Annie Brown could have chosen to spend her days planting trees. She is, after all, a self-described ecofreak.

But she decided instead that she could make more of a difference by training as a mechanical engineer, so she is now a project engineer in the energy and sustainable development department at Halcrow, a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy. Here she works alongside architects and structural engineers to help to build new offices, schools and commercial buildings.

Brown’s interest in the environment developed during a gap-year trip to Africa at 18 and was sharpened by spending some time at the “slightly hippy” Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. She considered a number of environment-related careers but decided that she was determined to find a practical way of making a difference. “It’s the problem-solving aspect that attracted me to engineering,” she says. “You can make things happen – there’s a tangible impact. I was also interested in more woolly things, such as landscape architecture, but you can make more of a difference with engineering.”

Brown has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, but, rather than taking the more usual option of completeing a fourth year to turn her BEng into an MEng, she opted to take a master’s in sustainability instead. It was this that allowed her to to direct her engineering skills at solving problems relating to energy usage and environmental impact.

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Environmentally friendly engineering is an in-demand skill, so it offers a solid career path as well as a way to help the world. “I took this thing called Breeam [the Building Research Establishment’s environmental assessment method] which means that I can assess building design against various things such as water, the environment and ecology. The demand for the qualification has been growing and growing.”

However, despite this growth there are still some limits. It’s still not the norm for all developers to demand the highest environmental standards, so much of this work is done for public buildings. “Private companies are still being very slow, though I did meet a big private company recently who said that money was no object and that they wanted to make their headquarters Breeam green.”

While she says that not enough private businesses follow this path, she understands their perspective: going very green costs more than other approaches. However, Brown is able to advise companies on the large number of less expensive techniques that can, in the long run, even save companies money. “Things such as energy-efficient design and insulation are good practice... and there’s a good payback in savings on energy bills.” Changing the height, shape and orientation of the planned building can also make a difference; for example, by allowing it to use natural ventilation rather than needing energy-hungry airconditioning.

Putting in systems that allow the building to harvest rainwater or operate on renewable energy sources are also beneficial, but thanks to factors such as the cost of photo-voltaic panels – used for solar power – they’re not cheap. “That’s when it [the cost] starts being a bit questionable. You are really doing it for altruistic reasons.”

Brown argues that the price of green technology needs to come down before everyone can afford to incorporate it into new buildings. Then again, as an engineer she’s used to finding practical solutions that allow clients to do the best that they can in their particular circumstances. “Part of my job is making compromises so that people can balance cost and energy efficiency,” she says.

www.halcrow.com
www.cat.org.uk

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