What role do architectural engineers have in green building?

That's such a great question, Hamna! We need every designer (architect, structural engineer, contractor, etc.) doing their part towards responsible, sustainable design. I've really seen this change over my career: sustainability was a "nice to have" story that architects sometimes got to do, then there were opportunities for being a sustainability specialist at a firm, and now we have entire firms taking this on as a mission. The movement continues to grow! Engineers, particularly architectural or structural engineers, are still fairly new to green building. For a long time, the focus was on reducing operational energy (things like choosing LED light bulbs and solar power) and architects and mechanical engineering consultants focused on that. But now structural engineers are realizing that they play a huge role in embodied energy (the structural bones of the building materials use huge amounts of energy to produce and transport them). We need architectural/structural engineers that understand this and can broaden their scope to think about structural building materials in new and challenging ways! Good luck on your studies - we are looking forward to your enthusiasm and drive to help positively impact our built world.