Envision: Implementation through Verification in Los Angeles

The Envision guidance and rating system for sustainable infrastructure has been widely adopted and implemented across Los Angeles, California. The county of Los Angeles, the city of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Metro have committed to using Envision as tool to promote sustainable infrastructure practices. This paper examines the variety among their considerations, methodologies, and results. Overall conclusions suggest (1) educating staff from different backgrounds on Envision promotes collaboration, (2) the flexibility in Envision empowers project teams to develop context-specific, feasible solutions, (3) Envision supports the documentation of design decisions and monitoring of sustainable performance over the project lifecycle necessary to inform decisions on future projects and advance the industry, and (4) while it takes time to adopt the use of Envision in infrastructure development (garnering support, educating staff, updating procedures, etc.), the outcome is far more valuable that earning awards for projects—Envision is a tool for stimulating a paradigm shift in how we develop communities.