Hatchery Project receives first ever Envision rating

The largest indoor sport fish hatchery in North America is the first ever recipient of the Envision^TM Gold award for sustainable infrastructure. The award ceremony on July 24 that honored the William Jack Hernandez Fish Hatchery of Anchorage Alaska was the culmination of 6 years of collaboration by the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the GSD with the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure to create a rating system for infrastructure sustainability. It also marked the start of a new phase in implementing the Envision standards on a wide scale.

The Zofnass Program, directed by Spiro Pollalis (professor of design technology and management), began in 2008 to do for infrastructure what LEED has done for building-scale sustainability: develop and promote tools that help quantify the sustainability of infrastructure, facilitate the adoption of sustainable solutions and expand the body of knowledge regarding sustainable infrastructure. Faculty and student research associates from across Harvard (including the College and Schools of Public Health, Business, Government and Law) worked with the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure and an impressive team of the largest and most knowledgeable architectural engineering firms to create and disseminate the Envision Rating System.

Envision provides a holistic framework for evaluating and rating the community, environmental and economic benefits of all types and sizes of infrastructure projects. It gives recognition to initiatives that use transformational, collaborative approaches to integrate sustainability measures through the course of the project’s life cycle.