The American Society of Civil Engineers unveiled details of a long-awaited sustainable infrastructure certification program during the group’s national conference on Oct. 21-23 in Las Vegas. Tailored to be broadly adaptable to particular circumstances, the program brings some 900 existing sector-specific rating systems under one umbrella.
After successful case studies, the system called PRISM, or Project Rating for Infrastructure Sustainability and Management, will launch in May 2011. The voluntary rating system, developed by ASCE, the American Council of Engineering Companies and the American Public Works Association, aims to do for bridges, roads and waterways what the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program does for buildings. “This will be comprehensive and similar to LEED,” but it won’t address habitable buildings, says Sustainable Solutions LLC President Peter D. Binney, a panelist at the event who insists PRISM won’t compete with LEED.