Design and construction of underground pipelines for water and wastewater projects has traditionally been based on project need, performance requirements, and engineering economics. Increasingly, however, engineers and planners are under pressure to consider and use sustainability criteria that can withstand public scrutiny in the design and construction of new structures, including pipelines and other utilities. It is not difficult to apply the goals of sustainable design criteria to pipeline design, if the principles of sustainable design can be considered early enough in the planning process. However, the broad and somewhat subjective definition for sustainability, lack of specific evaluation criteria, and the history of well defined and widely accepted best practices applicable for pipeline design and construction practices make it difficult to promote and ensure the sustainable design and construction of pipelines. The Task Committee on Sustainable Design of Pipelines was formed under the auspices of the Pipeline Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in January 2011, with the initial purpose to prepare a white paper documenting current sustainable design standards and practices used in building and infrastructure projects and to develop a concept for adapting them to underground pipeline design. Specifically, the task committee efforts were concentrated on developing consensus on what constitutes sustainable pipeline design, construction, operation and maintenance, identifying potential best practices, proposing an approach for life-cycle cost analysis, and recommending modifications to an existing a rating system that can be used to evaluate proposals for sustainable pipeline design. For this purpose, the task committee reviewed existing sustainability rating systems, with special emphasis on the envision?rating system proposed for implementation by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), jointly formed by ASCE, ACEC, and APWA. The goal of ISI is to have the envision rating system reviewed, evaluators trained and available to assess the sustainability of infrastructure projects by early 2012. It is the goal of the ASCE task committee to have criteria specific to the evaluation of pipeline projects incorporated into the envision rating system. This paper provides a review of current building and infrastructure rating systems and what aspects and considerations may be applicable to the pipeline sector as well as a summary of the task committee recommendations for practice improvements through discussions of ideas for suggested modifications or improvements to the envision rating system, which could serve as a basis for the future development of a manual of practice on the subject.
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