HARRISBURG, PA. — Gannett Fleming was named a charter member of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), a recently formed non-profit leadership organization dedicated to developing and administering a sustainability rating system for North American infrastructure. The American Council of Engineering Companies, the American Public Works Association, and the American Society of Civil Engineers founded the national organization.

As a charter member, Gannett Fleming is part of a growing list of companies that will help guide the development of the new envision Sustainability Rating System. This infrastructure-wide rating system is founded on the triple bottom line concept of sustainability, which considers environmental, economic, and social impacts. It is designed to identify the benefits of sustainable practice for owners, regulators, and practitioners.

In early July 2011, ISI launched the public comment period for envision and will engage in open dialogue with owners, regulators, engineers, constructors, and other parties interested in supporting the development of the rating system. envision is a voluntary, Web-based, self-assessment rating and independent verification tool for civil engineering projects, including road, bridge, energy, and water infrastructure systems.

According to Gannett Fleming, the firm has embraced these values since its founding in 1915. In 2010, the firm formalized its approach to sustainability and formed a Corporate Sustainability Team to record and measure its impacts on the environment, set realistic reduction goals, and promote sustainability among employees, clients, and colleagues. The firm captured its progress in its first Corporate Sustainability Report, published in 2010, and plans to continue to benchmark its efforts to strengthen communities and protect the planet in future reports. Gannett Fleming expects the envision rating system to help direct these sustainable efforts, ensuring projects reflect the firm’s and its clients’ value systems.