Hammer Time

I usually fail to winterize my lawn mower by draining the gasoline from the tank before the cold hits. In the spring when the grass is growing again I find myself unclamping the hose and draining the tank of spoiled gasoline. I make my usual trip to the gas station and fill up one of those red portable gas containers. I know I should switch to electric, but the gas mower still works and to my neighbor's chagrin I don't use it very often. I read that I can use up freeze exposed gas in my passenger vehicle since it has a larger engine then a lawn mower. Doing this requires a trip out to the garage and digging up one of those red canteens and giving my Prius a sip.  

Its funny how garages are associated with masculinity. My dad who is a master of 2x4 construction has built himself an office in his garage completely out of this material. Its a place where he feels most comfortable. I can't say I would ever put an office in a garage, but I do like to have my tools organized so when something comes up that needs to be repaired I can do so without spending half my time looking for the right tool. 

When I was 23 and seeking to gain admission into the college of engineering I wrote an essay about hammer hooks on my son's pants. My son was only 3 years old and yet many of the tiny pants that were marketed towards his age group had hammer hooks on them. I was 23 and had rarely found a pair of pants in the women's section with decent pockets let alone a tool storage component on them. 

My young self questioned this in that essay. Who had failed at recruiting me into engineering sooner? Was it my lack of savvy or was it a larger failing of society to not instill in me the perceived tool belt needed to pursue the degree? Criticism sometimes pays off.

Engineering does teach that problem solving does require tools. Skills and techniques are referred to something you  "put it in the toolbox". The problem is girls are not marketed pants with hammer hooks or tonka trucks; let alone tool boxes. Early in this profession as a women, I probably spent as much time crafting the proverbial tool box as I have the tools. That's a disadvantage when it comes to participation and competition with peers who may have grown up with pants with hammer hooks and by extension the pursuit of both tangible and intangible tools. 

Yet, tools or tool boxes alone or not enough to solve problems. The person wielding the tools has to have the fortitude and resilience to be able to keep at a problem until it is deconstructed and redesigned. Fortitude and resilience are traits that have no gender and not anything that can be purchased. People at a disadvantage will overcome a lack of resources with an overabundance of tenacity. 

Complex problem solving requires complex problem solvers. As we fund civil infrastructure by the billions, recruitment of designers is crucial to paving the path forward. We need people with tool boxes, tools, and the tenacity to use them. Hopefully, that path is paved with a diverse work force, recycled materials, pervious pavement, solar charging stations, and a generous amount of vegetated oases. Unfortunately, we are behind the 8 ball as that type of recruitment and training takes years. There's no time to waste to get hammers in the hands of girls and other non-traditional candidates for engineering degrees.

 

 

The Year of the Possible

There's mold in the upstairs closet. I don't know where it came from, but I know that removing it will involve moving the clothes out of the closet and a bucket of hot soapy water. I will have to get down on my hands and knees and scrub away the evidence of a neglected space. 

Maintenance can be uncomfortable, because you have to face down the things you've been neglecting to do. I visited my mom last week and she has been neglecting going to the dentist for years. By the end of my visit I had her repeating that 2022 was the year of the dentist. Covid has been hard on my mom who has limited mobility. Quarantine took away her shopping trips which were her main way of participating in the community and provided physical activity for her. 

People have a hard time grasping what it is like to have a schizophrenic parent. They don't understand the amount of neglect and hardship this has on a person and their family members. I know from first hand experience how incredibly difficult it has been.  With over 30 years of experience in caring for a parent with a mental illness I can say that it never gets easier but my ability to cope with it gets better. 

I have integrated this care into my career and have talked to my employers about needing to work remotely so I can spend time with my mom. Having that small amount of transparency has helped with my ability to handle the responsibility of a full time career and part time caretaker. I am fortunate to work for an employer that offers unlimited flexible time off. I only wish everyone had this sort of padding in their lives.

