British Columbia Institute of Technology’s North Campus Infrastructure Project Earns Envision Gold

The North Campus Infrastructure Project at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Burnaby, British Columbia is the recent recipient of the Envision®Gold award for sustainable infrastructure.

“The continuous community engagement throughout the North Campus Infrastructure Project has allowed BCIT to fully understand the needs of its community and to guide development and renewal opportunities that provide long-term benefits. This award further recognizes BCIT for its strong commitment and leadership in sustainability,” said Kathy Kinloch, President of BCIT.

Funded by the Province of British Columbia, the Government of Canada Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund, and BCIT, the North Campus Infrastructure project provides a critical upgrade to the campus’ electrical infrastructure. Electrical power at the Burnaby Campus is currently provided through two on-campus high-voltage (HV) receiving stations called Goard Way and Canada Way, which are connected to the 12.5 kV HV service provided by BC Hydro.

BCIT worked in close collaboration with Stantec, PCL Constructors Westcoast, R.F. Binnie & Associates, and PFS Studio to deliver this award-winning sustainable project.

CLICK HERE to learn more about this project.

 

 

 

Terminal 2 Parking Plaza at the San Diego International Airport earns Envision Gold

The Terminal 2 Parking at the San Diego International Airport (SAN) has received the Envision Gold award for sustainable infrastructure. This is the second project at SAN to receive an Envision award. To reach Gold status, a project must demonstrate that it delivers a wide range of heightened environmental, social, and economic benefits to the host and affected communities.

“The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is committed to ensuring that all of our capital projects meet the highest standards of environmental and financial sustainability,” said Kim Becker, the Airport Authority’s President/CEO. “We could not be more proud that the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure has recognized our efforts with the Envision Gold award for the Terminal 2 Parking Plaza.”

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Envision v3 Pre-Assessment Checklist Is Now Available

April 29, 2019

ISI is pleased to announce the launch of the highly-anticipated Envision v3 Pre-Assessment Checklist. The launch of the checklist coincides with an important milestone for Envision v3: its one-year anniversary.

Screen capture of a portion of the “results” section in the Envision v3 Pre-Assessment Checklist

The checklist is an Excel-based tool to support the incorporation of Envision early in project planning and conceptual design phases. The checklist presents the Envision criteria as yes/no questions, helping project teams to quickly identify whether they are addressing the full range of sustainability criteria. While the results from a project assessment using the checklist do not directly correspond to Envision rating system scores, the results are presented as an estimate of the potential score a project may achieve should it proceed through third-party verification. Projects that address many of the assessment criteria demonstrate that their approach to sustainability is sufficiently broad and these projects may be good candidates for setting more detailed performance goals and objectives using the Envision guidance manual, and for verification and award.

The Envision v3 Pre-Assessment Checklist is free to use and is available for download from Envision account holders’ dashboards on the ISI website. Log in to the ISI website or create a free account to access this resource.

Welcoming New Additions to the Envision Review Board: Lindsay Motl, Amanda Schweickert, and Sharon Wright

On the 4th anniversary of its creation ISI would like to take the opportunity to recognize the newest members of the Envision Review Board: Lindsay Motl (Alliant Energy), Amanda Schweickert (BergerABAM), and Sharon Wright (City of St. Petersburg). You can learn more about them and their journey as sustainability leaders in the bios below.

Originally created on April 30th, 2015 the Envision Review Board is comprised of industry-leading infrastructure professionals representing public agencies, private companies, and general interest groups. The mission of the Envision Review Board is to ensure the continued integrity and efficacy of Envision and its associated tools, resources, and documents; to provide for consistency in interpretation and development; and to assure the ongoing relevance of the tool and its associated best practices to the highest standards of scholarship and practice. In this way, Envision is a tool created and overseen by the infrastructure industry itself.

To learn more about the entire Envision Review Board Click Here.

