Environmental Justice, Community

Engagement & the Ethical Engineer

KSPE/ACEC-KY

Fall Seminar

“It’s a minority community. It’s a poor community. And our

voices were not heard.” - Flint’s mayor, Karen Weaver

Presenters ABOUT US

Karen Mohammadi,

PE, PTOE, AICP

Vice President

Jeff Moore, AICP

Senior Planner

What You Need to Know OUR AGENDA

• Environmental Justice Overview

• Infrastructure Challenges

• Engineering Ethics

• Public Outreach

What You Need to Know EJ OVERVIEW

What is Environmental or Social Justice?

The concept of Environmental/Social Justice seeks to ensure all

people have access to the public process.

In seeking equity in the participation in the process, advocates take

steps to ensure traditionally disenfranchised groups are included,

particularly when policies and decisions may directly impact them

and their future generations.

It’s not just the right thing to do,

it’s the legal thing to do.

What You Need to Know EJ OVERVIEW

What Laws Cover Environmental/Social Justice?

• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination

based on race, color, and national origin (minority)

• Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act)

• Stafford Act of 1974 which prohibits discrimination in the

distribution of benefits based on income (low‐income)

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a

superficial appearance of being right…”

- Thomas Paine

What You Need to Know EJ OVERVIEW

What Is the Environmental Justice Executive Order?

Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental

Justice in Minority Populations and Low‐Income Populations

(1994)

“Each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice

part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate,

disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental

effects on its programs, policies, and activities on minority

populations and low‐income populations”

What’s the Connection? INFRASTRUCTURE LINK

So What Does Environmental Justice

Have to Do with Engineering Ethics?

Past Decision Making

and Responsiveness

Regarding Infrastructure

Have Been

Disproportionate!

What’s the Connection? INFRASTRUCTURE LINK

What’s the Connection? INFRASTRUCTURE LINK

Where Else? What Else?

What Our Code Says

“Among the universal ethical values are honesty,

integrity, promise-keeping, fidelity, fairness,

respect for others, responsible citizenship,

pursuit of excellence and accountability.”*

- Michael Josephson

ENGINEERING ETHICS

*Reprinted by Permission of the National Society of Professional

Engineers (NSPE) www.nspe.org

What Our Code Says ENGINEERING ETHICS

Why Practice Engineering Ethically?*

• Personal Injury/Property Damage

• Disciplinary Action

• Impact on Reputation, Employer, Clients,

Profession

• Possible Loss of Job, Business, etc.

*Reprinted by Permission of the National Society of Professional

Engineers (NSPE) www.nspe.org

What Our Code Says ENGINEERING ETHICS

“All products of technology present some potential dangers, and thus engineering is an inherently risky activity…Engineering should be viewed as an experimental process. It is not, of course, an experiment conducted solely in a laboratory under controlled conditions. Rather, it is an experiment on a social scale involving human subjects”*

- Martin and Schinziger, Ethics in Engineering

*Reprinted by Permission of the National Society of Professional

Engineers (NSPE) www.nspe.org

What Our Code Says ENGINEERING ETHICS

Hierarchy of Ethical Obligations*

• Primary: Ethical Obligations to

the Public

• Secondary: Ethical Obligations to

Employer or Client

• Tertiary: Ethical Obligations to

Other Professionals and Other

Parties

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary

*Reprinted by Permission of the National Society of Professional

Engineers (NSPE) www.nspe.org

What Our Code Says ENGINEERING ETHICS

Hierarchy of Ethical Obligations

What Our Code Says ENGINEERING ETHICS

Hierarchy of Ethical Obligations *

• Never Mutually Exclusive - Reciprocal

• Not A “Zero Sum Game”

• All Need To Be Considered At All Times

• Should Be Complementary to Integrate

With One Another To The Fullest Extent

Possible

• Ethical Integration = Professional Integrity

Ethics is knowing

the difference

between what you

have a right to do

and what is right to

do.

- Potter Stewart

*Reprinted by Permission of the National Society of Professional

Engineers (NSPE) www.nspe.org

What Our Code Says ENGINEERING ETHICS

Seven Fundamental Canons of

ASCE’s Code Of Ethics

1. Hold Paramount the Public’s Health, Safety and Welfare

2. Work only in Area of Competence

3. Maintain Objectivity/Truthfulness

4. Avoid Conflict of Interest

5. Compete Fairly

6. Uphold and Enhance the Honor, Integrity and Dignity of

the Profession

7. Continue Professional Development

• Input from the Public is often

challenging to collect and

interpret.

• This two-way communication is

crucial to project success,

especially in the age of social

media.

• Public Involvement is a legal and

social obligation.

Community Engagement PUBLIC OUTREACH

• Equity, Gentrification and Displacement

• Immigrants/English as a Second Language/Bilingual Programs

• Organized Fiscal Opposition

- “Hijacking of Your Narrative”

NIMBY vs

NOMW

Emerging Challenges PUBLIC OUTREACH

People

Locations

Assessment

Network (working the plan)

P-L-A-N PUBLIC OUTREACH

Be Inclusive!

The Public,

Stakeholders &

Community Leaders

Challengers &

Champions

Crazy Makers

People…. PUBLIC OUTREACH

• Who is the audience?

• How do we get them to the table?

• What do they need to know?

• How can they provide meaningful input?

• How can we do ALL this better?

Five I’s Of Community Engagement

Misunderstanding is the basis for many

breaks in relationships with the public.

Almost invariably a few moments of calm,

rational discussion are all that is required

to dissipate these misunderstandings and

we should always have time for this.

Communication Is Key! PUBLIC OUTREACH

• Logical Narrative

• Schedule or Timeline

•WHY? Define

Purpose & Need

INFORM: Setting the Stage for a

Calm, Rational Discussion PUBLIC OUTREACH

• Attention Span---8 seconds

and dropping

• “The Rule of Three”

•Watch Your LANGUAGE

And REPORT back what you

heard and explain how their

input was used.

INFORM: Setting the Stage for a

Calm, Rational Discussion PUBLIC OUTREACH

Exercise

History shows that where

ethics and economics come

in conflict, victory is always

with economics. Vested

interests have never been

known to have willingly

divested themselves unless

there was sufficient force to

compel them.

- B. R. Ambedkar

1. What are the EJ

issues within the

scenario?

2. What might be

some approaches

taken to address

those issues?

PUBLIC OUTREACH

Time to Share

"The standard that a society should actually embody its own

professed principles is a utopian one, in the sense that moral

principles contradict the way things really are --- and always will be.

How things really are --- and always will be --- is neither all-evil nor all-

good but deficient, inconsistent, inferior. Principles invite us to do

something about the morass of contradictions in which we function

morally. Principles invite us to clean up our act; to become intolerant

of moral laxity and compromise and cowardice and the turning away

from what is upsetting: that secret gnawing of the heart that tells us

that what we are doing is not right, and so counsels us that we'd be

better off just not thinking about it."

- Susan Sontag

PUBLIC OUTREACH

Conclusion

Do the best you can until you know better. Then

when you know better, do better.”

— Maya Angelou“

“

QUESTIONS?