My mom has lots of people in her life who support her, but mentally ill people often have difficulty accepting the medical care they need. My mom trusts her children more than anyone and that puts a weight on my siblings and I to help. In return my mom has offered unconditional love and shown me what success is by an entirely different standard than then our status driven work orientated lives would lead us to believe. 

Success can be caring for oneself and caring for those closest to us. As much as I enjoy be celebrated as a seasoned professional it only takes one conversation with my mom to remind me to take none of it for granted. We don't know when illness or injury is going to trip us up. Embracing this truth on the deepest, scariest of levels is the thing that makes the victories all the more sweet. Here's to 2022 - the year of the possible!

 

Slow Down

A small victory was won when I changed the filter on my furnace. Using the maintenance tracker app I have logged when I perform a task and schedule when I need to do the task again. Its a low hanging fruit item on the spectrum of home maintenance, but when you are lost in the haze of project deadlines and getting dinner on the table for a family it can quickly drop off the radar. 

As an empty nester, I have time to move methodically through my maintenance tasks. This slowing down in my life has allowed me to slow down in work. In projects I can sit with problems for longer and not feel the pressure of heading a household also weigh on my shoulders. I like this not just for the obvious reasons, but because complex problem solving is a process of digestion and repetition which takes time.

One of the main problems of civil engineering is the handling of stormwater. The root of the problem is the impervious surfaces (roofs/pavement) we experience in our day to day lives causes stormwater runoff which has to be handled somewhere else. The public's expectation of runoff is out of sight out of mind, but for a civil engineer the teasing out of a solution is a symphony of factors. 

We see our environments as a backdrop to our lives, but when we take small steps to interact with our environment we become more than actors on a stage. A task as small as changing the furnace filter can become a shift in perspective: we become stewards of our environment.

According to a research study 76% of my son's generation place our environment as their number one societal concern. People of his generation will choose to not have children in order to reduce their environmental burden. This elective empty nesting is saddening to me because people who are willing to make that sacrifice are also the type of people that make good parents. 

Finding time to slow down and methodically solve problems is not exactly a movie poster solution for the climate crisis, but it is imperative as we develop more land in the twenty first century to do so before our nests are preemptively empty.

Butterfly Effect

What's lurking behind the fridge? We've all spent more times in our home over the past couple of years and perhaps for you like me its time to look behind the fridge. Its a task I would rather avoid as it involves awkwardly sliding the fridge out and then facing the dirty truth of the matter. I resolved to face my fears and cleaning the coils can help my fridge run more efficiently.

After reading Project Drawdown a couple years ago, I was surprised to learn that refrigerant management was one the biggest opportunities for us to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Refrigerants have a global warming potential that far exceeds carbon dioxide. Once release into the environment they act effective heat traps for our planet (more here). While cleaning the fridge might not seem like a big deal - it's the small acts that connect us to the larger picture.

Now, I can feel the critics asking me why does everything have to be a butterfly effect? I understand that the internet is full of people's voices and one silly blog post about refrigerator maintenance feels unnecessary. I can't offer a justification beyond it is helpful in that it keeps me accountable to my goals of implementing more sustainability into my own life.

Sustainable thinking demands that we act more responsibly about the materials and equipment in our lives. I feel like my grandparents would call much of this common sense, but my generation is facing challenges that weren't present in my grandparent's lives including a decreased amount of homeowners among millennials. Ownership is critical to upkeep which is critical to our success here on planet earth. Let's not pretend that it is just common sense we are lacking.

As an engineer I don't want to fall short on the upkeep of designed systems (i.e. the fridge). I ask that owners maintain the systems I design like stormwater facilities and I want to participate in this culture of upkeep which seems counterculture to the culture of consumerism that we are steeped in on a daily basis. 

So there you have it - a deep clean of the fridge leads to a deep dive values which are expressed through habits such as cleaning behind the fridge on a regular basis. In my own small way, this is the path I seek for 2022.

