Waples, Justin

Justin Waples is a strategic infrastructure planning engineer with Central San, a water resources recovery utility in the San Francisco Bay Area. An environmental engineer by training, Justin is spearheading his organizations adoption of the Envision rating system for sustainable, resilient, and equitable infrastructure. Justin is both a Chartered Engineer (Australia) and Professional Engineer (California, Texas), and serves as a volunteer on the Envision Review Board for the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

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Description: Swap Your Canoe for a Paddle Steamer: Reframe your Approach to Sustainability &...

Swap Your Canoe for a Paddle Steamer: Reframe your Approach to Sustainability & Resiliency

Abstract

Purpose: Central San, a wastewater utility in San Francisco Bay Area, embarked on an organization-wide integrated planning initiative to support its goals for resiliency, sustainability, and climate adaptation. This initiative will have a parallel benefit of also supporting the agency in meeting California's increasingly stringent sustainability and resiliency requirements. The framework, which encompasses the entire organization, is designed to promote the design, construction and operation of infrastructure projects that support sustainability, resiliency, and equity. However, Central San is taking this framework beyond the project level, expanding it to the entire organization: possibly the first dedicated wastewater agency to do so. Benefits of introducing this framework at a public utility such as Central San include: 1.Supporting pursuit of enterprise and state strategic goals for resiliency, sustainability, and equity 2.Empowering all employees to be champions for the triple bottom line 3.Performance driven benchmarks supporting enhanced levels of sustainability and resiliency 4.Pursuing Infrastructure Planning through the lens of the Envision framework 5.Transparent and consistent approach to benchmarking and tracking infrastructure performance 6.Promoting industry-wide consistency in terminology and interpretations for sustainability and resiliency 7.Supporting social license to operate in service area Before Central San's Board of Directors and Management committed to this pivotal initiative, considerable time was invested with staff to identify if the framework, called Envision, would be a good fit to support our strategic and organizational endeavors. Central San worked with a consultant to determine if there were clear synergies, and if yes, how the framework could further support the realization of those corporate goals. Appreciating how complex a topic such as infrastructure resiliency, sustainability, and agility is; navigating the internal messaging and change-management for staff has been just as challenging. An organization is only as agile as its people. As Harper Lee wrote in the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, 'People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for'. Having an awareness of this human trait helped the team succeed in gaining support for this once-in-a-generation initiative. Benefits of Presentation: Being perhaps the first dedicated wastewater agency in the world to endorse the use of the Envision framework for resiliency, sustainability, and equity at the organizational-wide level, attendees will learn the challenges that Central San surpassed to achieve widespread staff support. Attendees will learn: - How to assess the suitability of the framework for their organization - Learn a flexible process to identify and map synergies between their organization and the Envision framework - How to navigate stakeholders and address the 'what's in it for me' questions that may arise - How to remove barriers to organizational change - How to develop an Strategic Infrastructure Plan through the lens of the Envision framework Status of Completion: Central San staff began this journey in 2019 and gained the Board of Directors and General Manager's endorsement for implementing the framework in June 2022 after extensive internal outreach. Central San has subsequently had dedicated meetings with managers to further the advancement of the framework and to learn how to support each Department, Division and Workgroup in implementing the use of Envision at the programmatic/organization-wide level. In addition, Central San completed four retro-active Capital Project pre-screening assessments using Envision framework and has commenced piloting of the Envision verification process for a Capital Project, to better understand how to internally optimize the use of the framework with the organizations existing processes, and support every project and process at the organization being more sustainable, resilient and equitable. Central San has also embedded the framework in its 2022 Sewer System Infrastructure Plan scope so all infrastructure planning efforts go through the Envision sustainability and resiliency lens. Conclusion: The effects of changing climatic conditions are already affecting our organizations and our ability to recover from extremely disrupting events. In addition, the Social License to Operate for organizations has come to the fore in recent years as rate payers expect more, and as sustainable and equitable infrastructure has become the new norm. The organizational-wide use of the Envision framework helps to support these growing needs for wastewater organizations, however successful implementation is dependent on managing internal stakeholder's concerns. Central San will present how they are succeeding, and how they reframed their organization's approach to resiliency, sustainability, and equity. Note: Envision is administered by the not-for-profit Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure. The framework was developed in conjunction with academia, leading professional industry organizations, and public and private sectors. Note: Envision is administered by the not-for-profit Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure. The framework was developed in conjunction with academia, leading professional industry organizations, and public and private sectors.

This paper was presented at the WEF Collection Systems Conference, June 27-30, 2023.

SpeakerWaples, Justin

Presentation time

11:15:00

11:45:00

Session time

08:30:00

11:45:00

SessionSession 16: Integrated Planning

Session number16

Session locationKansas City Convention Center

TopicClimate Change Resilience, Integrated Planning