Realizing : The future of green roads and transport infrastructure (interview with dr. Jeralee anderson of greenroads international)
Dr. Jeralee Anderson (@ecomisfit) is the President, CEO, and co-founder of Greenroads International (@Greenroads), a nonprofit organization that advances sustainability education and initiatives for transportation infrastructure.
In this podcast episode, Dr. Anderson sheds light on the importance of considering the impacts of our transportation infrastructure, such as roads, and not just our modes of transport; what a gold standard green road might look like and entail; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Dr. Anderson and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne, and check out some of these beautiful examples of past projects Greenroads has worked to realize!
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by This is Us by Girl Pow-R
“Even if you have a zero-emissions vehicle, your road still has a footprint. Research has shown that one mile of one lane of road uses as much energy as 100 average American households do in a year. We’re taking infrastructure for granted.”
If you feel inspired by this episode, please consider donating a gift of support of any amount today!
This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological balance, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app to stay informed and updated on our latest episodes.
On the ecological and health impacts of transportation infrastructure:
"A lot of people consider the environmental impacts of cars as the main environmental impact of transportation, but building the road is what we are paying for with our public tax dollars—we own those assets.
So we should think about what the road is made of, where that material comes from, how it's put together, how it interacts with the environment, what it means for our own health and safety in terms of environmental health, as well as traffic safety when driving, using the sidewalk safely, riding a bicycle safely or whatever mode you might choose.
The idea is that there are a lot of practices that we can do today, and the technology is currently available to make those roads better for the environment and people. And usually it will save money!"
On the challenges of understanding how to even improve construction practices:
"We don't know how much waste is generated in construction, and we don't know how much water is used in construction.
There's no baseline for understanding what reduction even looks like. It's been 13 years since I've been doing this, and we still don't have a good idea of what diversion from the landfill looks like. We don't have an understanding of how much water is used.
We're getting a little bit better at understanding where water is being used, which is a first step.
However, I think, from a resource management standpoint, those questions are really concerning things. Where does that material go? What is that material made of?”
On an example of a past certified Greenroads project:
"There's a great story from the city of Bellingham where they used 400 toilets, crushed them up as a concrete aggregate replacement, and then put them into the sidewalk material.
So they ended up not putting those toilets into the landfill, and they now have a bike trail that's made of 80 tons of recycled toilets!
It's called Poticrete—it's a pretty great story. That was actually our very first certified Greenroads project, and it is a great example of what you can do for less than a million dollars."
Final words of wisdom:
“Dream big, and know that you can be a catalyst for change in your local community. All it really takes is a small ask!”
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