June 3, 2011

Infrastructure rating system coming soon

Column | Korky Koroluk

With all the talk we hear about sustainable buildings in these environmentally conscious times, it’s easy to overlook the need for sustainability in infrastructure. But some American groups are bringing infrastructure into the foreground with a rating system for North American infrastructure.

The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), the American Public Works Association (APWA), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) have joined forces to form a new group, the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

The rating system the new group is working on is founded on the concept of the “triple bottom line,” which includes environmental, economic and social considerations. The hope is that the system will help owners, regulators and practitioners to identify the benefits of sustainable practice.

The new rating system is still in development, but the ISI plans to have it out for public review in July, so it can be rolled out for general use by the end of the year.

It will be a voluntary, web-based system, but, unlike other tools, this one will include an option for third-party verification. It will be designed for use on a wide range of infrastructure projects, from roads and bridges, to water systems, to energy installations.

The developers have said that the system must be transparent — that is, it must be both objective and easily understandable. They want it to be something that can be used to promote community acceptance of sustainable solutions. They also want it to be useful for sharing knowledge of innovation, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure.

When the ISI was launched, Jerry Stump, chairman of the ACEC, said the hope is to “give government agencies a new way to plan and carry out infrastructure projects that achieve broader and longer-term benefits” for the public.

Another founder, George Crombie, president of the APWA, said that the public works professional of the future must be equipped with “the knowledge and skills in creating the liveable communities of the twenty-first century.” He said he sees the rating system as a way to develop “an accord between man-made and natural environment.”

“The challenge is not what we can build, but what we can build in a sustainable manner. The rating system will be adaptable so federal, state and provincial governments will be able to use it on large projects, while cities and smaller local municipalities will also be able to use it for smaller projects.

The rating tool being developed is called enviSion, and the first version of it has already been accepted by the ISI’s board of directors. It is now in the midst to a 60-day technical review before it is posted on the group’s website for public comment.

The tool will, at first, be available in a read-only format so anyone interested can read it and comment. The site will have limited access. Only reviewers who register for the site will be able to see it.

The developers see enviSion as not just an engineering tool, but as a public administration tool that will help companies and communities talk about infrastructure and sustainability in ways that ordinary people and public officials can understand. It will provide measures a community can use to assess not only whether a project is done right, but whether it is even the right project.

The institute is looking for assessors to evaluate the success of individual projects rated by using enviSion. With those people certified, the group hopes that, by the end of next year, projects assessed as “sustainable” will be eligible for public recognition.

There is more information on the institute’s website. And if you might wish to comment, you can sign up at www.sustainableinfrastructure.org

Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com

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