Skip to main content

Creating the world’s first sustainable highway

The Mission Zero Corridor Project in West Georgia, US, believes that it is possible to have a ‘green highway’. To this end, it has appointed breakthrough innovation consultancy Innovia Technology to help create a ‘travel corridor’ and rethink the purpose and function of this infrastructure to generate social, environmental and economic value. The project aims to be a fitting legacy for the late Ray C. Anderson, ‘the greenest CEO and founder of Interface, the global manufacturer of modular carpet. A
August 10, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The Mission Zero Corridor Project in West Georgia, US, believes that it is possible to have a ‘green highway’. To this end, it has appointed breakthrough innovation consultancy Innovia Technology to help create a ‘travel corridor’ and rethink the purpose and function of this infrastructure to generate social, environmental and economic value.
 
The project aims to be a fitting legacy for the late Ray C. Anderson, ‘the greenest CEO and founder of Interface, the global manufacturer of modular carpet.
 
Anderson developed the Mission Zero framework to eliminate Interface’s environmental impact while maintaining productivity and still turning a profit. The aim was a promise to “eliminate any negative impacts the company may have on the environment by 2020” and the framework created a blueprint for business sustainability.
 
As a memorial to Anderson, the Ray C Anderson Foundation is using a 16-mile stretch of the Interstate 85 in Troup County, West Georgia, as a living experiment to demonstrate that it is possible to build a ‘regenerative, restorative and sustainable highway’.
 
To get the project started the Foundation and Interface funded a vision study through The Georgia Conservancy’s Blueprints for Successful Communities program. Using Interface’s Mission Zero framework as a roadmap, graduate students in the School of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with studio instruction from a team of architects from Perkins+Will in Atlanta, explored how a highway could be a tool of change.
 
The outcome was an inspirational report that identifies a broad range of potential technologies and opportunities.
 
Innovia will provide a creative exploration of new opportunities, evaluate the technologies for viability and scalability and propose a strategy to bring the vision to life by attracting the engagement and support of key stakeholders.

Related Content

  • Economic stimulus and investment in ITS solutions
    February 2, 2012
    Scott Belcher, President and CEO of ITS America looks at the year ahead
  • Atlanta goes regional
    August 22, 2018
    Georgia’s new transportation authority will focus on regional funding and planning, says Andrew Bardin Williams – and hopes to be a model for reorganisation across the US With an eye toward eventually creating Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in the Atlanta metropolitan area, the Georgia state legislature has shaken up how transportation is managed by creating a new regional transit governance and funding organisation. The Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority (The ATL) will be responsible for transit plann
  • US holiday season: don’t drive - ride!
    November 23, 2022
    Lyft credits are being provided in four US states to discourage seasonal drunk driving
  • Switching Atlanta onto MaaS
    May 9, 2019
    It’s easy to talk about MaaS in the abstract – but MaaS isn’t going to work if it’s just a theory. Colin Sowman speaks to one woman about the practical benefits - and difficulties - of getting out of her car and switching to public transit in Atlanta, Georgia One of the first goals of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) inventor Sampo Hietanen is that MaaS should persuade households they don’t need a second car. This is starting to happen - even in the car-dominated US. Last year, authorities in the state of Ge