Sustainability Trends Measured by the Greenroads Rating System

Abstract

Greenroads, a system used to rate the sustainability of roadway projects, was used to evaluate 105 roadway and bridge projects in the United States for sustainable design and construction practices at various life cycle stages. A sustainability rating system can be a practical tool to help quantify and measure sustainability for a roadway project. The purpose of the investigation was to determine the state of the practice in sustainable roadway design and construction by application of Greenroads to a variety of actual projects. Forty projects identified as sustainable were compared with 65 typical projects representing conventional practice. The objectives of this study were to (a) identify trends in Greenroads project ratings, (b) benchmark the current state of the practice and identify potential areas for improved sustainability performance, (c) determine whether Greenroads can differentiate among projects on the basis of their sustainability efforts, and (d) identify the implications of these findings to practice. The results show that (a) some credits and categories are easily achieved, although achievement of others is more challenging and offers opportunities for improved environmental performance; (b) typical roadway projects tend to meet environmental regulatory standards but rarely do much more even when possible; therefore, they score fewer points for credits that focus on environmental benefits beyond the regulatory minimum; (c) contractors and materials suppliers appear to have unrealized opportunities to contribute; and (d) an early emphasis on the environment during project development appears to differentiate between typical and sustainable projects and manifest as higher Greenroads scores.

Sustainable design indicators: Roadway project as an example

“…This implies that more budgets available would allow more time spending on sustainability. This result is consistent with that larger projects with more budget generally have more opportunities to pursue sustainability (Anderson and Muench, 2013;Hourneaux et al, 2014).…”

“…These items were derived from literature review, real construction projects and practitioner interviews. They are actually sustainable practices or measures that can be adopted to reduce environmental impact of construction projects (TRB, 2004;Anderson and Muench, 2013).…”

Development of LCA benchmarks for Austrian torrent control structures

“…The proposed LCA methodology (Stripple 2001) is very extensive but not mandatory, and there is also the possibility to perform a streamlined LCA (Weitz et al 1999) for a successful rating. Nonetheless, the LCA specifications are scientifically based (Anderson and Muench 2013). It is suggested that the LCA be performed by a professional LCA practitioner.…”

Sustainability Assessment of Transport Infrastructure Projects: A Review of Existing Tools and Methods

“…Despite sustainability should be necessarily part of a primarily an ex ante assessment, it can also be used for other purposes. Figure 1 explores the means whereby sustainability can be used in assessment and clarifies how its role fits with the decision-making and the implementation processes of an infrastructure project (Anderson & Muench, 2013;Cundrič, Kern, & Rajkovič, 2008;Dasgupta & Tam, 2005;Gambatese & Rajendran, 2005;Gü hnemann, Laird & Pearman, 2012;Lee, Edil, Benson & Tinjum, 2011;Ugwu, Kumaraswamy, Wong, & Ng, 2006 Transport infrastructure projects are appraised in practice through a number of tools or methodological frameworks that include the concept of sustainability to a greater or lesser extent. These methods and tools encompass the traditional methodologies as well as a number of current sustainability tools.…”