PROJECTS WITH BENEFITS

HILE CANADA’S POPULATION continues to grow, with
the 昀氀ow on e昀昀ects to transportation and energy
needs, the focus of governments, municipalities
and private partners is shifting more towards
sustainable development that is not only bene昀椀cial to society’s targets but also built sustainably.
In the past decade, construction companies have become
increasingly aware of their need to improve sustainability
methods to satisfy tenders with potential clients and their
shareholders. When it comes to buildings, the Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certi昀椀cation has
been in place for more than 20 years and is now one of the
world’s most widely used green building ratings. Infrastructure owners and Architecture, Engineering and Construction
organizations (AEC) looking to accelerate progress toward
sustainability and resiliency in the built environment, have
long been hampered by a lack of a coherent framework and
rating system designed for infrastructure.
That’s when the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) stepped in to create the Envision sustainability
framework and rating system. Designed to help infrastructure stakeholders, it o昀昀ers a consistent, consensus-based
framework for implementing more sustainable, resilient,
and equitable projects.
Envision includes 64 sustainability and resilience indicators, called “credits,” organized around 昀椀ve categories:
1. Qualify of Life
2. Leadership
3. Resource Allocation
4. Natural World
5. Climate & Resilience
By evaluating achievement in these areas against the
framework’s criteria, organizations have a powerful tool to
de昀椀ne and work towards sustainability goals on projects—
one that is becoming increasingly well-recognized across
the industry. There are more than 60 Canadian companies
and public agencies using the Envision framework as a
blueprint for better infrastructure by embedding it onto
their projects, or by taking the additional (optional) step of
pursuing veri昀椀cation.
North American construction and infrastructure development company, Aecon, provides a strong example of
Envision adoption.
“Aecon is proud to work with clients and partners to
align our sustainable construction practices to the increasingly important Envision standards—leveraging the
framework as a collaboration tool for shared sustainability bene昀椀ts,” says Aecon’s, vice president, Sustainability,
Prabh Banga.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge project, which
Aecon is building as part of the Bridging North America
partnership, was awarded the Envision Platinum award
in 2021. The award is the highest distinction granted by
ISI, recognizing the project across a range of categories
including community quality of life, mobility, planning,
materials, energy, water, economic prosperity, environmental impacts, air pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
and resilience.
WINDSOR-DETROIT BRIDGE AUTHORITY
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RENEWCANADA.NET
To earn the Envision Platinum award, projects must demonstrate sustainability through the third-party project veri昀椀cation
process, involving a comprehensive independent peer-review
process conducted and overseen by ISI. The evaluation assesses
the program’s performance across those 64 sustainability criteria
and must reach more than 50 per cent of the applicable points.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge project was assessed on initiatives such as its comprehensive environmental
program that addresses over 450 conditions identi昀椀ed in the
bi-national environmental assessment process. It also includes
a community bene昀椀ts plan with $20 million in direct community investments that create opportunities to enhance economic, social, and environmental conditions. Both plans were developed as a result of hundreds of consultation meetings with
Michigan and Ontario residents, Indigenous Peoples, business
owners as well as community and municipal leaders.
The entire project is located on previously developed lands,
with part of it being located on a former (remediated) brown昀椀eld site. The project also includes providing a new prairie
habitat and habitat for pollinators, installing a peregrine falcon
box, and planting thousands of trees. To address the risk of
increased intensity and severity of precipitation over time, the
project also includes stormwater ponds, low-impact development, and bioswales that manage stormwater going into the
public system or entering the waterway.
The project has a signi昀椀cant and sustained positive e昀昀ect on
the Windsor-Detroit region through employment, with thousands of jobs created through the construction process and a
number of permanent sta昀昀 once the bridge is in operation.
By using Envision, projects like the Gordie Howe International Bridge can assess and establish goals around the interlocking bene昀椀ts and trade-o昀昀s of infrastructure development.
The framework’s categories together address dimensions of
human well-being, mobility and access, and community development. They cover material, energy and water management
and use, and they incorporate other dimensions related to
siting, conservation, ecology, emissions, and resilience.
“All of these aspects—the environmental, the social or community-related, and the economic—are re昀氀ected in Envision
because they’re fundamental to understanding the true picture
of sustainability on projects,” says Lourette Swanepoel, program manager for Envision Canada, a partnership between the
Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) and ISI. “With
infrastructure development, you have to look at the whole
system, and often even juggle di昀昀erent types of systems in the
same project and Envision is really the 昀椀rst system of its kind
that provides the industry with that practical, holistic framework that spans across infrastructure types.”
In Québec, Aecon is about to take its next project through
the veri昀椀cation process, with Envision Gold as the target. This
is where a project would achieve more than 40 per cent of applicable points. Connecting to Montreal’s new Réseau Express
Métropolitain (REM) transit network, the Montréal-Trudeau
International Airport REM Station will be the 昀椀rst zero emission rapid transit link to the city centre and beyond.
Working collaboratively with the client, Aéroports de
Montréal (ADM), Aecon and its joint venture partner EBC are
using lessons learned from previous projects and applying it to
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