Sustainability

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Roadways that communicate with and charge the electric vehicles that drive on them. Autonomous trucks that deliver freight faster and safer, with less stress on highways and bridges. These are just a few of the innovative transportation concepts, once considered impossible, that could become reality in the near future.

As those on the leading edge know, progress in the buildings sector does not come easily. But that doesn't stop innovators from working diligently to increase the sustainability and resilience of buildings and decrease their carbon footprints while trying to find ways to boost construction quality and building-team productivity.

Cities are sharing best practices to better tailor their building-energy benchmarking programs.

Metsa Wood urban design-competition winners suggest adding more levels, using wood framing, on existing buildings.

Utility Southern Co.’s costly effort to produce clean energy from coal met a major milestone on Oct. 12, when its Kemper County, Miss., integrated gasification combined-cycle plant produced the first kilowatt of electricity with synthetic fuel made from local lignite.