The hot topic of economic recovery—certainly in civil engineering circles, but also in many others—is infrastructure. News headlines of economic stimulus plans remain in the daily papers and all delve into what may or may not occur as a result of the incoming Obama administration as it relates to infrastructure. Terms such as "shovel ready" and "use it or lose it" are used with regularity, and many associations and state and local governments have responded with plans. (See "5,000 ’ready-to-go’ transportation projects could put millions to work" on page 10 for AASHTO’s plan.)

While most of the dialogue revolves around roads, bridges, and water and wastewater systems, infrastructure also includes the nation’s buildings. While the concern with buildings is not that they are in disrepair or functionally obsolete—such as with bridges—rather it is that buildings are outrageous consumers of energy. In his addresses, President-elect Barack Obama has repeatedly discussed the need for energy efficiency in buildings. He advocates a range of actions that will bring energy costs down: from simple measures of changing to energy-efficient light bulbs in all federal government buildings and incentives for homeowners to properly weatherize their homes to more significant green design strategies for public buildings and schools. In fact, streams of money—different from those being currently discussed for the "ready-to-go" transportation projects—are allocated for energy-related improvements to infrastructure that will directly reduce our energy consumption, and buildings are the prime targets of such funds. One common green-design metric—LEED 2009—has been recently updated to "increase the importance of green buildings as an immediate and measurable solution toward energy independence and climate change mitigation." (See "LEED 2009 resets the bar for green building performance" on page 12.)

A slowdown in the economy is no reason to suspect that the demand for sustainable or green-related design projects would waver, but quite the opposite. Forell/Elsesser President and CEO Simin Naaseh, S.E., advocates that sustainability in AEC will continue because it makes long-term sense, is mandated in some cases, and also "because it is the right thing to do." Indeed, all of the structural engineering firm executives who participated in our 2009 Executive Outlook agreed that client interest in sustainable or green design will not be adversely affected by an economic slowdown in 2009. In fact, many firm leaders expect growth to shift a bit to public projects—as would be expected with an economic downturn and an infusion of public money—particularly in the area of schools, healthcare, and public works.

Beyond infrastructure and current economic concerns, read what structural engineering executives have to say about sustainable design, as well as firm challenges, market growth, integrated project delivery, and building information modeling in 2009. I was pleasantly surprised at their collective cautious sense of optimism, and that many firms anticipate firm growth to meet project demand; the article begins on page 16.

How is your firm poised for 2009? What will economic infrastructure stimulus do for your firm? Tell me your thoughts.