Learn how climate change and resource consumption challenge our communities.
Learn the background and purpose of the "Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Framework."
Learn how resilience and sustainability planning at a community scale can be enhanced using "Envision."
Abstract: The Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Framework helps communities deliver more resilient and sustainable projects. The framework may also be used to conduct sustainability and resilience planning at community scale. The presentation will provide an overview of Envision and how it can be used to support planning activities.
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.
The Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Framework (Envision), published by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure 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.
Attendees will receive an overview of Envision, learn how Envision can guide resilience and sustainability planning at a community scale, and engage with several case studies that illustrate how planners can leverage the framework to assist communities with resilience and sustainability challenges.
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.
Luis Guajardo
Invited Speaker
"Luis is an urban and regional planning professional dedicated to fostering equitable and sustainable communities through planning, design, and policy. He has a binational background, growing up along the US/ Mexico border with family roots in Monterrey, Nuevo León, and a passion for urbanism in both countries. Luis brings a …
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"Luis is an urban and regional planning professional dedicated to fostering equitable and sustainable communities through planning, design, and policy. He has a binational background, growing up along the US/ Mexico border with family roots in Monterrey, Nuevo León, and a passion for urbanism in both countries. Luis brings a track record of delivering impactful and award-winning plans and studies based on inclusive public engagement in the areas of housing, transportation, land use, resilience, urban design/placemaking, and regionalism.
Luis is certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners and serves as the Director of the American Planning Association’s Houston chapter, a professional association for urban and city planners. He serves as the Director of Planning and Community Development for Harris County Precinct 4, the westernmost precinct in the county which is at the headwaters of metropolitan Houston. He leads planning and community development efforts across a spectrum of rural, suburban, and urban communities, in the county’s most ethnically diverse precinct facing rapid urbanization.
Luis resides in the Houston metropolitan area with his wife, Patricia, and two children, Sebastian and Rafael. He earned a Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014 and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of St. Thomas in 2009."
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Michael Bloom
Invited Speaker
Michael provides sustainability and resilience consulting services with 5engineering, LLC. located in Houston, Texas. Since 1991 he has helped restore environmentally impacted sites, plan and design resilient public infrastructure facilities, and helped communities deliver projects with enhanced economic, social, and environmental project outcomes. He became an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV …
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Michael provides sustainability and resilience consulting services with 5engineering, LLC. located in Houston, Texas. Since 1991 he has helped restore environmentally impacted sites, plan and design resilient public infrastructure facilities, and helped communities deliver projects with enhanced economic, social, and environmental project outcomes. He became an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) in 2013, an Envision Verifier in 2014, and an Envision Trainer in 2019. Since spring of 2019 Michael has provided ENV SP credentialing training to over 240 professionals in the Harris County / Houston region of Texas, after Harris County officials decided to move forward with the use of Envision. As a consultant for the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, Michael verified five projects under Envision Version 3.0. He serves as the project ENV SP for Kowis Street Improvements in Harris County Precinct 2 and for another public sector project in the Houston region pursuing Envision verification. Michael serves on the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision Review Board, he is a Certified Floodplain Manager, a Board-Certified Environmental Engineer, and a Professional Engineer in Texas and seven other states.
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