Three Envision Practices You May Already Be Using

One of the main reasons we received Envision certification was to help our clients successfully achieve their community vision. We liked the program’s flexible approach to innovation and focus on quality infrastructure. We learned that much of the Envision process involved methods we, along with our clients, already valued. They included improving quality of life, engaging stakeholders, and designing and building infrastructure with long-term maintenance in mind.

Improving quality of life
To improve quality of life, we start by understanding community goals. We do this by remaining active in the areas where we work. We meet with stakeholders, elected officials, and staff to better understand how we can make their lives easier. Our focus is to listen, learn, and deliver their vision into our projects. By using this strategy, our design solutions are able to positively impact the communities with which we work.

Importance of stakeholder involvement
With any project, we understand the importance of actively engaging the public. We know stakeholders have a vested interest in project success. They can provide insight into historic project challenges and offer valuable input related to project needs. We accomplish this by reaching out early in the project through public forums, questionnaires, and project update meetings.

After actively engaging the public, we continue to support community involvement and offer transparency in project decisions. This helps to keep citizens informed of city-wide initiatives that impact a larger cross-section of the community. One way we do this is by hosting public meetings to seek additional input and gather feedback. Our experience conducting public meetings is vital to maintaining public involvement.

Aside from meetings, we also conduct ongoing community relations programs. Affinis co-workers hold leadership positions in numerous local chambers of commerce, civic organizations, and technical organizations in the region. We keep the pulse on local trends in our industry and engage leaders to better understand their needs and future vision.

Long-term maintenance consideration
We understand the challenges our clients face in the long-term maintenance of their infrastructure systems. Using industry best practices, our own project experience, and feedback from client maintenance personnel, we design maintainable infrastructure. Key aspects that impact this include: ease of project access, integration into the surrounding landscape, and durability of the infrastructure elements.

Our experience indicates that quality construction observation  is key to conveying the intent of the design to the project contractor, evaluating in-field project modifications to improve long-term maintenance, and addressing errors that may impact maintainability before close-out.

Once key projects are closed out, we schedule an after-action review with key client representatives to evaluate the project process, identify “lessons learned,” and confirm the long-term maintenance responsibilities. This after-action review includes a site walk-through with the client to review project highlights, identify maintenance features, and gather feedback for future projects.

To learn more about the Envision rating system, contact us at info@affinis.us.