The Greenroads® Rating System is a system used to measure and manage sustainability on transportation projects. The rating system and all Greenroads programs are administered by Greenroads International. The team’s involvement with Greenroads®, including the concrete pavement industry, is aimed at ensuring equitable consideration and treatment of concrete pavements.
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Why choose Greenroads®?
• Designed specifically for transportation
• Third-party accountability
• Evidence-based and calibrated practices
• Proven and supported by the industry
• Measurable performance outcomes
• Perform beyond compliance
Several organizations representing the concrete pavement industry were part of the team who prepared, reviewed, and provided comments on “Greenroads’ 3.0”—the latest version of the Greenroads® Rating System’s sustainability rating system (concrete pavement industry reps: American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA)-Leif Wathne; Colorado/Wyoming Chapter-ACPA-Angela Folkestad; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-Hessam Azarijafari; and National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA)– Brian Killingsworth).
The team noted Version 3 has made good progress compared to the previous version, but stated, “We would rather include the idea of considering a regionally specific system of weighting (categories of global sustainability impacts). The main reason behind this system is that sustainability impacts multiple components of these categories that are related to the local impacts, that may not be pronounced and be expected to happen in the near future (e.g. climate change).”
“The environmental impacts of construction materials are well-addressed in Greenroads® Version 3. First emphasized in December 2011, it was underscored by the concrete pavement industry during review of version 1.5 of the rating system by ACPA, that it is a FACT that the role of pavements in the sustainability of the built environment go beyond their construction and materials production supply chain.”
The team advised that the albedo and Pavement Vehicle Interaction (PVI) effect are the two main missing components. The team suggested that to address this, the Greenroads Rating System should acknowledge the efforts of implementing a cool pavement solution or improved roughness and deflection, even if not asked to quantify.
“This rating system can promote the idea of thinking beyond the materials. We firmly believe that adding these components would not be more complicated than what is already requested for the EW-1 category, but is well-aligned with the Federal Highway Administrations (FHWA) Sustainable Pavements Working Group’s roadmap as well.”
The team’s involvement with Greenroads® is aimed at ensuring equitable consideration and treatment of concrete pavements. For additional information, please see LINKS below and/or contact:
Leith Wathne-Executive Vice-President, ACPA: lwathne@acpa.org
LINKS:
Greenroads® VERSION 3: https://www.greenroads.org/ratingsystem
Greenroads® WEBSITE: https://www.greenroads.org/publications
Greenroads® BROCHURE: https://www.greenroads.org/files/10418.pdf
Greenroads® EVENTS: https://www.greenroads.org/2407/events.html?
FHWA Sustainable Pavements Working Group: www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/sustainability/