Lindsay Motl

Lead Environmental Specialist
Alliant Energy Corporation

 

Lindsay brings 14 years of experience within the environmental field, including nine in the utility industry, specializing in sustainability management, landfill development projects, contract administration, and environmental compliance. She manages Alliant Energy’s beneficial reuse program, overseeing marketing of byproducts from generation facilities to be utilized in a sustainable manner. In addition, she is a champion for sustainability, supporting the implementation of best practices that enhance the environmental and social performance of infrastructure projects. The projects she has supported have been recognized with two Platinum Envision awards to date. Lindsay holds a BS in biology and environmental science from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, and is a certified Envision Sustainability Professional.

Amanda Schweickert

Project Engineer/ Sustainability Specialist
BergerABAM

As the Sustainability Specialist at BergerABAM, Amanda has been in charge of sustainability for projects varying from buildings, bridges, transit and waterfront structures. She leads the development of sustainability within the company and in the community. As an early adopter of Envision, she became one of the first Envision Sustainability Professionals credentialed in Washington and was part of the first class of ISI trained Verifiers and Trainers. Amanda has reviewed projects for Envision v2 verification and has had the opportunity to train individuals in WA, CA, HI, NJ, and NY. In addition to Envision, Amanda has experience in LEED and Sustainable Sites.Ms. Schweickert has a passion for educating on and advocating for sustainable infrastructure within the Pacific Northwest through her involvement in the green infrastructure community. She is involved with school activities that focus on being “green”, participating in the Green Apple Day of Service each year. She cofounded and chaired the sustainability committee with the American Society of Civil Engineers Seattle Section, is a member of the American Public Works Association sustainability committee and has been involved with Engineers Without Borders USA as a project manager and professional mentor in Ghana and Uganda. She holds a BS from the Pennsylvania State University in Industrial Engineering and Manufacturing and an MS from the University of Arizona in Civil Engineering. She is a licensed professional engineer in Washington and California.

Sharon Wright

Sustainability & Resiliency Director
City of St. Petersburg

Sharon is the Sustainability & Resiliency Director for the City of St. Petersburg. She is responsible for delivering the mayor’s sustainability priorities by working across city departments and with citizens, businesses, and community partners to establish a community-wide sustainability program. Sharon has a B.S. Soil and Water Science – Forestry, Wetlands, Agriculture from the University of Florida and an M.S. City and Regional Planning from Georgia Institute of Technology. Before coming to the city in 2014, Sharon worked as a Community & Environmental Planner for almost 14 years.Sharon’s work up to now has taken her across disciplines and across the country from doing GIS and planning work on combined sewer overflows in the City of Atlanta, to community plans and environmental impact statements across the west coast. Based in Seattle, Sharon worked on large infrastructure projects including bridges, transit centers, and solid waste facilities in Washington, Alaska and Montana. In 2009, Sharon earned her LEED AP BD+C, and has since continually increased green building and sustainability into her work.Sharon’s current work includes collaborating on a multitude of sustainability programs as well as participating as an internal city team advisor for sustainability, resiliency and green certifications, including Envision, on an array of building and infrastructure projects. Sharon’s personal interests including hiking, biking, live music, and her new little dog Jovi (she’s a little runaway).

ENV SP Spotlight: Mabe Garcia-Rincon

Maria Beatriz (Mabe) Garcia-Rincon is an urban and climate change specialist at the World Bank focused on environmental and climate green financing. Prior to her appointment with the World Bank, she was at Harvard University, participating in a fellowship in sustainable infrastructure.

She is also the executive director and founder of Urban Elements Foundation (UEF), an international development agency. She has over nine years of experience in consulting on city development. Mabe has a keen commitment to international human development goals.  Throughout her career, she emphasizes addressing climate change, low-carbon city development, and innovative financing in an effort to create social equilibrium.

ISI staff had the chance to connect with Mabe to learn more about her career and her experience with Envision:

Professional Experience

What drew you to your field of work?

