Using the Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Framework to Guide Sustainability and Resilience Planning

The Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Framework (Envision), published by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), helps communities deliver more resilient and sustainable projects. The framework may also be used to conduct sustainability and resilience planning at community scale. The webinar will provide an overview of Envision and highlight how planning methods are built into many aspects of the framework. Climate change, aging infrastructure, inequality, and population growth continue to place new pressures on communities across the globe. Increases in temperatures, changes in extreme weather, sea level rise, energy consumption, water availability, and resource consumption call for communities to plan for the coming changes, embrace sustainability, and increase resilience. Failing to plan for these changes will have significant social, economic, and environmental consequences. Communities are increasingly calling on planners and allied professionals to conduct resilience and sustainability planning. The preparation of climate action plans, resilience plans, and sustainability plans are becoming more common. Envision provides a roadmap to plan, design, and deliver community interventions that enhance economic, environmental, and social outcomes. Envision can also guide the planning and delivery of interventions that increase community resilience, minimize risks from projected future hazards, adapt to changing conditions, and rapidly recover from damage. ISI published Envision in 2012 and in that time over 124 projects worth over $100 billion have been verified, yet Envision’s use in a planning context has not been fully leveraged. A search of the American Planning Association’s Knowledge Center returns no APA publications or events related to Envision.