Window Problems

There's condensation on my windows and I can feel a draft coming in from the cold January air. In keeping with my resolution to do home improvements and blog about them I check the window next to me to see if it has storm window in it. Alas, I have left the screen in the window, but luckily a quick swap out gets my office window winterized. First step taken, but what about the other windows in my house? I do a quick check and some never had their screens in them to begin with so that job is done. Kitchen windows are not latched all the way so I get the step stool and secure them. 

I go up to the bedroom in the cold attic. I often leave the windows open even when there's air conditioning on because it gets really stuffy in the summertime. Its cold now, but I assume that is because of the need for insulation in the attic (another blog post coming soon). I pull away the curtain and gasp... the window hasn't been closed and the screen window has iced over. Shoot, darn, and call me a hypocrite!

In sustainable design we spend a lot of time on the selection of quantity and quality of windows and insulation. I'm feeling my most millennial self in declaring that I have window problems, but the larger problem we face with windows (glazing) is that they are conductors of temperature (even when closed). So while a building with a lot of exterior glazing might be flashy it causes a lot of energy consumption over the course of the building's life. Imagine having plastic panels punched into your winter jacket!

In sustainable design we also spend a lot of time on ventilation systems - another function of windows. Turns out these windows that open at the top and bottom are supposed to function as a ventilation system in the summer. Crack the top part 3" and let the warm air out and crack the bottom part another 3" and let the cooler air in. Why on earth am I just learning this now? 

I have a 30 year mortgage, but no established game plan for regular maintenance. I found an app that I can use to program reminders for regular home maintenance and am happy to say I've got my windows schedule for 90 days from now. What reoccurring maintenance item have you been pushing off that is a potential "window problem" in your life? 

Walking the Walk

 

I've spent my holiday break at home with my son who is back from college. We have been taking care of some long overdue chores including purging the ping pong table of all of his belongings so we can play again. Happy to say the basement now looks fit for a college student and I can still beat said student at ping pong! 

Then there's the practice room where he spent countless hours drilling on the cello. Since leaving for college I had turned that room into a "catch all". Clearing through the maze of music, tai kwon do belts, art projects, tools, linens, etc... has me practicing some Marie Kondo-esque letting go. I filled the dumpster and borrowed some space in the neighbors with things that weren't worth donating. I said a small silent good bye to the things thanking them for their role in our lives. 

What surprised me the most was the amount of dead electronics I had stashed EVERYWHERE. I was pulling cords and screens out of drawers like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. As a working sustainability professional I have written waste management plans for owners to organize building space for the inevitable slew of things that will be discarded. Yet, here I was in my home with no plan at all for what to do with the special waste streams that are generated in the domestic sphere. 

The state of Indiana isn't exactly known for its environmentalism (love to all the hard working sustainability professionals in the state). I pay a monthly fee to have recycling picked up at my home. I have a single stream collection point for the materials mostly generated from my kitchen and household under my kitchen sink. I subscribe to the "when in doubt, throw it out" approach that I learned about through educational content put out by Circular Indiana. Much of what ends up in the recycling bin is "wish cycling" and actually harmful to the process. 

Now that I have collected all the dead electronics in one place I plan on making a trip down to Recycle Force where they safely handle electronic waste. Many electronics contain hazardous materials that have to be handled separately so they don't end up in the landfill leaching chemicals. 

Some other waste streams that I have found to take up space in my home are: plastic bags, cat food bags, clothing, and compost. I usually bring my own reusable bags to the store, but somehow those things are like tribbles (Star Trek reference, you're welcome) and just seem to multiply in thin area. I use them for cat little waste and the ones that I don't use I collect and take to Kroger and drop them in the bin near the front door. I've heard these bags are shredded and used to make those hard plastic outdoor benches. 

Cat food bags are my version of wish cycling. After doing some research there are select companies that will recycle their own waste. How amazing would it be if every company offered a responsible disposal option! For now it looks like mine are going in the trash. 

