Zofnass Ratings for Sustainable Infrastructure

Harvard University is hosting the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure, an effort to create a triple-bottom line sustainability rating system for infrastructure projects, including in water and wastewater.  Last week, they convened a two-day conference, which I attended.  Without question, it is a positive step to assess projects on how well they address resource use, climate change, ecosystem protection, and qualify of life measures.  Nevertheless, a couple of visuals stick in my mind -- a proposed 149-mile water pipeline project in Texas and solar panels at a Cape Cod wastewater treatment plant.  Developers of this ratings system should think more about the difference between a marginal improvement to the existing siloed and centralized management paradigm and a whole-systems shift.  The sponsor, Paul Zofnass, was a college classmate of mine.   Small world. 

Blue Revolution: A Powerful Call for a Water Ethic

Cynthia Barnett has written a compelling and engaging book, Blue Revolution:  Unmaking America's Water Crisis.  When Barnett called me last fall, I was impressed with her call for a new water ethic grounded in the work of Aldo Leopold.   Now that I've read her new book, I can see why she's won awards as a Florida-based investigative reporter.  One in-depth case study after another -- the Everglades, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the Netherlands, Australia, and even the new water cluster in Milwaukee -- offer a solid political-economy diagnosis of how we've created a water crisis through big engineering projects and profligate use.  Her prescriptions are resonant with our Baltimore Charter -- a strong water ethic, efficient use and recycling, local management and natural systems, and multi-stakeholder and public collaboration.  Perhaps the most eye-opening chapter for me was called "The Water-Industrial Complex," where Barnett describes how water and wastewater engineering has increasingly been consolidated by global conglomerates, and she tracks how these firms influence government policy and spending to maximize their profits just like other big business in America, through campaign contributions.   The problem is they make the most money for large, disruptive water supply and wastewater systems.  Perhaps we should take more time in "following the money trail."  This book is a must read! Publication date: September 20th!

Ecosystems Services PLUS Mimicking Nature!

Interest is fortunately growing in the value of preserving ecosystem functions. The World Business Council on Sustainable Development just released a new "Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation". The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions has established a National Ecosystem Services Partnership. In July, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a report on sustaining environmental capital. And, as I write, the Stockholm Water Week has sessions on ecosystem valuation and green growth strategies. This work is a significant element in the approach of the Water Alliance. But there is more.  There is potentially even greater value in looking to mimic nature in managing infrastructure and the built environment. Ecosystems work in complexity, interdependence, closed loops, and local adaptation. So should our cities and towns. Real breakthroughs will come from "coupled" natural and human systems. Check out some earlier recommendations in this regard.

The Existential Crisis in Water Management

To say that a system is not "resilient" is to say that external pressures can destabilize the system enough to force it into a new and very different state.  A fairly well-known concern is that climate change will tip global ecosystems into a new and degraded steady state .  The water and wastewater "management system" in the United States is also under increasing threats.  EPA and the states are aggressively pursuing enforcement cases against non-compliant utilities and new and very expensive mandates are emerging in stormwater, sanitary sewers, and nutrients, at a time when budgets of municipalities are also severely stressed.  It is likely that current practices are not resilient and will not survive these intensifying water quality and financial pressures.  There are three new states that may emerge from this crisis.  Two of these are suboptimal;  either a rollback in enforcement, as House Republicans are advocating, or a wave of privatization, as Mayors shift the infrastructure burden off their books.  In recent weeks, I've heard predictions of these shifts, the first in the policy circles of Washington, D.C. and the second in seminars at the Harvard Business School.  A third new space that we hope will emerge is a paradigm shift and a reinvention of the basic rules, technologies, and practices of water management.  As they say, "in crisis is opportunity".  But, we must all work together to seize this opportunity!

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs

The country is anxious to move beyond the debt ceiling crisis and start implementing strategies for job creation.  A prominent idea is "infrastructure investment", both for hiring workers to construct water and sewer systems, roads and bridges, and  to lower the costs of doing business in the economy.  But how many jobs will actually be created in the conventional approach to big-pipe, big treatment plant water management?  One of the most interesting books I've seen in a long time is called "Infrastructure:  The Book of Everything for the Industrial Landscape" by Brian Hayes, which I strongly recommend for summer reading.  The last chapter of this book filled with photographs of roads, railroads, bridges and tunnels, aviation, shipping, and waste management (including water and wastewater) offers Hayes's "epiphany".  These industrial-scale systems used to be swarming with workers, but are now largely automated and hardly a worker can be found in the postindustrial landscape.  But the new integrated and decentralized infrastructure model that works with and mimics nature requires many high and low-skill workers in the design, construction, and ongoing maintenance phases.  We know this intuitively.  We need to document how this shift in the water management paradigm will generate many more jobs and forcefully enter the jobs debate!