The United States currently faces an infrastructure crisis, as well as a growing climate crisis. Taking a sustainable approach to infrastructure could help address both problems, argued participants in a recent webinar conducted by the National Council for Science and the Environment, in partnership with the Security & Sustainability Forum. 

The United States currently has an approximately $5 trillion infrastructure deficit, said Zachary Schafer, co-founder and executive director of Infrastructure Week. “Addressing infrastructure shortcomings provides us with a once in a generation opportunity to solve, or at least mitigate, many environmental challenges.”  

“At its most fundamental level, [infrastructure is] the basic physical and organizational structures that facilitate the smooth functioning of a society,” said Schafer. It is important to remember that “Infrastructure is intrinsically connected to the environment and the natural world.”

Peter Walker, dean of Chatham University’s Falk School of Sustainability, said that sustainability is a holistic way of thinking about a mega-system to better understand how we interact economically with the environment, and how we organize ourselves as a society. “Inevitably, sustainability is about change. It’s about moving society from one state to another,” said Walker.

Incorporating sustainability into infrastructure design will require a collaborative approach between academia and business. “Academia has a role to play in promoting sustainable infrastructure beyond teaching expertise. It should create a voting public that demands such infrastructure,” said Jay Antle, a webinar viewer from Johnson County Community College.

According to Shirley Vincent, director of environmental and sustainability education research programs for the National Council for Science and the Environment, the results of its latest report show that  “slightly more than half of all institutions of higher education offer programs on environmental sustainability.”

These themes will be further explored at the NCSE 2018 Conference in January, “The Science, Business, and Education of Sustainable Infrastructure: Building Resilience in a Changing World,” said Michelle Wyman, NCSE’s executive director.

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