Overview

Greenroads is a collection of sustainability best practices that apply to roadway design and construction. These best practices are divided into two types: mandatory and voluntary.

Mandatory best practices are those that must be done as a minimum in order for a roadway to be considered a Greenroad. These are called “Project Requirements,” of which there are 11. The Project Requirements are intended to capture the most critical ideals of sustainability. Many, but not all, projects will meet several of these outright with little or no additional effort.

Voluntary best practices are those that may optionally be included in a roadway project. These are called “Voluntary Credits”. Each Voluntary Credit is assigned a point value (1‐5 points) depending upon its impact on sustainability. Currently, there are 37 Voluntary Credits totaling 108 points. Greenroads also allows a project or organization to create and use its own Voluntary Credits (called “Custom Credits”), subject to approval of Greenroads, for a total of 10 more points, which brings the total available points to 118.

Project teams apply for points by submitting specific documentation in support of the Project Requirement or Voluntary Credit they are pursuing. These documents, which can range from project specifications to field documentation, are verified by an independent review team. Once a project is complete the Greenroads team verifies the application and assigns a Greenroads score based on achieving all 11 of the Project Requirements and the number of points earned from the Voluntary Credits. This score may then be used at the owner’s discretion and may also be translated to a standard achievement level or “certification” if so desired: the more points earned, the higher the recognition. If a project reaches a certification level it will be able to display the Greenroads logo and appropriate certification graphic once permission from the Greenroads team is given. The Greenroads certification levels are detailed in a subsequent section of this document.

Owner agencies, developers, design consultants and contractors may wish to pursue official certification or use Greenroads in other ways that are either voluntary or prescriptive. For instance, developers and designers may wish to use Greenroads as a list of potential ideas for improving the sustainability of a roadway project. Or, owners may wish to use Greenroads point values or certification levels as goals or benchmarks for new roadway projects or metrics by which they can measure and manage their roadway sustainability efforts.

Documentation

No documentation for this credit.

Resources

  Greenroads Background

Public commentary on the Overview