Envision - new framework for evaluating roads and infrastructure, similar to LEED standards for buildings
This month, the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure unveiled Envision, a new rating system designed to provide third-party certification for green infrastructure.
Envision aims to be to bridges, roads and parking lots what LEED is to homes, businesses and offices, its creators say. Using a point system to cover 60 criteria across five categories, Envision gives engineers, infrastructure owners, policymakers and others a framework for evaluating the environmental impact of infrastructure projects.
"If we can't define sustainability, we can't measure it," said Paul Zofnass, founder of the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, one of the collaborators behind Envision. "If we can't measure it, we can't assess it. If we can't assess it, we can't improve it."
The American Council of Engineering Companies, the American Public Works Association and the American Society of Civil Engineers are also backing the new assessment tool. . . .
What, then, is a green road? What could you possibly do to make a stretch of asphalt - or any type of infrastructure - any more or less green?
For starters, experts say, you could use a lighter shade of pavement. Dark pavement has a tendency to absorb light, meaning it takes more electricity to keep streets and parking lots adequately lit at night. You might reduce the number of lanes dedicated for cars, install bike lanes and widen the sidewalks, thereby promoting walking and biking.Even sidewalks can benefit from sustainable upgrades, including the use of pervious concrete, which allows rainwater to trickle down beneath it, managing storm water runoff while better watering trees planted along a streetscape. . . .Instead of thinking of a road as a simple stretch of asphalt, Weinstein says engineers and designers are concentrating on infrastructure's "triple bottom line" - a cost-benefit analysis that takes into account not only a project's economic impact, but also its social and environmental effects.Engineers and architects say the changes cannot come quickly enough."This need for more and greater infrastructure, in our view, is not going to go away," said Zofnass. "There has never been a government that has survived if they could not provide their society, their people, their civilization with adequate and improved infrastructure."
- News
- 2012
- about
- Bike
- biking
- bridges
- cars
- cost
- engineering
- form
- infrastructure
- kansascity
- KCStar
- leed
- missouri bicycle federation
- mobikefed
- parking
- roads
- school
- sidewalks
- story
- streets
- sustainability
- trees
- walking
- American Council
- American Society
- Architecture
- Civil engineering
- Concrete
- Construction
- electricity
- Engineering
- Environmental engineering
- Environmental law
- Green infrastructure
- Harvard Graduate School
- Infrastructure
- Parking
- Paul Zofnass
- Pervious concrete
- Road
- Road surface
- Water pollution
Join MoBikeFed's Advocacy Network
Working together we make a real difference! Join our advocacy network:
Related pages
Current topics...
Archives...
Want better bicycling and walking in Missouri?
We rely on the support of members like you. Please join, renew, or donate today.
- Home
- JOIN/DONATE
- News/Info
- Missouri Bicycling, Running, Trails
- Bicycle Skills and Safety
- Missouri Bike/Ped Law
- Clubs and Organizations
- Bike Shops
- Running Shops
- Bicycling, Running, Trails-related Businesses
- Ride, Run, Walk, Hike, Triathlon, and Events Calendars
- Bicycles on Amtrak
- Maps and Routes
- Trails and Trail Maps
- IBikeMO.org
- Planning a Missouri bicycle trip
- Gravel and Bikepacking Maps & Routes
- Bicycle & Touring Routes
- Advocacy
- Campaigns
- Our Legislative Platform
- Complete Streets
- Statewide Rock Island Trail
- Statewide Trail Vision - Quad State Trail
- Bicycle Friendly Missouri
- Walk Friendly Missouri
- Safe Routes to School
- MoDOT funding crisis
- High Priority Bike/Ped Project List
- Anti-harassment laws in cities & statewide
- Updating the basic bicycle law
- Our Vision for MoDOT
- Our Vision for MPOs/RPCs
- Our Vision for Cities & Counties
- Bicycle, pedestrian, trails plans across MO
- Protecting Vulnerable Road Users
- Vision Zero
- Missouri Trail Towns
- Store
- About