FHWA Sustainability Assessment Tools
Sustainability assessment is an evolving area for pavements and transportation systems. The main reasons to measure sustainability include:
- (a) achieving sustainability and performance goals,
- (b) accounting mandates,
- (c) decision support,
- (d) process improvements, and
- (e) addressing existing concerns that detrimentally impact pavement performance.
In addition to performance measurement, three other general measurement tools, or methods, tend to be used either in isolation or in concert to quantify various aspects of sustainability: life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA), life-cycle assessment (LCA), and sustainability rating systems. Ultimately, the priorities of the owner/agency and the context of the will determine the most suitable assessment approach.
FHWA Project-Level Tools
LCA Pave is a pavement life-cycle assessment tool that can be used to quantify the environmental impacts of pavement material and design decisions.
Download LCA Pave.
RealCost is a tool to support the application of life-cycle cost analysis in the pavement project-level decision making process.
Download RealCost.
FHWA Planning-Level Tools
INVEST is a sustainability rating system for surface transportation that encompasses planning, development, operation, and maintenance.
Learn more about INVEST.
The Infrastructure Carbon Estimator (ICE) is a spreadsheet tool that estimates the lifecycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions from the construction and maintenance of transportation facilities. ICE can inform planning and pre-engineering analysis.
Learn more about the ICE tool.