com interviewed many industry experts including Environmental Engineering Experts.

Please see the link to one of the interview videos of an Environmental Engineering expert, available at gcelab’s YouTube channel.

Key Takeaways:

Environmental Engineering professionals are in enormous demand for a variety of reasons as stated above. Specialized skills like air quality assessment, noise & vibration assessments, etc are exciting sub-domain. There are great opportunities for our newbie Civil Engineers to make a career as Environmental Engineers and help society to develop sustainable infrastructure.  

I hope the blog provides you with a sound understanding of the Environmental Engineering profession.

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Founder at gcelab.com, Pooja is an Entrepreneur unlocking human potential. Working in the Principles of Lean Start-up, Pooja believes in Transparency and User Happiness the most. Pooja’s background in teaching gives her a sophisticated grasp on even the most tedious aspect of course building. She is passionate about people who believe that good is not enough.