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OPINION
Evening out the playing field
As AEC professionals, we have a responsibility to provide safe, accessible, and equitable environments for everyone to live and function in every day.
T he AEC industry is dedicated to design and its effects on end users – people. But while we have always focused on the real-life impacts of our projects on communities, it is also true that we are evolving and expanding the ways in which we consider them, ultimately becoming more comprehensive.
Alexis Eades
In an effort to address ongoing environmental and societal evolution, engineering and architecture firms must be committed to equity in the built environment. For example, at Colliers Engineering & Design, our environmental social governance strategies include creating more sustainable, inclusive, and healthy environments, generating lasting value for clients through our enterprising sustainability and advisory services, and helping local communities and supporting charitable initiatives. With these values, we are driven to deliver resilient buildings, inclusive workplaces, and spaces that promote health and wellbeing for our professionals, clients, and communities. Let’s focus on one engineering department that is driven by environmental social governance every day – the transportation team.
TRAFFIC ENGINEERING AND COMPLETE STREETS. Design and thoughts of equity cannot just be about specific projects. Equity must be a central part of the culture and the way an engineering firm is structured. Our transportation department makes it a priority to design facilities that improve communities for all users of public infrastructure. One popular concept to ensure this is embracing “complete streets.” Complete streets “is an approach to planning, designing, building, operating, and maintaining streets that enables safe access for all people who need to use them, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities.” For every project, transportation teams must ask, “How do we best accommodate all users, including people with disabilities?”
See ALEXIS EADES, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER FEBRUARY 13, 2023, ISSUE 1476
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