What is it about?
This paper uses the framework of Envision Sustainability Rating System by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure and a pre-Envision (earlier than 2012) project to show some of the aspects that are consistent with sustainable infrastructure. The examples are relatively simple and easy to understand. The project was not seeking recognition for its sustainability. This paper helps demonstrate that opportunities to apply sustainability concepts exist nearly everywhere, including in geotechnical aspects of projects.
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Why is it important?
Many geotechnical engineers seem to think that very little about their contributions to engineering projects fits the definition of sustainability. Somehow sustainability needs to be elaborate and add cost to projects for benefits that are realized by others, but not the project. In fact, sustainability opportunities are everywhere. Those who do not see it are looking for complicated or elaborate aspects that stand out from typical projects. Seemingly small aspects applied to many projects can have positive impacts; recognizing these aspects and talking abut them elevates the understanding of those who hear about them and opens the door for more and better contributions to engineering sustainability by even more engineers.
Perspectives
I wrote this article in part to provide a series of examples from a relatively non-glamorous project of "what sustainability looks like" to help those engineers and geologists who might have the feeling that they don't know what it looks like. Sustainability in engineering is a forest that some think they cannot see because of their limited view of what constitutes a tree.
Jeffrey Keaton
Amec Foster Wheeler plc
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Envision rating system applied to vehicle access restoration on a low-volume road in USA, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering Sustainability, April 2017, ICE Publishing,
DOI: 10.1680/jensu.16.00048.
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