PERSI session on “Advancing Practices for
Sustainable Infrastructure” held at Ecobuild America Conference
at the Washington, DC Convention Center on December 8, 2010
December 19, 2010 - PERSI (Practice, Education and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure) held a half-day session on, "Advancing Practices for Sustainable Infrastructure" as part of Ecobuild America Conference at the Washington, DC Convention Center on December 8, 2010. Participants included representatives from PERSI, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International, American Water Works Association (AWWA), Autodesk, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and United States Green Building Council (USGBC). The session consisted of the following presentations on how PERSI-affiliated organizations are addressing sustainability in standards and practices for sustainable infrastructure with mention of needs and opportunities for education and research.
PERSI - Practice, Education, and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure (Dick Wright)
ASCE - Advancing Practices for Sustainable Infrastructure (John Casana)
ASLA - ASLA Sustainability Initiatives (Liz Guthrie)
ASME - Sustainable Products & Processes - Strategic Planning Workshop Results (Michael Tinkleman)
ASTM International- Setting Standards for Building Sustainability (Steve Mawn)
AWWA - AWWA & Water Utility Sustainability (Cynthia Lane)
Autodesk - Autodesk Tools for Sustainable Design (Terry Bennett)
IEEE - Sustainability (Veronika Rabl)
USGBC - LEED for Neighborhood Development (Dara Zycherman)(Note: The link leads to the relevant page on USGBC website containing the latest presentation in the right column of the webpage)
Participants found great value in the exchange of information on current activities, and expressed the need for a similar session in summer of 2011. PERSI is exploring the possibility of holding its next session at the AWWA Annual Conference at the Washington, DC Convention Center in June 2011.
ABOUT PERSI (Practice, Education and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure)
PERSI (Practice, Education and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure) is an alliance of leading professional societies and other organizations responsible for development and implementation of practices for the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure. Infrastructure includes constructed facilities and natural features that shelter and support human activities: buildings of all types, communications, energy generation and distribution, green spaces, transportation of all modes, water resources, and waste management and treatment. For more information see www.persi.us.
ABOUT ECOBUILD AMERICA
Ecobuild America®, sponsored by the National Institute of Building Sciences, educates design and construction professionals on how to improve our built environment. This unique, annual conference and exhibit, not only introduces new strategies and materials to create high performance, sustainable structures, but also the technology to do it faster and more profitably. For more information, visit www.aecEcobuild.com. To exhibit, advertise or become a sponsor of Ecobuild America, please call 800.996.3863.
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PERSI to present “Advancing Practices for
Sustainable Infrastructure” at Ecobuild America
8am to 11am, and 2pm to 5pm, on Wednesday December 8, 2010
July 30, 2010 – PERSI (Practice, Education and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure) will present “Advancing Practices for Sustainable Infrastructure” as part of the Ecobuild America conference program. The session will consist of 15 to 20 minute presentations by PERSI organizations describing how they are addressing sustainability in their standards and practices for infrastructure, followed by discussions of potential collaborative efforts to address sustainability consistently and effectively.
The following industry leaders from PERSI will share their knowledge and lessons learned at Ecobuild:
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American Planning Association
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American Society of Civil Engineers
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American Society of Landscape Architects
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American Society of Mechanical Engineers
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ASTM International
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American Water Works Association
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Autodesk
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National Institute of Building Sciences
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PERSI
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U. S. Green Building Council
Plus, more participants to be announced.
Since presentations will be brief, each organization will provide handouts and web links for further information. Interested federal agencies are invited to participate in the session and describe their programs for sustainable infrastructure.
Dick Wright, PERSI Director explains, “The PERSI Governing Assembly met in April when nine participating organizations each gave an overview of its current activities for sustainable infrastructure. We learned so much from each other that we felt it would be good to do the same for a larger audience. Since Ecobuild’s broad scope goes beyond buildings to include infrastructure, we thought it would be the perfect venue to reach out and share ideas with others interested in sustainable infrastructure.”
Ecobuild principal George Borkovich adds, “We are thrilled that PERSI has chosen to conduct this educational program at Ecobuild. The insights of these leaders with regard to practices and standards for sustainable infrastructure will be of great interest to our attendees and will nicely round out our infrastructure offerings.”
The session is free and open to all registered attendees at Ecobuild and takes place 8am to 11am, and 2pm to 5pm, on Wednesday December 8, 2010. To register or get more information, please visit www.aecEcobuild.com
ABOUT PERSI (Practice, Education and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure)
PERSI (Practice, Education and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure) is an alliance of leading professional societies and other organizations responsible for development and implementation of practices for the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure. Infrastructure includes constructed facilities and natural features that shelter and support human activities: buildings of all types, communications, energy generation and distribution, green spaces, transportation of all modes, water resources, and waste management and treatment. For more information see www.persi.us.
