Envision and Envision SP Training

Register for Envision Training through SSI-3 today!

Training will occur at 1250 14th Street in Denver, 80202, Room 3301 (300W) on the 3rd floor. Go left when you exist the elevators and then left again around the first corner.

Envision®– Building Tomorrow’s Infrastructure Today.

Today, infrastructure must perform in an increasingly challenging environment, as demands for energy, water resources and ecosystem services climb; access to natural resources of all types are increasingly limited; financial and political constraints mount; environmental, ecological and climate change perils escalate; and global population is surging. The owners and professionals who design and build these projects face a tall order: satisfying ever-growing demand, while at the same time responsibly addressing requirements for resiliency and sustainability through progressive techniques in infrastructure design and construction in ways that simultaneously meet high standards for economic performance. The works that best meet those challenges, and can serve as an example to others, are justifiably receiving considerable recognition.

Envision is a framework that provides the guidance needed to initiate this systemic change in the planning, design and delivery of sustainable and resilient infrastructure. Envision is a decision-making guide, not a set of prescriptive measures. Envision provides industry-wide sustainability metrics for all types and sizes of infrastructure to help users assess and measure the extent to which their project contributes to conditions of sustainability across the full range of social, economic, and environmental indicators.

Fundamentally, Envision is about supporting higher performance through more sustainable choices in infrastructure development. The framework provides a flexible system of criteria and performance objectives to aid decision makers and help project teams identify sustainable approaches during planning, design, and construction that will carry forward throughout the project’s operations and maintenance and end-of-life phases. Using Envision as a guidance tool, owners, communities, designers, contractors, and other stakeholders are able to collaborate to make more informed decisions about the sustainability of infrastructure.

Community infrastructure development is subject to the resource constraints of multiple departments and agencies, each with different schedules, agendas, mandates, budget cycles, and funding sources. Ratings systems and tools intended for buildings are not designed for this context and cannot adequately assess the extensive external benefits and impacts infrastructure has on a community. Envision assesses not only individual project performance, but how well the infrastructure project contributes to the efficiency and long-term sustainability of the communities it serves. In this way, Envision not only asks, “Are we doing the project right?” but also, “Are we doing the right project?”

Envision® is the product of a joint collaboration between the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure. ISI was founded by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), the American Public Works Association (APWA), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Envision® addresses both public and private sector interests in increased and more sustainable infrastructure investment by introducing social, economic and environmental variables in a consistent, transparent manner into infrastructure decisions at the national, state and local levels of government.

The Envision® system is at its’ heart a planning methodology and a framework to evaluate, grade and give recognition to infrastructure projects that provide progress and contributions for a sustainable future. Its purpose is to foster a necessary and dramatic improvement in the performance and resiliency of physical infrastructure across the full dimensions of sustainability: economic, social and environmental. Designers, infrastructure decision-makers, and the public currently face a proliferation of sustainability rating tools, most of which focus on the performance of a particular infrastructure element, rather than its contribution to the system in which it resides. Envision was created to address all categories of civil infrastructure with a consistent, transparent methodology and tools that can be used for infrastructure projects of all types, sizes, complexities, and locations.

Since Envision’s launch in 2012, it has become well known and increasingly utilized across North America’s infrastructure owners (at municipal to federal levels) and engineering, planning and design firms. There are now more than 7,500 Envision Sustainability Professionals and more than 60 projects have been verified and received Envision Awards worldwide. By the close of 2018 there were more than 50 additional projects registered and preparing or undergoing verification for Award. In summer 2018, Envision V3 was released, the product of nearly three years of effort by a core group and more than a hundred contributing professionals, building upon seven years of experience, The upcoming training will be one of the first V3 trainings bringing attendees the latest information and understanding of the Envision process and framework.

Who Can Use Envision®

Envision® can be used by infrastructure owners, design teams, community groups, environmental organizations, constructors, regulators, and policy makers to:

Meet sustainability goals.
Be publicly recognized for high levels of achievement in sustainability.
Help communities and project teams to collaborate and discuss, "Are we doing the right project?" and, "Are we doing the project right?”
Make decisions about the investment of scarce resources.
Include community priorities in civil infrastructure projects.

The Envision® tools help the project design team:

Assess costs and benefits over the project lifecycle.
Evaluate environmental benefits.
Use outcome-based objectives.
Reach higher levels of sustainability achievement.

The Envision® sustainable infrastructure framework and rating system:

May enable projects to become eligible for an Envision® award.
Can be used by the project team to self-assess the project, or for a third-party, objective review by ISI Verifiers.
Includes a guidance manual and scoring system.
Prepares someone trained in the use of the Envision® rating system to be an integral part of the project team to plan a project in accord with sustainability values, document sustainability achievements and guide a project team through the Verification process.

Becoming an ‘ENV SP’ through the Upcoming Course

The upcoming Envision® Sustainable Professional Educational program trains participants to use Envision® and to incorporate systems-level thinking into their approach to sustainability, considering the broader, often overlooked, impacts of a project.

The purpose of this training is to equip participants to use the Envision® tools and to prepare participants to take the examination to become an ENV SP. The course is designed to be engaging, utilizing a highly interactive approach that features group case-study work

Envision® Sustainability Professional (ENV SP)

Someone who is trained in the use of the Envision® rating system and is credentialed by ISI.
An integral part of a project team who guides the team in achieving higher levels of sustainability, documents project sustainability accomplishments, and submits the project for recognition

Overall Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

Understand the logic, organization, and methodology of the Envision® Framework
Use the Envision® Checklist
Use the Envision® Rating System
Determine levels of achievement in the Envision® Rating System
Navigate the ISI website and Envision® Portal
Understand and describe the Verification process
You will also be qualified to take the ENV SP exam

Trainer

The training workshop will be conducted by Marty Janowitz MES, ENV SP, Vice President, Sustainable Development at Stantec. Marty has more than 30 years’ experience consulting nationally and internationally in environmental and sustainability planning, policy and stakeholder engagement. He is an Envision Sustainability Professional, Verifier and Authorized Trainer. Marty played a prominent role in the development and implementation of Envision since its’ earliest beginnings as a founding member of the Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory Board of the Zofnass Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Marty also is a founding member of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision Review Board, and currently serves on its Board of Directors.

Marty has delivered dozens of ENV SP trainings nationally and internationally including three in Colorado. As a practitioner he was project director or senior technical reviewer on the first Envision awarded Waste Water, Transportation and Waste Management projects (all Platinum Level), and has been Verifier of multiple Envision awarded projects. He is currently Envision project advisor for an Envision registered project in Boulder, CO.

Questions

If you have questions about the Envision training course, please contact the program host who will forward your question to ISI or to our Envision Trainer.