Infrastructure Australia lists priorities

Infrastructure Australia’s Priority List has brought national initiatives on water, waste and coastal inundation to the forefront. The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has welcomed the High Priority National Initiatives, tied to the central theme of resilience that headlined the 2019 Infrastructure Audit.

GBCA CEO Davina Rooney said that — via the audit — Infrastructure Australia had progressed issues up the list that are fundamental to ensuring the future integrity of Australia’s cities and urban systems.

“The priorities identified today seeking national coordination to manage waste, water security and coastal inundation reflect the importance of planning for the growing risks facing communities across Australia,” Rooney said.

“These newly identified high-priority programs recognise their importance supporting national resilience and in helping provide greater certainty for business and the community that will drive investment and better planning.

“The Green Building Council of Australia has long called for a stronger focus on planning for resilience to support the leadership our members demonstrate through their own developments on the ground in communities around Australia,” she said.

“It is very encouraging to see the strong synergies between the priorities Infrastructure Australia has identified and those that we are taking forward with our evolution of our Green Star rating tool through our own Future Focus program.

“Resilient design has long been embedded into Green Star, which is an essential reference point for government and communities as we look to deliver buildings that are better prepared for the challenges of a changing climate.

“As the Infrastructure Australia Priority List recognises, the built environment has a critical role to play in helping Australia become more resilient in the face of a changing climate. We also need to ensure that buildings make a smaller contribution to climate change with a pathway to net zero.

“The importance of frameworks like Infrastructure Australia’s audit and priority list cannot be understated for their impact in supporting industry leadership on the ground in partnership with government and communities.

“Infrastructure Australia’s work helps drive the investment required to achieve a successful sustainable transformation of our built environment,” Rooney said.

National High Priority Initiatives supporting resilience nationally include:

• Town and city water security
• National water strategy
• coastal inundation protection strategy
• national waste and recycling management
   

View the full list here.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Wojciech Wrzesień