Moving Towards Sustainability in Geotechnical Engineering

The concept of sustainability appears regularly in current engineering publications. It is often considered in terms of economic, social and environmental constraints and these can now be addressed using a wide variety of sustainability indicator tools. Upon examination, however, these tools are found to be mainly applicable at the project conception stage of civil engineering works. There is little specific advice to the practising geotechnical engineer on how to implement the principles of sustainability in the design office or on site. Although some useful indicators for these stages of geotechnical engineering work can be found amongst the indicators applicable to higher levels of the development hierarchy they can be difficult to identify and may be lost amidst the array of other indicators. This paper addresses some of the key issues that will be relevant for the geotechnical engineer in the design office and on site.