OPINION: The Role of Built-Environment Professionals in the Pursuit of Social Justice

Bado Mnthali believes that Built Environment Professionals are failing to assist society in building its way to social justice, because they passively implement what society believes it wants, and not necessarily what society needs.

Can Built Environment Professionals play a leading role in areas of social justice?

Recent events have revealed extremely dangerous fault lines in societies the world over. These fault lines, in my opinion, generally stem from several major root causes, chief among them, I believe, are inequality, and a lack of social and environmental justice. Indeed, by definition, environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. This has brought to the fore a massive and cathartic outcry for justice.

This moment in history has reminded me of my university years in Washington DC. Several times during my university years, a student protest would erupt, and members of the student union would capture the administration building and put forward there demands. These demonstrations were usually led by students in the humanities, with the engineering students, myself included, shying away, and carrying on with our assignments and lessons, oblivious to the upheaval taking place around us. We prided ourselves with how our busy routines and courses wouldn’t allow us to roam around campus in an uproar. We were the best and the brightest, or so we thought, and we only needed to focus on academics, landing a good internship, and then diving into the workforce. Let the arts and political science majors change the world through noise and song.

Fast forward to today, and I still observe this stayed, singularly focused approach to life in members of my profession, and indeed myself. In the midst of all the suffering and cathartic demand for change, built environment professionals are keeping their heads down and focusing on technical matter, which rightly many of us should. However, we fail to realize that our profession is exactly where Social Justice, and Injustice, is expressed in the day-to-day lives of the communities we operate in. The infrastructure we build determines who has access to water, who has access to health care, who lives in a clean environment free from pollution, who can socially distance in comfort, and who cannot.

Thus, we fail to assist society in building its way to social justice. We passively implement what society believes it wants, and not necessarily what society needs.. Thus, we fail to assist society in building its way to social justice. We passively implement what society believes it wants, and not necessarily what society needs. COVID 19 has prompted us look at the risks we should be mitigating through correctly oriented development projects, which will ultimately put us on the path towards social and environmental justice.

How do we get involved? A more activist professionalism in the areas of politics, unsolicited proposals and open letters to governments and intergovernmental organizations, project development services based on sound community risk mitigation as opposed to only commercial considerations.

A few years ago, I had the good fortune of playing a role in an infrastructure project development facility. The concept of identifying, scoping and packaging projects to specifically address climate risk was, for me, liberating and exhilarating. It was also the first opportunity I have ever had to work in the country of my birth and specifically addressing the needs of marginalized communities therein. I am not here arguing that such facilities are the panacea and the only route towards social and environmental justice, however, it highlights that built environmental professionals can play a lead role in these areas.

Not all of us have activist traits and personalities, however, our talents and voices are definitely needed, and there are numerous platforms on which we may freely express our ourselves and present new thinking. Quoting civil rights leader Whitney Young in a speech to the American Institute of Architects in 1968, as quoted in this article recently published on the Hard Hat Professional, “You are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social and civic contributions to the cause of civil rights, you are most distinguished by your thunderous silence.” This need not remain the case over 50 years later in a 21st Century global community.

This Hardhat Opinion piece was written by Bado Mnthali (BSc, MBL, PrEng, PMP), Specialist Projects Consultant.

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