As an environmental engineer, you can serve society by ensuring we all have clean air, water and soil, and by creating sustainable solutions to today’s critical environmental questions.

This program prepares you for important employment opportunities where your technical expertise and problem-solving skills as an engineer are required, in addition to your strong awareness and understanding of environmental issues and a passion to improve the communities you live in.

You will take design courses that begin in your first year, giving you the chance to engage your creative thinking.

Hone your problem-solving skills as you continue to take design courses in every year of the program.

During the first two years, build a foundation in basic sciences, engineering tools and environmental issues. In the final two years, you will develop an in-depth knowledge of environmental engineering.

Along with developing a solid background in environmental engineering, you will also gain strong communication skills and the ability to work across various disciplines including resource-based industries, government departments, research organizations, and environmental engineering consulting.

Example projects that an environmental engineering graduate can work on include the following:

Designing and building processes to bring clean drinking water to northern communities
Designing and building processes to treat municipal or industrial wastewater
Designing and building processes to recover energy from municipal and industrial waste
Developing methods to clean contaminated soil
Developing flood control plans
Mapping groundwater flow and contaminant transport in subsurface environments

Engineers serve society across a wide range of economic sectors in a number of capacities. Engineers require a solid technical and academic background, good communication skills, and the ability to work across a number of disciplines. Engineers design structures; bridges; mines; dams; transit systems; pollution control systems for air, water, and soil; and much more.

UNBC offers three engineering degrees at the undergraduate level – a Civil Engineering degree, an Environmental Engineering degree and a joint Environmental Engineering degree with UBC. (UNBC also offers a graduate degree in engineering. See the Graduate Calendar.) These degrees prepare graduates for a wide range of employment opportunities where their technical expertise and problem-solving skills are required. The program provides graduates with a strong awareness and understanding of environmental issues and problems. Our graduates are prepared for employment with engineering firms of all sizes in consulting, construction and resource industries (e.g. forestry, fisheries, mining, oil and gas, pulp and paper, and the agri-food industry), as well as government ministries and research organizations. Our graduates help shape the new environmental and civil engineering economy.

The Civil and Environmental Engineering degrees start with a similar first year in which the basic sciences and mathematics are emphasized along with an introduction to the engineering discipline. In second year, a number of courses are common in all of the engineering degrees but program requirements start to differentiate between the Civil and Environmental Engineering degrees. In the remaining years, some of the courses are common to both programs while each degree degree develops the in-depth knowledge to allow students to qualify within their discipline upon graduation. The final year exposes students to practical engineering problems.

UNBC offers an integrated approach to civil engineering which is in keeping with the themes of design, lifecycle assessment, sustainable materials, and low-impact development throughout. Today’s civil engineer not only designs the infrastructure essential to modern society (buildings, bridges, highways, transit systems, water and waste treatment facilities, foundations, tunnels, dams, etc.) but also analyzes the effects of deterioration on infrastructure elements while considering system interdependencies and life-cycle impacts. Civil engineers must consider environmental impact and economic sustainability in the development of modern infrastructure.

UNBC offers an Environmental Engineering degree that integrates basic science with modern engineering practices. Environmental and ecological problems are an increasing concern for all Canadians, including in the northern portion of British Columbia due to a primarily resource-based economy. Our graduates are prepared to take on challenges facing modern society, including water, air, and soil pollution control; solid waste management; contaminated site remediation; the protection of society from adverse environmental factors; and the protection of environments from potentially detrimental effects of natural and human activities.

Career Paths
Environmental engineer
Pollution control engineer
Municipal engineer
Water resources engineer
Reclamation engineer
As a Professional Engineer, you can work in the private sector in industry or for an engineering consulting company. You can also work for a government agency or start your own engineering consultancy.

Some engineering graduates continue their academic studies at the master’s or doctoral level or pursue further education in engineering, business, project management or other fields.