Criterion Details
PD-25 Construction Environmental Training
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Project Development Scorecard
Goal
Provide construction personnel with the knowledge to identify environmental issues and best practice methods to minimize impacts to the human and natural environment.
Sustainability Linkage
Environmental training for construction personnel supports the environmental and social principles by ensuring that workers understand the importance of protecting and enhancing the human and natural environment, follow environmental regulations, and implement sustainable construction methods correctly.
Background & Scoring Requirements
Scoring Requirements
Implementation of regulatory permits and related training, including a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) may be included in an Environmental Awareness Training Program, but does not meet the following requirements on its own.
Requirement PD-25.1
1 point. Implement Formal Environmental Awareness Training
The owner shall require the Contractor to plan and implement a formal environmental awareness training program during construction in order to provide tools and information to assist staff in ensuring that projects stay in compliance with environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
The Contractor shall provide an environmental awareness training plan that is customized to the project, including:
- A list of the types of project personnel to be trained. This list may be by job-type and/or by employer and need not contain actual employee names. Personnel should include members of the owner’s organization or its construction representative, assigned regulatory agency staff, and prime and subcontractors. Suggested classifications of personnel to be trained include, but are not limited to, managers, inspectors, superintendents, operators, and laborers.
- A description of the types, goals, and objectives of training to be given. Types of training might include one or more of the following: topic-specific trainings, topic-specific emails, regular toolbox meetings, standing topics on regular agendas, classroom training, and more. This criterion cannot be met by one-time-only discussions of environmental topics, such as at a preconstruction meeting. Training does not have to be lengthy classroom training and it does not need to be dedicated to environmental issues only.
- A process to track training efforts, including dates, means (e.g., online, classroom, field training), topics, the identification of those participating in training, and attendance numbers.
- A process to measure training effectiveness such as self-assessment, pre-test and post- test, and productivity measurement, which includes names of attendees, topic, dates, and location of training.
The environmental awareness training plan shall address the following training elements as a minimum, or state why any are inappropriate:
- Permit conditions, performance standards, environmental commitments, and environmental regulations related to the project
- Overall importance of environmental issues
- Identifying work activities that present the greatest risk for compliance
- Required environmental qualifications/certifications
- Environmental records management
- Environmental compliance monitoring and reporting procedures
- Environmental notification triggers and emergency response procedures
- Oil spill prevention and response procedures
- Construction stormwater management, erosion and sediment control procedures, and in-water work
- Reduction of air pollution
- Management of known or suspected contamination
- Hazardous materials management
Some types of environmental training may be required. These requirements should be included in the plan; however, the plan should go above and beyond what is required by regulations and should cover all potential environmental issues.
Resources
None referenced.
Case Studies & Criterion Examples
TxDOT - Embedding INVEST in Contracting for the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge: The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) used INVEST during the procurement process for the Harbor Bridge Project in Corpus Christi. TxDOT’s request for proposals (RFP) required that bidders describe how their proposal would meet a “Platinum” rating on the INVEST PD module and a “Silver” rating on the INVEST OM module. The sustainability score, along with price and other factors, was part of the total score for selecting among the four bidders. This provided a strong incentive for bidders to achieve high sustainability at low cost. The winning bidder committed to a range of sustainability practices that will bring tangible benefits to the community.
Arizona DOT - Using INVEST to Integrate Sustainability: The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) decided to use all three modules of INVEST – System Planning, Project Development, and Operations and Maintenance – to help the agency meet its sustainability goals across the transportation life cycle. ADOT used INVEST to integrate and advance existing sustainability efforts and to push forward new efforts. INVEST’s comprehensive sustainability framework and criteria helped ADOT institutionalize sustainability across the agency and with local partners through inclusion in manuals, trainings, and awards. This case study focuses on ADOT’s use of the Project Development module.
RIDOT - Optimizing Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainability in Project Planning: RIDOT used the INVEST, Version 1.2 Project Development (PD) module to evaluate the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of its Dexter Street rehabilitation project. After the Dexter Street roadway project was completed in July 2016, RIDOT determined that assessing the sustainability of its project development and construction process would provide substantial value to the project team and the agency by helping to guide future projects in a more sustainable direction. Specifically, RIDOT used INVEST to identify areas of strength in its current project planning and construction process, as well as areas in need of improvement. By highlighting and noting the criteria that did not achieve full scores for the Dexter Street project, RIDOT is now in a better position to improve on these areas for future projects.
Scoring Sources
The project is considered to have met this criterion if the requirements above can be reasonably substantiated through the existence of one or more of the following documentation sources (or equal where not available):
- Contract Documents showing an Environmental Awareness Training Plan is required.
- Contractors’ Environmental Awareness Training Plan.
