Reader's Response Draft 4

Reader’s Response to article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities” Draft 4

In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”, Cho (2014) states that developing cities cannot sustain steady growth by ignoring economic, social, and environmental challenges and the impact of rapid urban expansion. The writer first introduces the Envision Sustainability Rating System, a tool from Harvard University used to measure the sustainability of newly built infrastructure. She then mentions the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) that is being built in Saudi Arabia with the Envision Certification firm at its roots, citing positive impacts on local communities. According to Cho, infrastructure sustainability has a huge role to play in the swift expansion of developing cities. While I agree with her and think that countries must look thoroughly into their city planning before they start construction, she did not mention critical points like how Envision is useful for developing countries and other alternative rating systems.

The first thing to know about Envision is how available it is to everyone, given that a lot of essential material is found free online. Envision's rating system is the current reference for best practices in building sustainable infrastructure (Nelson, 2015). Developing countries that may not have a lot of experience creating sustainable cities can definitely benefit from all the information Envision provides. Envision captures all the lessons learnt in developing and building sustainable projects over the years by developed countries. These lessons are then reproduced in the form of simple and easy to use checklists. And anyone can get hold of those invaluable checklists just by providing their email. Envision is extremely useful to interested parties in developing countries by being easily obtainable, which translates to small companies being able to create sustainable infrastructure without additional costs, something Cho did not mention.

One other point that Cho did not bring up is the existence of alternate rating systems in the industry.  Envision, being a comprehensive guide for creating sustainable infrastructure, will be useful for projects with multiple factors. But there are different rating systems that focus on projects that are much less complex and much smaller in scale (Vargas, 2013). In a small project where manpower is limited, a self-assessed system employed by Envision can require extra time commitment from a team that could already be working very hard. This is where systems like Greenroads are useful (Ninmann, 2012). Although Greenroads only certifies roadway projects, it is purely third party reviewed which means the project team can focus on the project and not on the certification process. A small project in South Africa called the Model Kloof pedestrian bridge used Greenroads as a pedestrian bridge was the only thing built (Greenroads, 2013). Project teams in developing countries with small projects, low budget or limited manpower can find rating systems like Greenroads extremely useful.

In conclusion, the article by Cho discusses about how building sustainable cities in developing countries is important and how Envision aids this cause. However, she did not comment on how developing countries have easy access to Envision and the presence of other rating systems that could be better suited to small projects.

(509 words)

References

Cho, H. (2014). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. New Cities Foundation. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

Greenroads. (2013). Model Kloof pedestrian bridge. Retrieved December 04, 2015 from https://www.greenroads.org/141/52/model-kloof-pedestrian-bridge.html

Ninman, T. (2012). Greenroads rating system is on a roll. For Construction Pros. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://www.forconstructionpros.com/article/10782771/greenroads-rating-system-is-on-a-roll

Nelson, D. (2015). Advancing sustainable infrastructure with Envision. Civil and Structural Engineer. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://cenews.com/article/10098/advancing-sustainable-infrastructure-with-envision

Vargas, S. (2013). Sustainability rating systems: broad based or narrowly focused? Civil and Structural Engineer. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://cenews.com/article/9438/sustainability_rating_systems__broad_based_or_narrowly_focused_