Earth Day 2023
INVEST IN OUR PLANET
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. The stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling over 500,000 copies in 24 countries. It raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment, and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.
Conservation activists continue to fight for a balance between human needs and the welfare of Earth’s sensitive ecology. As you celebrate Earth Day this year, keep in mind the civil engineers — who help protect the natural environment from manufactured stresses.
As professionals in the transportation sector, Rani is also working with our partners to create a more sustainable transportation system. About 25% of Minnesota’s GHG emissions come from the transportation sector, and Rani’s work is helping to increase access to convenient, environmentally friendly transportation options like transit, walking, and biking.
How Civil Engineers Help Protect the Environment
There are many facets to Civil Engineering; some specializations have more impact than others. Here are just a few of the ways that a Civil Engineer manages the resources around us:
- Engineers design how and where water flows, considering contaminations, distance, filtration, and final location. This includes surface water, groundwater, wastewater, soil, and air.
- Engineers help manage our natural environment, including wetlands, watersheds, and floodplains.
- We work on transit projects large and small that build out access to convenient low-carbon transportation options throughout the Twin Cities & beyond.
- We design safe infrastructure to support walking and biking as transportation options, including protected bikeways, ADA improvements, and shared-use paths.
- The need for solutions to protect natural resources and lower emissions is more urgent than ever. The scarcity of clean water and rising sea levels are just two of the crucial issues facing populations around the globe. Therefore, sustainability is critical in manufactured and natural infrastructure design.
How the Professionals at Rani Are Making a Difference
At Rani, our solutions include the following:
- Stormwater and Wastewater Management
- Creating safe, high-quality bike and pedestrian infrastructure in our transportation system
- Engineering & planning for a convenient transit network
- Green stormwater infrastructure design to reduce runoff and contaminant load contributions from the transportation system to local waterways, lakes, rivers, and creeks.
- Design permanent and temporary stormwater management ponds, bioswales, tree trenches, and infiltration practices to remove sediment and phosphorous from stormwater before it enters these water bodies.
- Incorporate plants into our public spaces to simultaneously treat stormwater and provide ecological diversity within our limited green spaces, especially in urbanized environments.
- Infiltration practices that contribute to groundwater recharge and allow precipitation to reenter the water cycle close to the source in a closer approximation to natural processes than traditional piped conveyance systems.