ABOUT ECOBUILD AMERICA
Ecobuild America®, sponsored by the National Institute of Building Sciences, educates design and construction professionals on how to improve our built environment. This unique, annual conference and exhibit, not only introduces new strategies and materials to create high performance, sustainable structures, but also the technology to do it faster and more profitably. For more information, visit www.aecEcobuild.com. To exhibit, advertise or become a sponsor of Ecobuild America, please call 800.996.3863.
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Planning Infrastructure to Sustain America
This report has been prepared by the Task Committee on Planning for Sustainable Infrastructure of Practice, Education and Research for Sustainable Infrastructure (PERSI). The PERSI initiative was created to assist organizations within the infrastructure community to address sustainability consistently in their infrastructure practices.
Growth in human population and economic development strain the world’s finite resources such as land, water, materials, food, and energy. To maintain and in some cases, improve our quality of life, we need to develop sustainably – such that our development meets our needs for natural resources, industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and waste management; conserves environmental quality (indoor and outdoor); and reduces growing social and economic inequities. By developing sustainably, we can be assured that we will preserve essential natural, economic and social resources for the sustenance of future generations.
The infrastructure systems addressed in the study include transportation, energy, communications, waste, sewage and water. A principal recommendation is to develop goals and performance measures for infrastructure systems and to integrate them into planning practices. Five strategies are recommended for planning infrastructure: 1- preservation of existing infrastructure; 2- demand management; 3- preservation and use of natural infrastructure; 4- advancing and integrating infrastructure systems, technologies and practices; and 5- using multiple financing strategies and mechanisms.
Send comments/contributions to information@persi.us
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Carbon Management for PERSI and ASCE
Carbon Management Project
The Engineering Founder Societies’ Carbon Management Project (http://www.fscarbonmanagment.org) goal is to assure that engineering communities, educators, the general public, and public policy makers have the best-available information, analysis, sound engineering advice and recommendations regarding: (1) the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change, and (2) engineering approaches for adaptation to climate change. The project is developing a major Carbon Management Technology Conference for 2011.
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Scorecards for Electric Power and Transportation Options
The engineering Founder Societies seek inputs to help determine the most promising options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in electric power generation and in transportation. Please follow the link and complete the scorecards to share your perspectives. Learn more.
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UW Professional & Continuing Education – New Online Environment & Sustainability Programs
Certificate in Sustainable Transportation: Environmental Issues and Impacts (online) - New
Examine the relationship between transportation and the environment, including energy, climate change, air pollution and water quality. Develop tools, such as life cycle assessment, that will help you understand the full range of environmental impacts associated with transportation decisions. Learn to conduct environmental evaluations with a variety of analytical tools, such as travel demand forecasting and air and water quality modeling. Start this fall - http://www.pce.uw.edu/aos.aspx?aoi=591.
Certificate in Life Cycle Assessment (online) - New
Learn how to track a product, service or policy throughout its entire life cycle and measure its ultimate impact on environmental and economic and structures. Determine the goal and scope of a life cycle assessment (LCA) to obtain an accurate and comprehensive analysis of environmental effects. Use your findings to develop business models and production practices that promote sustainability. Start this fall - http://www.pce.uw.edu/aos.aspx?aoi=591.
Check out all of our online environment and sustainability programs, including Decision Making for Climate Change, Sustainable Transportation: Planning and Livable Communities, Urban Green Infrastructure and more. For more information visit, www.pce.uw.edu or call 800-506-1325.
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National Academy of Environmental Design
The National Academy of Environmental Design (www.naedonline.org) was incorporated in 2009 and held research symposia on sustainable materials, sustainable sites, and water. PERSI participating organizations AIA, APA, ASHRAE. ASID. ASLA. CNU and USGBC are members of the NAED Coalition.
Environmental design addresses the impact of the built environment on individuals and the natural world and creates a wide range of interventions informed by human and environmental systems. Environmental design comprises architects, planners, landscape architects, interior designers, preservationists, building technology specialists, and researchers from a wide range of disciplines. Their shared body of knowledge and professional skills affect communities, landscapes, buildings, products, and the individuals who occupy and use them.
