Sustainable design is a tough issue for structural engineers to get their arms around. While the sustainable design movement has taken the architecture and engineering world by storm in the past few years, it is often unclear what role the structural engineer can play.

Essentially, "sustainable" or "green" buildings are building which are energy efficient and which minimize the adverse environmental impacts associated with their construction and operation. There are multiple aspects to sustainability, including site selection, energy efficiency, durability, water consumption, indoor air quality, reuse of recycled materials and construction waste managment.

It seems as though every building materials group and every product manufacturer has been touting the green aspects of their materials or product while downplaying the not so green aspects. Of course, there is no perfectly green building material. They all have some adverse impacts, or "brown" aspects associated with their use that must be balanced against the green benefits.

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