Environmental Engineers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 31% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 58% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 42% of the time, stays with people.
Research, design, plan, or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental hazards using various engineering disciplines. Work may include waste treatment, site remediation, or pollution control technology.
38,340 people do this job in the US. $107,110 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on12 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet11 h
- Stays with people17 h
Environmental Engineers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 12 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 11 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 17 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Coordinate or manage environmental protection programs or projects, assigning or evaluating work (about 3 h); Monitor progress of environmental improvement programs (about 1 h); Assess the existing or potential environmental impact of land use projects on air, water, or land (about 1 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 58%
- 37%
- 5%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 3%. Today's estimate: 31%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.021% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 305th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 1 of its 29 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.012% to 0.02% (released February and March 2025); 0.0095% to 0.017% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.023% to 0.021% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.012% | 506 of 708 | 4 of 29 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.02% | 423 of 703 | 7 of 29 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.0095% | 463 of 655 | 1 of 29 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.017% | 412 of 672 | 4 of 29 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.017% | 420 of 677 | 3 of 29 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.023% | 300 of 434 | 1 of 29 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.021% | 305 of 447 | 1 of 29 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 6% of this job's working time as physical work. For 0% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere. 0.00 of 3.
- Not physical 94%
- No robot shown 6%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 29 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design, or supervise the design of, systems, processes, or equipment for control, management, or remediation of water, air, or soil quality.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 15% | 1.7 work weeks4.2 work days to 3.5 work weeks | Stays with people | |
| Advise corporations or government agencies of procedures to follow in cleaning up contaminated sites to protect people and the environment.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 13% | 2.1 work days6.7 h to 4.2 work days | Stays with people | |
| Assess the existing or potential environmental impact of land use projects on air, water, or land.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 11% | 2.1 work days6.7 h to 1 work week | 31%Half by Feb 2027 | |
| Develop, implement, or manage plans or programs related to conservation or management of natural resources.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 10% | 3.3 work days1 work day to 1.7 work weeks | 11%Half by Jul 2027 | |
| Coordinate or manage environmental protection programs or projects, assigning or evaluating work.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 10% | 6.7 h3.3 h to 2.5 work days | 80%Half by now | |
| Provide technical support for environmental remediation or litigation projects, including remediation system design or determination of regulatory applicability.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 6% | 2.1 work days6.7 h to 1.7 work weeks | 23%Half by May 2027 | |
| Monitor progress of environmental improvement programs.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 4% | 4.2 h1.7 h to 1.3 work days | 93%Half by now | |
| Collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians, engineers, experts in law or business, or other specialists to address environmental problems.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 3% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Direct installation or operation of environmental monitoring devices or supervise related data collection programs.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 3% | 1 work day3.3 h to 2.5 work days | Stays with people | |
| Provide environmental engineering assistance in network analysis, regulatory analysis, or planning or reviewing database development.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 3% | 6.7 h2.5 h to 2.5 work days | 69%Half by now | |
| Develop proposed project objectives and targets and report to management on progress in attaining them.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 2% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | 61%Half by now | |
| Prepare, review, or update environmental investigation or recommendation reports.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 2% | 1 work day3.3 h to 2.5 work days | 69%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health21% now, 68% by 2028
- Water/Wastewater Engineers11% now, 75% by 2028
- Environmental Engineering Technologists and Technicians40% now, 64% by 2028
- Brownfield Redevelopment Specialists and Site Managers18% now, 61% by 2028
- Environmental Compliance Inspectors58% now, 63% by 2028
- Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health34% now, 65% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Environmental Engineers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 31% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 58% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (54% to 58% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Environmental Engineers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Coordinate or manage environmental protection programs or projects, assigning or evaluating work (80% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Monitor progress of environmental improvement programs (93% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); and Assess the existing or potential environmental impact of land use projects on air, water, or land (31% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Environmental Engineers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Design, or supervise the design of, systems, processes, or equipment for control, management, or remediation of water, air, or soil quality; Advise corporations or government agencies of procedures to follow in cleaning up contaminated sites to protect people and the environment; and Collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians, engineers, experts in law or business, or other specialists to address environmental problems. Together such tasks are about 42% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Environmental Engineers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.021% went to this job's tasks, the 305th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 1 of its 29 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 4%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Environmental Engineers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 6% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 0% of the working time. Its index is 0.00 of 3. A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 29 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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