Dr. Sean McGinnis, director of the Green Engineering Program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, points out that green engineering is not a separate discipline from any of the branches of engineering. Rather, its principles can be applied to all of them.
When questioned about the difference between green engineering and environmental engineering, a comparatively old discipline as an offshoot of civil engineering, Dr. McGinnis notes that green engineering is more of an application of concepts across all disciplines. However, in his opinion green engineering focuses more on the prevention of environmental problems, whereas environmental engineering has historically focused on the mitigation of existing problems.
The emergence of green engineering and the recent emphasis that has been placed on it, which has also led to a boom in the green industry job market, can be attributed to various factors concerning the environment. The first is climate change. Anxiety over global warming and the realization that human activity and development contributed to the problem have led to a mad scramble to fix it. The second factor is the high cost of energy and gas, which has practically forced the search for renewable resources. The third is government regulations. As companies are forced to comply with environmental standards, they drive the demand for products and services that support environmental sustainability.
Programs have been developed in some of the top universities across the country to prepare young professionals for the burgeoning green engineering industry. In addition to Virginia Tech's program, Yale University has the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, and many other schools have incorporated green engineering courses into their engineering programs.
Dr. McGinnis adds that ''green engineering skills are in demand, and this demand is increasing as the world moves toward higher energy prices, stricter pollution regulation, and as resources are depleted. Students who have good engineering skills and an understanding of environmental impacts have a big advantage over other students as it is hard to imagine engineering jobs in the future which don't have needs in the area of environmental issues.''
