Is developing a transportation sustainability program and establishing project level best practices (criteria) cost effective?

This question is one of the reasons why sustainability programs have not been well adopted and endorsed by many transportation management, engineering and maintenance representatives at the federal, state and local level and transportation lending institutions. Sustainability-cost effectiveness is an area that has not been well articulated to upper management and key decision makers.
The bottom-line is that many of the transportation decision makers do not care or see the value of sustainable elements, such as environmental habitat enhancement, unless there is a cost savings or perceived value. It is a challenge to put a cost toward increasing lynx mobility via sub-grade animal crossings or avoidance of species habitat. Read More

Sustainability based rating systems have become quite numerous over the past few years.  It is estimated that there are over 200 individual rating systems for civil engineering projects. I thought it would be informative to share a summary of some rating systems that are or are currently being planned to be used by transportation agencies. It is hard to determine if these rating systems will eventually be consolidated into just a few credible rating systems or programs. Many programs that have been developed are specific to an organization’s operations, environmental needs, local context and sustainability philosophy.  Read More