In 2009, I worked at the World Bank to help a team account for the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) of the organization’s footprint in all 144 country offices and headquarters. I conducted three life-cycle analyses of the organization’s waste streams, water and energy use. From this initial introduction, I became interested in sustainable development and specifically, sustainable infrastructure. I began to consider my own individual GHG footprint and started living a life that was holistically sustainable with a mental life-cycle analysis of each of my actions.  I created a profession from this. I studied climate change, climate finance, international development, urbanization and infrastructure design. I have moved from Caracas, Venezuela and settled in Washington, D.C. to pursue my work with UEF and as a consultant to the World Bank.

What has been your biggest career challenge?

Walking the talk! In other words, one can learn a lot about sustainability but it’s challenging to incorporate sustainable living in my own lifestyle as well as promote it in my work across North and South America. To promote sustainability in a conflict area such as Venezuela is difficult because, for example, the country currently cannot produce local materials necessary to achieve sustainable infrastructure. We have to get creative and devise alternative infrastructure retrofits that are more appropriate within the economic context in Venezuela.

What has been your proudest career moment?

Creating Urban Elements Foundation. By creating this organization, I have applied what I learned at Harvard University and London School of Economics into a practice. Our board comes from five different countries with different ideologies, life styles, personal agendas and interests. We’ve come together to enable change. I work half of the year at international organizations and the rest at very local scale, driving change through entrepreneurship. I created this organization to promote life-cycle systems that support sustainable design in ways that surpass best practice.

Envision Experience

How did you learn about Envision?

I first learned about Envision while I was a Research Assistant for the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Through this work, we guided the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in sustainable engineering, construction, and processes to support the private and public-private sectors of Latin America.

Part of this work was evaluating infrastructure projects in Latin America. To enhance my understanding of the Envision framework as it applied to these projects, I earned my ENV SP Credential.

How are you using Envision?

At the Urban Elements Foundation, and in the work I do for the World Bank, I always refer to the Envision framework to teach others about developing sustainable projects.

Through my work at UEF, I am developing a set of infrastructure slum upgrade projects in Caracas, Venezuela. I am using the Envision framework to create a sustainable project. My team and I are currently proposing a set of projects for water treatment and energy generation that are grounded in the principles and tenets of the Envision framework.

In 2017-2018, I worked for the World Bank on a regional project in West Africa. I shared the Envision framework with the engineers and developers on the project. I was hoping to integrate the Envision guidelines into a regional coastal resiliency project. My role in this project was to consult for the 20-person team using my skills as an ENV SP. I shared the Envision framework in an effort to incorporate a mindset of sustainability in each of the six countries’ approaches in investing in the regional project.

Throughout my work, I hope to leverage enough interest in Envision to transform projects beyond compliance with established environmental and social safeguards to integrating the Envision framework. In order to achieve this goal, I provide the guidance needed to initiate systemic change in the planning, design, and delivery of sustainable and resilient infrastructure projects. I wholeheartedly believe that Envision is a decision-making guide. It is not prescriptive, and this is exactly the type of mentality we want decision-makers to use in order to develop resilient spaces, designs, and construction.

Can you share some highlights from an Envision project?

When I was with the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, I worked with two other ENV SPs to evaluate sustainable infrastructure projects. We evaluated projects from companies that plan sustainable infrastructure, including: Enel Green Power’s Dominica Wind Farms (Mexico); Seven Seas Water Company’s Point Fortin Seawater’s Reverse Osmosis Desalination Facility (Trinidad & Tobago); Carilafquén/Malalcahuello Hydroelectric Plant (Chile); Akuo Energy company’s Florida Wind Farm (Uruguay).

The engineering process was evaluated for each project. We examined the documentation provided by the engineers and project managers to measure how sustainable each project had been. We defined the evaluation through a weighted system to quantify the results per Envision categories. The Inter-American Development Bank then measured the results of our evaluations against a set of 12 projects categorized by sustainable results. This process helped incentivize the private companies to become better at building sustainable projects. The process included a two-year capacity building exercise. Capacity building was performed between the ENV SP in the team and the project manager representative of each company. The engineers, project managers, and many other team members learned how to shift their thinking from performing a sustainable project to surpassing sustainable best practices.

