Robert Edwards: Building Back Better with Smart Surfaces Initiative
Imagine working for a coalition of 40 of the industry-leading health, planning, architecture, city policy, energy, affordable housing, and sustainability organizations dedicated to the expanded adoption of “Smart Surfaces” globally, and presenting your research to the leadership of those organizations? Well, these are the experiences that the Smart Surfaces Coalition (SSC) has provided me and a countless number of other interns.
My name is Robert Edwards and I am a Research Analyst at SSC. I recently graduated from Harvard University, where I studied Environmental Science & Public Policy with a focus in Business and Economics. During my academic career, I developed a deep appreciation for collaboration between the private and public sector to advance the deployment of clean and sustainable technologies in cities around the world. Furthermore, I studied economics, environmental science, and public policy to prepare for a career in sustainability. After learning more about “Smart Surfaces”—surfaces that more effectively manage sunlight and rain than the standard dark and impervious surfaces, such as reflective, green and porous surfaces, trees, and solar PV—it became increasingly clear that I could contribute in an impactful way to this emerging field of climate solutions that are readily available at scale for cities. With aspirations of becoming a project developer for renewable energy projects, or a sustainability manager at a large company, the opportunity to shape the future of city infrastructure decisions to both adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change at SSC was a strong step towards achieving my career goals.
When I started at SSC, negotiations surrounding the Senate’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF) began to significantly ramp up. What I thought would be a time for cooperation and unity ended up being characterized by political tension over what would be included in this once in a generation infrastructure spending measure. For my first project, I chose to lead an educational outreach initiative with Jackson Becce, a project manager at SSC, to promote the adoption of more green and resilient infrastructure within the BIF given the timeliness and importance of such a venture. Having been a founding board member and Director of Policy at Harvard’s Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative, I leveraged my congressional outreach strategies to close meetings with dozens of senior House, Senate, and Committee staff members in just a matter of weeks after joining SSC. We also spoke to a number of governmental agencies like CEQ, DoE, DoT, and others, on the many social, environmental, and economic benefits of deploying Smart Surfaces.
Jackson and I carefully shaped SSC’s message so that it aligned with the objectives of each congressional office with which we met. We then walked through and explained the cutting-edge research that SSC has been conducting for select cities, such as in its recently released Baltimore Report. We approached the meetings with acute professionalism and sought to provide value to support different policy agendas. Despite the political partisanship surrounding climate change and climate resiliency, we were able to close meetings with influential House and Senate Members on both sides of the aisle. For example, we met with the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Senator Capito (R-WV), and with Senator Schatz (D-HI), chair of the Senate Democrat’s Special Committee on the Climate Crisis.
The responses and feedback we received concerning Smart Surfaces in those meetings were overall very positive, attesting to the applicability to other cities, cost-effectiveness, and efficacy of this solution. Furthermore, a remarkable majority of offices agreed with and supported our goal of getting “Smart Surfaces” defined in legislation in order to change the practices of city departments that routinely make surface decisions for infrastructure projects based solely on a lowest first/initial cost, rather than on lowest lifetime cost and accounting for climate, health, equity, and other benefits. In fact, Senator Markey (D-MA) agreed to co-sponsor an amendment in the BIF that defined Smart Surfaces, but we were unable to close a Republican co-sponsor in time to pass the amendment. In meetings, we emphasized the multitude of benefits realized from the adoption of Smart Surfaces—such as improving public health, reducing air pollution, creating good local jobs, mitigating urban heat islands, managing rain and flood runoff more effectively, all the while realizing a benefit-cost ratio well over 1:1 (sometimes even 10:1).
From this experience, I noticed that more Democratic members had a deep appreciation for the many social benefits associated with greener, reflective, and porous infrastructure, while more Republican members focused on cost savings, surface life extension, and innovation behind the deployment of Smart Surfaces in American cities. Nonetheless, there are aspects of adopting Smart Surfaces that appeal to members on both sides of the aisle, which demonstrates that our initiative and research here at SSC is indeed a nonpartisan issue.
Understanding this, we adapted our strategy to meet the needs of our colleagues on Capitol Hill by creating a deliverable for Smart Surfaces that appeals to both Democrats and Republicans: our Smart Surfaces “two pager.” This deliverable served as an easy-to-read document summarizing all the key aspects of what smart surfaces are, and the work that SSC carries out for our partners. Having the opportunity to speak with Congressional offices about an issue that provides many social benefits, while also being cost-effective, is a rare and unique opportunity for change.
After negotiations with dozens of senior Congressional staff members, the Senate passed the BIF and we were very pleased to see that elements of Smart Surfaces were included in a variety of sections within the Framework, including measures for heat and flood mitigation. One such example was the Healthy Streets Program, which offers grants to cities for the adoption of porous pavements, reflective surfaces, and trees in low-income areas to support community resilience and public health. After combing through the BIF, a 2700+ page document, and debating which specific policies most closely align with SSC’s mission, we created the “Smart Surfaces Legislative Tracker: Elements of Smart Surfaces Incorporated into the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework,” which highlights key policies advantageous for the adoption of Smart Surfaces in cities and towns throughout the U.S. This was my first time analyzing a newly passed Senate Framework. It was a privilege to have done this for a bill of such historic and social magnitude as the BIF. Furthermore, the sections and programs highlighted in the Legislative Tracker show how the strategy we implemented for this congressional outreach project provided real value to SSC and its stakeholders. All this was done within two months of my joining the Coalition. Our work can be found under SSC’s “Building Back Better” Initiative on the Coalition’s website.
After realizing the success of this project, senior staff at SSC suggested that we present our findings to the Coalition’s Steering Committee, which consists of a broad range of high-powered academic and professional experts who share the common goal of making American cities more livable. The amount of responsibility I’ve had as an intern has been extremely unique, and the professional skills that I have built upon and learned in a short time since starting with the Coalition have been invaluable. Specifically, I have improved on my soft skills in communication, knowing your audience, and improving work efficiency through teamwork. In addition, I have also improved upon my hard skills of summarizing and presenting hundreds of pages of information in a clear and concise manner, and working in an efficient team to create a professional deliverable given our strict deadline. This special experience provided to me by SSC will forever serve as a crucial first step in forging a career in Sustainability.