This paper describes the current status of sustainable development in civil engineering. The discussion covers economy along with “global village” needs, and is supported by information about technology standards combined with notions of ethics, environment, aesthetics, and heritage—the philosophical understanding of the cultural landscape of the society. It is recognized that “true development” cannot be limited to purely technical problems; “human ecology” should be taken into account. The concepts of sustainable development require input from all mankind, but civil engineering professionals can play a particular role here; their spiritual motivation can often be a decisive argument for their material handling. This means that “true development,” referred to as the dignity of man, must be based on the priority of spirit versus matter, of person versus object, of ethics versus technology.

The modern world is a complex, interwoven, dynamic of technology and humanity. In the two-sided, zealous advocacy, public debate scenario, critical human issues often get lost. Reducing issues to two sides rarely reveals the broader truth needed to guide our civilization. A civil engineer's talents include thinking systemically, visualizing complex technical and human interactions, and resolving conflicting viewpoints. Today, these three talents create a major opportunity and a responsibility to become involved in societal leadership. Twenty-first-century leaders need a more inclusive philosophical framework. The integral philosophy offers such a framework. This philosophy includes the individual and community as both physical elements—the outer world we see—and the psychospiritual elements in the culture—the inner world of meaning. Engineers can become more involved in leadership and more valuable to our culture by adopting and advancing an integral philosophy. Engineers can expand their already significant skills to deal with a broader range of societal issues.

Both practitioners and academic researchers have become exasperated by what they perceive to be a disappointingly small impact of research spending on practice. Obstacles to successful implementation of academic geotechnical engineering research are discussed. From the practitioner's point of view, these obstacles include the conflict between the practical demands of their work environment and what academic researchers are equipped to produce, as well as the consequences to the research initiation and implementation process of the practice in many states of contracting out engineering design services rather than maintaining inhouse engineering design staff. From the academic researcher's point of view, obstacles arise largely from the demands research universities place on their geotechnical (and civil) engineering faculty, and the absence of the research and implementation infrastructure that exists for the market driven, manufacturing-oriented disciplines of engineering and science. Several models of existing bridging mechanisms are described, including the innovative efforts of individuals, progressive state and federal programs within and outside universities, and the development of small, specialized geotechnical consulting firms.

The traditional philosophy of management in the architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry, both in academia and in industry, places great emphasis on the ability to plan and execute projects. In contrast, a similar emphasis on strategic management has received less attention in the AEC industry. Although the pressures of project performance can often obscure the broader social, economic, and professional context in which strategic management is undertaken, it is these broad contextual areas that make strategic management an essential issue for AEC organizations. Rapidly changing social and technological issues are creating a professional environment that will look very different in the coming decades than that experienced in today's organizations. This paper introduces a study of the current strategic management practices of design-based firms. The paper introduces the concept of strategic management and the areas that organizations must address to compete in the global marketplace. A summary of an industry survey is documented together with the background research that prompted the investigation of these topics.