Clothing can be dropped at Goodwill or consigned. Except, I wear the heck out of my clothing so by the time its reached the end of its life I don't think anyone will want it. Kids are often hard on their clothes too. I know my kid has spilled many a thing on many a shirt making them unwearable and trash bound. H&M websites says they will recycle all fabrics, but to call before you drop off.

This blog post has inspired me to break out my compost bin again. I collect food scraps on my countertop in an old soup stock pan. Then it goes out the back to a recycling bin. I collect leaves throughout the year to throw them in with the food scrapes to keep the carbon and nitrogen in balance.

It can be hard as an environmentalist to let go and put things in the landfill, but at some point it becomes necessary. As the year 2022 approaches I make a renewed effort to walk the walk in my own life through waste reduction and sharing my at-home sustainability journey through blogging.

 Do you have any resolutions to be more sustainable? 

Women in the Workplace Part 2

This is the second part in a two part series about women in the A/E/C workforce. You can find Part 1 here.

Anonymous woman

“What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a woman in the A/E/C industry?

The fact that the majority of companies are having a hard time with a “changing of the guard” – meaning people who have been in the industry for a very long time are in leadership positions and accustomed to “knowing what’s best” or utilizing their institutional knowledge to make decisions rather than (wisely) tapping younger, new talent who may have some different or creative ideas that could be explored. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these people in leadership positions are men and white. It results in a lack of modernization and creativity, which has an impact on company culture and attracting talent.

“What do you think the biggest opportunity is for overcoming or breaking down this barrier?

More and more companies are beginning to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as guidance when continuing a company’s growth and representation in the market. By bringing in multiple different types of voices, we can break down these barriers that exist and build stronger, meaningful and more creative solutions.

Hannah Fleck, Civil Engineer and Sustainability Lead, JQOL

“What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a woman in the A/E/C industry? 

Finding opportunities where I can grow creatively. People don’t associate engineering with creativity, but there’s a lot of artistry in site design. Creative opportunities tend to go to men by default without anyone questioning this because its seen as business as usual. Receiving credit for my work and receiving good critical feedback has also been an issue.

“What do you think the biggest opportunity is for overcoming or breaking down this barrier?

 Say the barrier were a glass ceiling then I see my own voice as a hammer. When voices work in unison around an issue they become a battering ram. Women have to show up for other women and the next generation of women in their careers. It is the only way.

Anuya Sant, International Associate, LEED AP BD+C Graduate Architect, MD Architects, P.C.

 “What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a woman in the A/E/C industry? 

 I think the biggest challenge women face in our or any industry is our inability to fully own our successes. Humility and empathy in leadership is an extremely positive attribute, but sometimes it is taken for granted. We need to own our accomplishments and the value we bring.

 “What do you think the biggest opportunity is for overcoming or breaking down this barrier?

 We now have more women in the A/E/C industry than what we had a decade ago. The sheer number is our most powerful asset to educate more girls and women together to empower and be each other’s biggest champions. We need to stand together.

Brianna Wetzel, Healthcare Project Architect at American Structurepoint

What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a woman in the A/E/C industry?

The biggest challenge I have faced as a woman in the field would be unconscious bias. Truthfully we deal with it daily at varying degrees across the entire industry. It can range from people assuming our role on a project as we walk into a meeting or on the job site to small degrading side comments that most people hardly notice as they are said in a joking manner. The inequality we constantly face tends to stem from the lack of awareness that it is happening as it has been the accept norm for years.

What do you think the biggest opportunity is for overcoming or breaking down this barrier?

Awareness and mindfulness would be the biggest help in breaking down this barrier. We all need to be aware that it is happening and our role in it. By allowing or participating in bias towards others it causes barriers to be built within the industry. We all need to be mindful of our own actions so we aren’t being a hindrance to others, and speak up when we see bias occurring to help bring awareness. Changing unconscious bias to conscious bias is the first step towards change.