Sustainability rating tool for small infrastructure projects

The Infrastructure Sustainability Council, Australia and New Zealand’s authority on sustainable infrastructure projects and assets, has released a digital rating tool designed to help small infrastructure projects in the region keep track of their sustainability.

The tool, ‘IS Essentials’, is an extension of the ISC’s globally recognised IS Rating Scheme, which is a collection of third-party-assured rating tools evaluating the social, cultural, environmental and economic performance of infrastructure assets across their life cycle.

Geared towards infrastructure projects valued at $5 million to $100 million, IS Essentials aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to help government agencies, private asset owners and investors measure, improve and report on social, cultural, environmental and economic performance.

ISC Acting CEO Patrick Hastings pointed out that 80% of infrastructure investment across Australia occurs in projects valued at under $100 million.

“These tend to be projects that are closely tied to communities, such as energy generation, water treatment plants and road projects, which have the potential to deliver more for the communities they serve than just the basic utility of the asset,” he said.

“We want to support project and asset owners to recognise this, help them respond and excel in their delivery, noting IS Essentials will not only enable them to start on this journey more effectively, but accelerate it.”

IS Essentials has been introduced against a background of legislative requirements; national and global adoption of carbon accounting standards; and mounting pressure on organisations to collect, record and report their sustainability efforts. Given this context, the ISC wants to ensure those delivering vital infrastructure projects have the support they need to do so efficiently and effectively.

“IS Essentials is designed to scale according to both the size of the asset and the ambition of the organisation, while also providing a roadmap to transform their systems and processes so that these practices become business as usual,” Hastings said.

The tool has undergone a testing process, supported by the Westpac New Zealand Government Innovation Fund, that included 26 pilot projects across Australia and New Zealand.

One of the pilot projects was Maritime Safety Queensland’s program of works to replace 30 maritime beacons in the shipping channels from Cairns to Weipa in North Queensland.

Amanda Scarpato, Director of the Maritime Program Management Office for Maritime Safety Queensland (Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads), said working with IS Essentials became more than just a one-off ‘tick’.

“By working with IS Essentials, we challenged many of our business-as-usual decisions to deliver safer, more sustainable infrastructure,” Scarpato said. “We can now take the IS Essentials principles and apply them to other infrastructure projects.”

Hastings said sustainability needed to be a business priority. “It’s about setting strong foundations and investing in the future, not just for the organisation itself, but the infrastructure assets and networks being delivered and for the communities we’re operating in.”

To learn more about IS Essentials and to register a project for an IS Essentials Rating, visit www.iscouncil.org.

Image credit: iStock.com/Weedezign