Innovation Summer 2024

Professional practice inquiries

How can I make sure my work is not used for unintended purposes?

Engineering and geoscience work is often heavily reliant on project-specific inputs. The assumptions, decisions, and documentation made for one project by an engineering or geoscience professional should not be used on another project without the involvement of that engineering or geoscience professional to assess applicability and make revisions, if necessary. Testing and field review reports, particularly final reports, have been used for unintended purposes, or have been repurposed without permission in the past, To limit unintended use of work, professionals should consider implementing the following strategies: ‣ Registrants can leverage contractual terms to include language to restrict the duplication of application of the work product to other projects without permission of the professional and restrict the distribution of the work product for the intended project beyond the distribution required for effective project implementation. ‣ Disclaimers may be included on submitted documentation to restrict the use to the agreed upon, project-specific scope of work, particularly for work that could be perceived as generic or adaptable or will be made public. Documents could also include detailed project information, such as project name, location, date and time of review, date of report, name, and firm of

professional, name and firm of recipient, and scope of work. ‣ In instances where the work may become outdated, registrants should reference the inputs used to make the engineering or geoscience decisions and any limitations on use of the work if the inputs become outdated. ‣ When sealing documents, registrants should ensure that the date and signature touch the image of the seal, and use digital certification technology that shows if a document has been revised after authentication. Engineers and Geoscientists BC’s digital seal provider is Notarius. Clients and regulatory or approving authorities can also play a role in limiting the unintended use of engineering or geoscience work by consistently requiring that all professional documents submitted to them are originally authenticated according to Engineers and Geoscientists BC’s Quality Management Guide: Guide to the Standard for Authentication of Documents ( egbc.ca/Registrants/Practice Resources/Quality-Management-Guides ). For more information or if you have questions, please contact practiceadvisor@egbc.ca . Kendra Zammit, MSc., P.Geo. Practice Advisor

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Mandatory Regulatory Learning Module, 2023-2024 Registrants are reminded to complete the Mandatory Regulatory Learning Module for 2023-2024: Climate Change and Sustainability, by June 30. The course can be accessed in the Knowledge Centre ( egbc.ca/knowledge-centre ).

Innovation Summer 2024

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