PRESS RELEASE

ATLANTA – (January 27, 2025) – Pond & Company (“Pond”), an industry leader in engineering, architecture, planning, and construction management services, has been selected as one of the nine winners of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Modernizing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Challenge. 

According to USDOT, “[This] challenge evaluated the use of accessible and interactive innovations to make the NEPA review process easier to navigate and improve the quality of NEPA documents. The Modernizing NEPA Challenge is part of a broader effort to expedite permitting without sacrificing the disclosure and vetting process, community input, and positive outcomes the permitting process is meant to achieve.”

The winning submission, “AI Engage: Revolutionizing Public Involvement with Intelligent Interaction,” is a collaboration from Pond's NEPA team, led by Program Manager Lauren Schramm, and colleagues from the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Office of Environmental Services (OES) to demonstrate how off-the-shelf artificial intelligence (AI) tools could be used to improve the public involvement process for transportation projects. 

This innovative approach leveraged publicly available ChatGPT technology to develop a tailored interactive GPT that incorporated design plans, the NEPA document, environmental special studies, and other project-related information. 

The project-specific GPT interacts with users in real-time, quickly responding to questions and summarizing project impacts. The tool supports interaction through text or audio in both English and Spanish, significantly improving the accessibility of public information by summarizing hundreds of pages of project materials.

“Pond's environmental consulting expertise and oversight played a key role in assessing the feasibility and limitations of the ChatGPT AI tool, ensuring its effective application in this proof-of-concept to enhance outcomes for our clients,” said Pond Vice President, Environment, Glenn Martin, PWS, CE. “We applaud the USDOT’s efforts to improve the NEPA process by incentivizing efficient, accessible, and interactive innovations, and we are honored to be selected as one of nine winners in the Modernizing NEPA Challenge.” 

About Pond
Pond is a full-service consulting firm providing integrated engineering, architecture, planning, and construction management solutions to public and private clients since 1965. Our staff, located throughout the U.S. and globally, is committed to delivering tailored solutions. Recognizing that clients benefit the most when multi-disciplined expertise is leveraged, Pond builds teams based on client and project requirements, regardless of location, reinforcing our “One Pond” culture. We earn the trust that sets us apart.