Do you mean environmental or 'environmental'?

摘要

One thing that continually surprises me on my travels is the ignorance of just what an environmental engineer is. As soon as people hear the word "environmental" they immediately assume "green" and basically switch off for any explanation you are trying to give them. I am not talking about members of the public here but about other engineers, some of them quite senior, who simply cannot take in what I am talking about. When you explain that "environmental" in this context is the more traditional use of the word and that "environmental engineers" are concerned about testing and measuring everything of whatever size or shape in varying climatic conditions then sometimes the penny drops. Too often, though, and quite frustratingly, it does not as you find the conversation being steered into so-called "clean" issues and the reduction in emissions, pollution control, recycling and so on. Even now, we still receive press releases from companies on these topics simply because we are called Environmental Engineering.