America, a nation that was once the world’s model for public infrastructure development, has declined to near-failure. Our neglect has already led to thousands of crumbling roads, decaying bridges and drought-stricken regions. A concrete plan to get us back on track just couldn’t come soon enough.
That’s exactly what Autodesk’s new report, Making the Grade, intends to do. The report represents the consensus of experts from over 45 public and private companies who participated in a roundtable discussion convened by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Making the Grade offers a strong case for increased awareness, prioritization, and investment across the country. The following are the report’s six key points:
1. Make Infrastructure leadership a presidential and cabinet priority to convey and support the vision, arbitrate competing interests, and remove obstacles to success
2. Form U.S. infrastructure regions to integrated infrastructure agendas and efficiently allocate capital and natural resources
3. Establish a national infrastructure bank to accelerate projects that can align with the visions goals, i.e., innovation, and prudent use of capital, modernize project delivery methods, and societal benefit, among others
4. Sell opportunity bonds to raise more infrastructure capital to fulfill our generational obligation
5. Create a national infrastructure index that clearly articulates our current state, ambition, and the relative contribution of proposed projects and programs to encourage long-term, sustainable ROI through transparency
6. Engage the American people to build support for the importance of infrastructure policy
Some of these points will be easier to achieve than others; partisan politics plays a major role in infrastructure investment, and right now neither side seems willing to budge. But, all things considered, it’s the sixth point that demands the most urgency. Regardless of party lines, we need to engage the American people. Nothing will change unless Americans demand change, and we won’t want change unless we know what’s at stake: we need to realize infrastructure’s importance to economic stability and growth. Failure is not an option.
Making the Grade is a new tool in the advocacy belt, offering clear explanations of why we need to invest in infrastructure now, and what we can do to get started.
Access the full report here–take it, read it, use it and SPREAD THE WORD!
http://autode.sk/MakingTheGrade
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