SESSION: SUSTAINABILITY & METRICS

1. SESSION: SUSTAINABILITY & METRICS Evaluating Sustainability and Resilience of Transportation Infrastructure with INVEST - FHWA’s Sustainability Rating Tool Constance M. Hill Galloway. Ph.D., Environmental Protection Specialist, FHWA The FHWA’s INVEST tool is an innovative, web-based tool that allows State DOTs, local planning organizations, and others to quantify and assess the level of sustainability of their transportation plans, projects, programs, and policies. The tool, called the Infrastructure Voluntary Evaluation Sustainability Tool (INVEST), contains best practices, or criteria, that allow users to assess how well their transportation activities address the “Triple Bottom Line” elements of sustainability - Environment, Economics, and Social Equity. In addition to measuring sustainability, transportation professionals may use INVEST to identify innovative practices and approaches that improve sustainability of transportation systems and projects, and make transportation infrastructure less vulnerable to weather-related or other catastrophic phenomena. Several sustainable best practices in the INVEST tool directly relate to infrastructure resiliency. Relevant criteria are included within all three modules in which the tool’s criteria are organized: Project Development (PD), System Planning (SP), and Operations and Maintenance (OM). This presentation will provide an overview of Version 1.0 of INVEST, which is currently being nationally implemented. It will highlight the specific INVEST criteria that support resiliency, and provide examples of their application by agencies that have used the tool as pilot testers, or are currently doing so as participants in the implementation program. Connie Hill is an Environmental Protection Specialist on the Sustainable Transport and Climate Change Team in the FHWA Office of Natural Environment in Washington, DC. Connie works on policy matters, research, and program initiatives related to sustainability, including the development of the sustainable highways rating tool, INVEST. She has over 15 years of experience with the FHWA, where she also provides policy and technical assistance on brownfields, hazardous waste sites, and other issues related to contamination and transportation to State DOTs, local planning organizations, and others. Connie holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Environmental Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a Master of Science in Geology, also from RPI, and a Bachelor of Science in Geology from Virginia State University.

2. INVEST, Sustainability, and Resilient Infrastructure TRB ADC60 Committee on Waste Management and Resource Efficiency June 18, 2014

3. Agenda • Sustainability and INVEST 1.0 • Sustainable Highways • INVEST Overview • INVEST and Infrastructure Resiliency • INVEST Criteria Modules • Linking Criteria to Resilient Infrastructure • INVEST Implementation and Lessons Learned

4. Sustainability and INVEST 1.0

5. What is Sustainability?

6. What is a Sustainable Highway? • Satisfies functional requirements • Fulfills transportation goals and needs (e.g. congestion reduction) • Addresses development and economic growth • Reduces impacts • Environment • Consumption of resources • Addresses environmental, economic, and social equity dimensions (triple bottom line) • Addresses sustainability from planning through operations

7. What is INVEST? INVEST - Infrastructure Voluntary Evaluation Sustainability Tool A web-based self-evaluation tool for assessing sustainability over the life cycle of a transportation project or program — from system and project planning through design and construction, to operations and maintenance

8. About INVEST . . . • Collection of best practices • Measures sustainability specifically of transportation plans, projects, or programs • Repository of real-world examples where best practices have been applied

9. What are some of the Tool’s characteristics? • Free, Web-based, Voluntary • Private Self-evaluation • Credits (criteria) based on best practices • Each credit assigned a point value based on expected sustainability impact • “Scorecards” used to measure sustainability

10. What INVEST Does. . . • Connects sustainability principles with action • Helps agencies assess their level of sustainability implementation and identify areas for internal improvement • Assess single or multiple projects • Prospective vs. retrospective • Planning or O&M programs and processes • Provides objective approach to assess process and identify improvement opportunities

11. INVEST and Resilient Infrastructure

12. Supporting the Entire Lifecycle through Best Practices

13. Criteria are organized in 3 phases • System Planning (SP) • Concerned with agency-wide management and planning of highway networks. • Typically involve the owner-agency having policies, procedures and systems in place to address them. • Project Development (PD) • Concerned with the development of a specific project once the general need and proposal for a solution to a transportation problem have been programmed. • Involve environmental review, project planning, design, and construction decisions related to a specific project.

