Presentation

Sustainability is key to building a brighter future for our families and our communities. What we do today affects tomorrow. This presentation covers the three pillars of sustainability, and provides principles of resilience to support our efforts to build a sustainable infrastructure. In terms of environmental sustainability, this means being conscious of our world and the environment we live in. For economic sustainability it means looking beyond this year’s budget and evaluating true cost of ownership. For societal sustainability, it means limiting delays and improving social convenience while keeping user safety a top priority. Lastly, an integral part of sustainability is ensuring that our infrastructure is resilient enough to resist and defend our communities from present and future threats. Coming from the drainage world, the presenter will offer comparisons and case studies based on storm drainage products on the market today. This presentation is based on researched performed by a task group composed of member companies of the American Concrete Pipe Association, of which Joseph Updike co-led.

About the Speaker

Joseph Updike (EIT) is a Technical Resource Engineer with Forterra, the largest precast concrete pipe manufacturer in North America. Joseph specializes in providing lunch and learns, resources, and support for DOTs, municipalities, and consultants. Additionally, this role includes speaking at universities to allow up and coming engineers a glimpse of the drainage industry, and how critical it is to our infrastructure. In his short career, Joseph has served as a co-chair for an ACPA task group on Resilience & Sustainability, and has spoken at ACPA’s Pipe School in 2020. He has served on multiple ASCE committees including the Infrastructure Resilience Division, Committee for Cold-Regions Engineering, and is currently the vice president of the Black Hills ASCE Chapter. Joseph is a December 2019 graduate of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology where he earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering. Outside of work, Joseph dedicates time to his wife, family, and church community in the Blacks Hills of South Dakota, but has also found time to explore his interests in novel and poetry writing. In 2020, Joseph won first prize in a national poetry contest, and looks forward to many other opportunities. Looking to the future, Joseph hopes to earn his PE license in Structural Engineering, and continue exploring ways to improve the world around him through engineering.