2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Infrastructure projects are characterized by distinct challenges such as funding sources, conflicting stakeholder interests as well as various social, economic, and environmental implications. Embracing sustainable infrastructure (SI) and utilizing effective project delivery methods (PDM) to deliver such complex projects can potentially facilitate addressing these issues while improving sustainability performance. That said, it is evident that to deliver SI projects, stakeholders should have sufficient knowledge of how the infrastructure sustainability rating system, i.e., Envision rating system can facilitate in implementation of alternative PDMs. Although higher education can potentially support future engineering professionals by nurturing critical sustainability requirements along with efficient delivery methods of SI projects, unfortunately, sustainability courses within higher education rarely focus on such correlations. Therefore, this research highlights the importance of educating architecture/ engineering/ construction (AEC) students on how the Envision rating system can aid in executing alternative PDMs for SI through leveraging integrated design. Therefore, this study piloted training in a sustainable construction class to introduce the students to key concepts of SI and PDMs for construction projects. To this end, the study conducted a pre-survey before the workshop to capture the existing knowledge of the participants about these concepts. During the workshop, the participants were introduced to various topics including traditional and alternative PDMs, integrated design, Envision Rating system and its credits, so that the students can draw connections and realize the interrelationships between SI and delivery methods. A post-survey was conducted after the training. The findings indicated that before the training, all the AEC students were not familiar with SI and their correlations with PDMs while deciding on a delivery method for such projects. Moreover, the results highlighted that the workshop improved the students’ knowledge and skills in integrated design and boosted their confidence in participating in and delivering high-performance sustainable infrastructure projects. Finally, this study would be valuable for implementing SI and enhancing the project management skills of the future AEC workforce.