Team of GSD researchers delivers Infrastructure Sustainability Awards

An interdisciplinary team of 12 Harvard Graduate School of Design students worked with Andreas Georgoulias, lecturer in architecture and director of the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure, to deliver the Inter-American Development Bank Private Sector Infrastructure Sustainability Awards, or Infrastructure 360° Awards.

The sponsored research project between Harvard and the Inter-American Development Bank started in the end of 2012 by developing two pilot case studies on infrastructure projects in Latin America. Since then, it developed into the first voluntary recognition and assessment program for infrastructure sustainability in Latin America.

The purpose of the Infrastructure 360° Awards is to identify, assess, and reward sustainable infrastructure investments made by the private sector and public private partnerships in the IDB borrowing member countries.

The research was a truly interdisciplinary effort both on the projects studied and also on the backgrounds of the Harvard students and researchers involved. More than 50 project applications from 18 countries in the region were received, including airports, waste water treatment plants, highways, energy transmission lines, wind farms, etc.

“The main objective of the research is to help identify, raise awareness and promote ways in which sustainable approaches by the private sector and public private partnerships in countries in Latin America and the Caribbean can be used to plan, design, construct, and operate infrastructure projects,” said Georgoulias, the project’s principal investigator.