Home / Our Stories / ISCA: Sustainability in Infrastructure

ISCA: Sustainability in Infrastructure

12 December 2017

Delegates at this year’s ISCA Conference heard that matching our need for nation-building infrastructure with outcomes that are sustainable depends on early planning, collaboration and the specification and procurement of sustainable materials.

“The need and demand for more sustainable, resilient and smarter infrastructure is increasing daily and not just here – it’s a global movement.”

So said Antony Sprigg, CEO of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA), in the lead-up to October’s 2017 Infrastructure Sustainability Conference and Awards in Melbourne. ISCA, the peak body for infrastructure sustainability in Australia, represents all stakeholders in the infrastructure supply chain.

Sprigg went on to say that more infrastructure is required to deliver higher service levels with greater capacity and flexibility. “Over the period leading to 2032, the world will require about $90 trillion in new infrastructure. All this with an expectation of lower costs, less impact and a lighter footprint,” he said.

The focus on delivering sustainable outcomes in infrastructure is shifting. Once the focus of sustainability specialists charged with delivering additional benefits to the core financial and performance objectives of the infrastructure project, such as a major new road’s focus on easing congestion, cutting journey times and improving safety, or a hospital re-development improving patient care outcomes, increasingly sustainability is a core performance objective of infrastructure projects.

Sustainability – business as usual

Mark Millar, Principal Parks Advisor at Auckland Council, said at the Conference that sustainability is now business as usual. “It’s no longer an add-on or a nice-to-have, and it doesn’t fall off as soon as the budgets get tight,” he said.

His view was echoed by Mark Sawatzki, LendLease Sustainability Lead: “Once upon a time it was seen as just the sustainability professional who should be driving to do everything, but now it is actually a culture to drive sustainability within the infrastructure industry.”

An enlightening conference workshop was held entitled Unlocking the sustainability potential through the power of procurement that featured five industry specialists.

Panellist Rob Johnson, Customer and Market Relationship Manager at InfraBuild (formerly LIBERTY OneSteel), used the occasion to reinforce the importance of engagement with the supply chain as a way to encourage positive sustainability outcomes.  

“The key to unlocking the power of procurement to deliver enhanced sustainability outcomes is early and consistent engagement with the supply chain, ensuring all parties are clear on project deliverables and expectations,” he said.

True engagement means more than just having an initial conversation, he added. “Thorough and detailed collaboration is necessary, as is coordination of all elements of the supply chain to facilitate optimisation of project outcomes.

“We need to understand projects’ specification, design, supply and logistics, and sustainability requirements to ensure resources are adequately allocated to support those requirements.

Johnson went on to say it’s far preferable to ‘front-end-load’ at the concept design stage rather than rather than attempt to ‘back-fill’ towards project completion.

“Talk to us often, talk to us early,” he said.

InfraBuild products can be supplied with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its structural and reinforcing ranges. You can read about InfraBuild’s EPDs here.

Please contact us for any feedback or media enquiries about this content.

Related Articles