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Geomatics for Sustainability
PERSI's Task Committee on Geomatics made an excellent presentation of its work at the ASCE National Conference on October 30, 2009. Carolyn Merry, chair of the task committee and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science at Ohio State described the work of the task committee, Milo Robinson described the relevant work of the Federal Geographic Data Committee, Terry Bennett of Autodesk showed how geomatics and BIM support sustainable infrastructure, and Jeff Harrison of the Carbon Project described how the US-Canada pipeline is automatically accessing geomatics data.
Links to their presentations are given below:
Jeff Harrison - Harrison's presentation illustrates how geomatic data standards allow rapid, accurate and secure access to key information for the planning and design of a major US-Canada pipeline.
The PERSI Task Committee on Geomatics has issued a report on sources of geomatic information for infrastructure- a copy is available for download at: Geomatics for Sustainability.
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Engineering Solutions for Sustainability: Materials
and Resources (ESS:M&R), An International Workshop
The workshop on July 22-24, 2009, at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland involved a cross-disciplinary team discussing how engineering can best help address societal challenges in the areas of energy, recycling, transportation, housing, food and water, and health. The event was led by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, co-sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and supported by a grant from the United Engineering Foundation. The program is given at www.spe.org/aime; a report soon will be available.
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ASCE Task Committee on Sustainable Design
The Board of Direction of the American Society of Civil Engineers has made sustainability a key strategic issue and established a Task Committee on Sustainable Design to work with the various ASCE units and institutes to raise awareness and increase action regarding issues and opportunities for advancing the principles of sustainable development in civil infrastructure. For progress of the task committee see:www.asce.org/ProgramProductLine.aspx?id=7085
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High Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition
A Briefing on Sustainable Infrastructure was presented to the High Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition by PERSI on March 17, 2009. For the program announcement,
click here. Information on the coalition and other presentations is available at <http://www.hpbccc.org/events.php>
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ASCE 2009 Report Card
ASCE has announced its 2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure. Because decades of underfunding and inattention have endangered our nation's infrastructure, $2.2 trillion in repairs and upgrades is needed over the next five years to meet adequate conditions. That's the conclusion of ASCE's new 2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure, which assigns an overall grade of D to the nation as well as individual grades in 15 infrastructure categories. Since ASCE's last assessment in 2005, there has been little change in the condition of America's roads, bridges, drinking water systems, and other public works.
One of ASCE's five key solutions is to Promote Sustainability and Resilience.
For more information, see http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/.
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Sustainable Building Alliance
The Sustainable Building Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan international network of technical assessment organizations, national building research centres and technical assessment organizations that is intended to accelerate the international adoption of Sustainable Building practices through the promotion of shared methods of building performance assessment and rating. Its website is www.sballiance.org.
The SB Alliance initiative is supported by the UNESCO Chair for sustainable buildings, the UNEP sustainable building and construction initiative UNEP-SBCI and the World Federation of Technical Assessment Organizations WFTAO. It's Board of directors is currently compose of representatives from the following organizations: BRE (UK); FCAV (Brazil), CSTB (France), DGNB (Germany), ITC-CNR (Italy), VTT (Finland).
Its technical working group currently represents 24 countries from all over the world and has links with ISO TC59 SC17, CEN TC 350 and FIDIC.
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International Standards Effort For Sustainable Infrastructure
The International Standards Organization (ISO), Technical Committee 59 Building Construction, Subcommittee 17 Sustainability in Building Construction, has established Working Group 5 Sustainability in Infrastructure. Its activities are described in the linked presentation given in Australia in September 2008. This international activity appears very complementary to PERSI.
For a copy of the presentation, follow the link provided:ISO-TC59-SC17-WG5.
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The Sustainable Sites Initiative
The Sustainable Sites Initiative is an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices. For more information, visit the link provided: http://www.sustainablesites.org/
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Federal R&D Agenda for Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance
Green Buildings
This interagency report responds to Section 913 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The report identifies the research and development needed to make buildings more efficient and to better use energy, water, material and other natural resources.
The report can be downloaded at Federal R&D Report.
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Metrics and Tools for Tall and Green Buildings
NIST Metrics and Tools for Tall and Green Buildings by Sunder, Lippiatt and Helgeson describes the progress of PERSI's Task Committee on Metrics for Sustainability.
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National Green Building Research Agenda
The USGBC National Green Building Research Agenda has been published:
National Green Building Research Agenda.
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Residential Remodeling Guidelines
ASID and USGBC are working on Residential Remodeling Guidelines:
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Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Technology & Management
The Arizona State University offers an interdisciplinary program that helps managers, engineers, and organizations meet the business and engineering imperatives of sustainable development in a globalizing and increasingly competitive economy. Learn more.
