ISI announces sustainable infrastructure rating system checklist

WASHINGTON D.C. — The Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) Envision sustainable infrastructure rating system’s new Checklist is now available on the ISI website at www.sustainableinfrastructure.org. The Checklist is an educational tool designed to help users become familiar with the sustainability aspects of infrastructure project design.

The American Public Works Association (APWA) and its Center for Sustainability, along with key APWA volunteers, were instrumental in designing the new Envision Checklist to ensure its usability for public works professionals and departments. The Envision Checklist can be used as either a free-standing assessment tool for comparing sustainability alternatives for a project, or as preparation for a more detailed sustainability assessment under the Envision sustainable infrastructure rating system.

The Checklist itself is structured as a series of Yes/No questions based on the Envision rating system, and is organized into the following five categories:

Quality of Life — Addresses a project’s impact on surrounding communities, from the health and well-being of individuals to the well-being of the larger social fabric as a whole.

Leadership — This category encourages and rewards the actions of communication and collaboration under the view that together with traditional sustainability actions, such as reducing energy and water use, effective and collaborative leadership produces a sustainable project that contributes positively to the world around it.

Resource Allocation — Resources are assets needed to build infrastructure and keep it running, and their allocation is broadly concerned with the quantity, source, and characteristics of these resources and their impacts on the overall sustainability of the project.

Natural World — The way a project is located within the natural world systems, including habitats, species and nonliving natural systems, can create unwanted impacts, which is addressed in this section to understand and minimize negative impacts while considering ways in which the infrastructure can interact with natural systems in a positive way.

Climate and Risk — The general scope of Climate and Risk is two-fold, minimizing emissions that may contribute to increased short- and long-term risks, and ensuring that infrastructure projects are resilient to short-term hazards or altered long-term future conditions.

While Envision Checklist results are not verified by ISI, nor are they eligible for ISI awards, Checklist users can determine how their project’s concepts and designs are sustainable on a smaller scale, and can possibly be related to the Envision sustainable infrastructure rating system, and their potential achievement of sustainable infrastructure performance.

For additional information, visit the ISI website at www.sustainableinfrastructure.org.