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Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering (2014/02/09)
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4.2.7.4. of Financial Capital

Financial capital accurately represents the value of natural, human, social and manufactured capital

These statements were designed in partnership with Keele University, with an ESRC project grant that enga-

ged 60 academics and practitioners.

4.3. GSSD - Global System for Sustainable Development

GSSD is an evolving knowledge networking system dedicated to sustainable development. Designed to help

identify and extend innovative approaches toward sustainability—including enabling technologies, policies
and strategies, it tracks diverse aspects of challenges, problems, and emergent solutions to date.

Specifically, it is a computer-assisted organized system linking discrete actors with:

• knowledge producing capacity,

• combined via common organizing principles,

• based on individual autonomy

such that

• networking enhances the value of knowledge and

• stock of knowledge is expanded further

4.4. Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure - The Need for Sustainable Infrastructure Design

and Development

4.4.1. Sustainability and Civil Engineering Infrastructure

"Sustainability" has become a common description of Society's expectation for desirable performance and ci-

vil engineering projects are no exception. The term has been imbedded in Presidential Executive Orders, me-
dia pieces, contract documents, engineering parlance and product marketing. Its interpretations can range

from the aspirational to the cosmetic to the specification of project performance. In these early years of un-

derstanding what the concept of Sustainability means for civil engineering projects, ISI has developed the

envision TM rating system modules to describe a framework of means and methods by which project teams,
owners, agencies and the public can describe elements of sustainable projects and how projects can be deli-

vered that are more efficient and effective solutions.

The engineering profession has been delivering technically superior solutions to meet Society' needs and to
protect the environment for centuries. The profession has acknowledged and proven standards of performan-

ce and professional conduct. In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the finiteness of natural

resource bases, increasing demands for services by a growing population, the need to support aging infras-

tructure, higher levels of regulatory requirements and more recently the limitations on funding sources for

critical and necessary infrastructure programs. While there is a ready connection for sustainability with envi-
ronmental protection, these various drivers are more indicative of the broader value proposition for sustaina-

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