14. Criteria are organized in 3 phases • Operations & Maintenance (OM) • Concerned with agency-wide practices, policies and procedures required for the overall functionality and efficiency of a highway network.

15. Use INVEST To… • Evaluate – collaborative process can be the most important outcome • Score – provides recognition for implementing sustainability best practices and helps identify gaps • Improve – process can lead to improvements in practice and identification of cost effective measures

16. Linking INVEST to Resilient Infrastructure INVEST Evaluations may be used to: • Assess sustainability before catastrophic event occurs • Identify potential risks and vulnerabilities within a transportation system • Identify practices and approaches that could improve sustainability of projects, plans, practices

17. Linking INVEST to Resilient Infrastructure INVEST Evaluations may be used to: • Identify practices and approaches that could strengthen a transportation project or system • Encourage incorporation of infrastructure resiliency into the planning process • Identify and communicate cost effective practices/policies to improve transportation system

18. Project Development Criteria:Connections to Resilient Infrastructure

19. Version 1 Project Development Criteria

20. Multiple Scorecards to Fit Your Project Larger Project Rural/ Extended Urban/ Extended Paving Rural/ Basic Urban/ Basic Custom Smaller Project Urban Rural

21. Achievement Levels

22. Version 1 Operations & Maintenance Criteria

23. Achievement Levels

24. System Planning Criteria

25. System Planning Achievement Levels

26. INVEST Implementation – Lessons Learned

27. INVEST Implementation Sites • By the Numbers • 27 INVEST implementation projects • In 18 states and DC • By 23 agencies, including: • 4 state DOTs • 11 MPOs • 3/3 Federal Lands Highway Divisions • 5 other transportation agencies Puget Sound Regional Council Springfield MPO Des Moines MPO Washington DOT Western Federal Lands Illinois Tollway Greater St. Joseph Area MPO TriMet Indianapolis MPO Western Federal Lands Ohio DOT Lane Transit District Kittery Area Comprehensive Transportation System Central Federal Lands Transportation Agency for Monterey County Cape Cod Commission Riverside County Transportation Commission Eastern Federal Lands Arizona DOT Valdosta-Lowndes MPO Texas DOT North Central Texas Council of Governments Western Federal Lands

28. North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) Watch Video Case Study Here Large Multi-Modal Transportation Plan INVEST Role: System Planning & Processes • Rapid regional growth: 6.5M to 10M • Projected funding shortfall of $45B • Need to increase mobility, cut some improvements & reprioritize others • Influence travel behavior & demand, improve transportation / land use links • Extend life of existing assets, increase spending on O&M

29. North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) • Evaluated long range transportation plan (LRTP) with INVEST SP module • Identified areas for improvement: • infrastructure resiliency • linking asset management and planning • performance measures • Now taking action in each of these areas: • conducting infrastructure vulnerability assessment • analyzing asset data to screen project alternatives and planning scenarios • developing sustainability related performance measures • Will incorporate above improvements in next LRTP

30. Conclusion • Several criteria relate to resiliency of infrastructure • Criteria will be added or modified as we learn more from implementation sites • Improvements in sustainability

31. Thank you!FHWA Sustainable Highways Initiative Supports programs and activities conducted across the Federal Highway Administration to facilitate balanced decision-making among environmental, economic and social values — the triple bottom line of sustainability. www.sustainablehighways.dot.gov

32. Try INVEST atwww.sustainablehighways.orgContact:Mike Culp (michael.culp @dot.gov)Connie Hill (connie.hill@dot.gov)Tina Hodges (tina.hodges@dot.gov)Heather Holsinger (heather.holsinger@dot.gov)Rob Hyman (robert.hyman@dot.gov)