TRANSFORMING AN OLD STREETCAR LINE into a higher-speed light rail transit (LRT) line linking downtown Los Angeles and the coastal City of Santa Monica earned the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority an infrastructure-specific environmental-rating system's highest award level. Conceived more than a decade ago and named after a boulevard that runs along much of the route, the 15.2-mile Expo Line encourages the city's famously car-loving residents to forsake vehicles in favor of bicycles, buses, and the subway by integrating with those networks and operating 22 hours a day seven days a week. Architects and engineers have long used the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system to design and build sustainable structures, but until 2012 civil engineers and public project owners lacked a similar tool. That's when the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure and Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design introduced Envision, an environmental rating system that focuses on long-term maintance and operations considerations as well as short-term construction impacts. Projects can earn 60 credits in five categories: Climate and Risk, Leadership, Natural World, Quality of Life, and Resource Allocation.
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