02 – Dollars and sense: the future of civil engineering

An in-depth discussion with VERDUNITY's Kevin Shepherd, P.E., on the past, present, and future of the civil engineering profession—and the lasting fiscal and social impacts their work has on communities. 1:30 – What does is mean to be considered a "creative engineer”? 5:15 – What the conventional approach to civil engineering misses, and how Kevin’s thought process changed as his career progressed 9:50 – The impact of considering financial implications in the design process, vs. the assumption that “the money’s always going to be there” 15:00 – What is the engineer’s role and responsibility with regard to financial viability? 16:20 – Why Kevin left his big A/E firm to start VERDUNITY, and how he approaches his work with cities 17:55 – Why desperation makes cities more interested in fiscally viable infrastructure decisions 23:20 – How city planners tend to think differently than engineers, and the constraints on how much impact they can have 25:00 – Why a conventional approach to engineering is so prevalent, despite its broad lack of sustainability 27:50 – Why exactly did we start designing and building in such a destructive way to begin with? 32:00 – We can't let the planning profession off the hook, either 33:30 – Why other engineers used to think Kevin was crazy, and now they’re getting curious—and why it’s hard for engineers at big, status-quo-affirming companies to shift their organization’s approach 37:00 – Guiding cities and technical professionals to a more fiscally-informed and people-friendly approach to city-building 39:30 – What does it actually look like to give a city recommendations for a more financially viable infrastructure project? 43:00 – A “plangineer’s” approach to spanning silos and working at different scales 45:50 – Return on investment for infrastructure projects Episode page: gocultivate.org/podcast-episode-02. Learn more about VERDUNITY here. (This episode features music from Custodian of Records and Tours)