About ASFE
Principals of ten consulting geotechnical engineering firms met in a Chicago airport hotel in December 1968 to resolve a common problem that threatened their companies: Professional liability claims were at an all-time high and insurers worldwide refused to issue coverage to them.
ASFE was formally launched in May 1969 to identify the causes of professional liability claims and losses and to develop programs and materials to help geoprofessionals avoid such exposures in the future. (Its original name, Associated Soil and Foundation Engineers, was in 1985 formally changed to ASFE, Inc.)
Within one year of its formation, ASFE launched a new contract element called limitation of liability. Its inclusion in proposals prompted representatives of ASFE-Member Firms and their clients to discuss project risks during the contract formation process. One result was agreement about the maximum amount for which a firm would be liable as a consequence of its negli
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Sustainability
The world’s population is consuming more natural resources than ever before. Experts disagree about the potential effects of this situation and the amount of time humanity has to control it. One estimate suggests that, unless we reverse the trend, mankind has no more than a 50% chance of surviving the next 100 years. While such an estimate may be extreme, few disagree that the time has come to challenge the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throw-away Western economic model, which, unfortunately, is precisely the model being adopted in developing nations. Clearly, applying sustainable design precepts to buildings and infrastructure will be critical to our survival. But achieving a genuinely sustainable environment will require much more than that, especially in light of the tremendous surge in global urbanization now underway, causing exponential growth in the number of cities whose population exceeds one million. While urbanization has historically been associated with economic and social progress, many local and national governments are simply incapable of planning for and accommodating the growth now involved.
ASFE-Member Firms will be able to serve the public and benefit their employees and themselves by learning more about applied sustainability, how it can benefit communities, and how it can be adopted as a matter of course, so people worldwide can attain the advantages of urbanization while diminishing its drawbacks. Successful ASFE-Member Firms already are applying a "green strategy" for their own operations, to make them compatible with the “green” services they provide to practically integrate sustainable design into every project they accept.
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