Fun Facts

What are some of your favorite hobbies and interests?

I love horseback riding to feel the speed and freedom from urban life. I also play soccer at an advanced level, and I absolutely love Lab dogs.

I want to build my home as a fully functional net zero home with net zero waste, water and energy, as well as off grid. I would love to add to this a sustainable garden from my seasonal fruits and veggies and a beautiful fountain.

Fairfax County’s Huntington Levee Earns Envision Bronze

The Huntington Levee project in Fairfax County, Virginia is the recent recipient of the Envision Bronze award for sustainable infrastructure.

The Huntington Levee project consists of two main elements: a levee that runs parallel to Cameron Run that consists of an earthen embankment and a series of steel-reinforced concrete panels formed in the shape of an I, known as an I-wall, as well as a two-stage pumping station located at the east end of the levee. The levee itself is 2,800 feet long, beginning west of Fenwick Drive and running eastward. The earthen embankment portion of the levee is between 6 and 11 feet high, with a 4-foot high I-wall situated on the top. The top of the levee is 13 feet wide and includes an 8-foot wide asphalt recreational trail. The project also includes a collection drain system to control ground water seepage, new storm drains to connect the existing storm drains to the pumping station, and concrete channels and a vegetated swale to divert stormwater collected behind the levee to the pumping station. The whole system has been designed to protect the community from extreme 100-year flooding events—floods that have a one per cent chance of occurring in any given year.

Fairfax County’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services delivered this award-winning sustainable project in close collaboration with lead engineer Arcadis U.S., Inc., whose team included Michael Baker International and William H. Gordon, Inc.  Regulatory partners included FEMA and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Archer Western was the construction contractor.

“This project is vital to ensuring the safety of the Huntington community from risks associated with flooding. Hundreds of people in the area can rest assured they are better protected as a result of this project,” said Melissa Peneycad, ISI’s Acting Managing Director. “ISI is pleased to award this project with Envision Bronze for sustainable infrastructure.”

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Web Tutorials Available

Need help mastering the ISI website? Check out our illustrated web-tutorials for detailed instruction on how to create an account, create a project and conduct a self-assessment, become an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) or maintain your ENV SP credential.

Web Tutorial: Create a New ISI Account

Web Tutorial: Become an ENV SP

Web Tutorial: ENV SP Credential Maintenance

Web Tutorial: Creating a Project

Web Tutorial: Using the Envision Online Scoresheet to Self-Assess Your Project

Web Tutorial (for Organizational Membership Account Administrators Only): Admin Features

 

ENV SP Credential Maintenance Success

Since the launch of the Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) Credential Maintenance program, 60% of our ENV SPs have successfully enrolled. We’re happy to keep you on board and are working on building new program content that is meaningful for you.

New course highlight! As a part of your credential maintenance, you can access new courses that will help you succeed. Check out our latest offering: Beyond the Basics: Envision Verification. This course gives you an inside look at project verification and equips you with the skills you need to submit streamlined projects for review. It is available in your ISI account today!

If you have not enrolled in credential maintenance – there is still time! You are currently in the 6-month grace period during which you may renew your credential.  While you will be able to pay your renewal fee at any time during this window, your credential maintenance reporting period will remain the same.

If you do not renew your credential within your grace period, your ENV SP will expire. To regain a credential after expiration, you must register, train and retest as a new ENV SP candidate.  You will be responsible for all applicable fees.

Click on the links below for more information on how to maintain your ENV SP credential, review the Credential Maintenance Guidance Document and to access a new web tutorial on credential maintenance.

ENV SP Credential Maintenance Guidance Document

Web Tutorial: ENV SP Credential Maintenance