Abstract Manager

Much of our existing infrastructure was not planned with resilience and sustainability in mind which can have crippling and costly consequences on the transportation network. Our path forward is to begin embedding sustainable design and infrastructure resiliency into our projects to mitigate impacts from extreme weather events and the climate crisis. Moreover, jurisdictions across North America are actioning standards and requirements related to Sustainable Development, Net Zero Engineering, Climate Preparedness and Resiliency but what do these terms really mean, how are they tangibly measured and are we ready to adjust our practices to those new challenges?

This presentation will elucidate these important topics and explore how the critical components of a Sustainability Plan may enhance project quality from the strategy to maintenance phases. By implementing the Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Framework in a Sustainability Plan, organizations can explicitly demonstrate their accountability on social, environmental, and economic aspects in sustainable transportation infrastructure. Additionally, embedding Envision sustainability during strategic planning and for the life of the project can effectively reduce costs. Through case study, we will examine selected sustainability indicators using Envision to systematically evaluate and quantify the level of sustainability on projects, as well as identify opportunities for sustainable enhancements.

The Envision framework has been adopted widely by various agencies and organizations, as it integrates and is derived from the different standards used around the world. Awareness of the framework in Canada is growing through recent partnerships with the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.