Sustainability is no longer a complex lexicon for technical specialists and specifiers. It’s a shared language and a shared responsibility. How did we do it? And what comes next?
Infrastructure is the great enabler of our lifestyles, communities, and economies. Every Australian is impacted by infrastructure every day. Infrastructure delivers multifaceted value for people, the planet, and the economy. But this value comes at a cost, and infrastructure directly or indirectly contributes up to 70 per cent of Australia’s carbon emissions.
When I joined the Infrastructure Sustainability Council in 2016, first to oversee technical and business services before taking on the chief executive role two years later, the business case for sustainable infrastructure was still something of a hard sell.
But several leaders had begun to step up and step out on the road to sustainable infrastructure – and this leadership offers lessons as the industry works together to ensure all infrastructure delivers cultural, social, economic, and environmental benefits. I’ve chosen five lessons that have really resonated over my time with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council.
Lessons in leadership
#1: Vanguards have vision
The first lesson is the importance of vision and commitment. Every organisation needs a senior champion willing to say: “I’m all in.”
It takes a special kind of leader to do this. I can still remember when the late, great Menno Henneveld, then former commissioner of Main Roads Western Australia and chair of the Energy and Water Ombudsman, told the market that the competitive differentiator for major projects would be sustainability, not solely price.
Main Roads WA secured the first Commended IS rating in 2013 and today has registered 39 projects for certification worth more than $13 billion. Menno’s message was heard loud and clear. What mattered most was how people were treated, how communities would benefit, how the environment would be prioritised. Perspectives pivoted quickly.
This culture of sustainability now extends throughout WA’s transport portfolio, with the Office of Major Transport Infrastructure Delivery recognised in 2023 with the IS Council Public Sector Industry Impact Award.
#2: Pioneers use the power of procurement
Change happens in both increments and enormous leaps.
One of the incremental changes – imperceptible at first, but remarkable over time – has been in procurement. One of the examples that springs to mind is the pioneering leadership behind the Level Crossing Removal Project in Victoria. The Bayswater Level Crossing was the first package to achieve a Leading IS rating.
An additional non-contractual KPI – sustainability – was embedded into every element of the project. For the contracted team, sustainability was central to their standard operating procedures.
The alliance approach – which was recently spotlighted again when the North Western Program Alliance won the IS Council’s Excellence in Governance Award for the Preston Level Crossing Removal Project in 2023 – enables continuous improvement and credibility of sustainability outcomes.
It changed the way we think about sustainable procurement and drove an exponential uplift in capability and best practice like the selection of low-emission, high performance materials. Today, coupled with the demand for transparency, you see assured outcomes being contractualised in every jurisdiction.
If you want to systemise sustainability, whether exponential or incremental, procurement is the lever to do so.
#3: Leaders leverage small projects to deliver big benefits
The size and scale of tunnel borers is always awe inspiring and brings home the magnitude of mega infrastructure projects. But even the smallest investment in infrastructure can make a huge difference to life in regional communities.
I saw that on the Scott Point Sustainable Sports Park, an essential social infrastructure asset for a 20,000-strong community in Hobsonville, one of the fastest growing areas in Auckland. At the very beginning, the project director at Auckland Council saw an opportunity to apply a holistic sustainability lens to the project.
The IS rating process was embedded before designs were drawn or suppliers came on board, the park was designed in partnership with the community, and everyone on the project team was encouraged to share ideas.
This inspired fresh thinking in everything from emissions and energy use to ecology and M?ori cultural values. The result is a park that breaks new ground, whether it’s the kinetic energy generated from play equipment or the modular BMX track equipment that can adapt and evolve over time.
#4: Innovators use transparency as a transformation tool
The behaviour we walk past is the behaviour we accept. Some teams are still too fearful to fail –understandable when the risks are so high. Budgets stretch to the billions and are still procured at the lowest possible cost; asset management runs on lean opex (operational expenditure) and at times innovation is relegated.
But leadership means trialling new ideas, even when they might not go to plan. Some of the bravest leaders I’ve worked with are those prepared to communicate when things go wrong, not just when they go well.
Sydney Metro North West was the very first IS program rating and the first to contractualise targeted sustainability outcomes including multi-team collaboration.
The contractors met regularly with a spirit of learning and progress to share the good, the bad and the ugly. This transparency drove transformation in sustainability outcomes, but also opened the door to new honest conversations across industry about the ways we can work better together.
#5: Champions invest beyond the build
The best leaders understand that delivering a successful project is not just about the how – the quickest and cheapest way to meet contractual and regulatory requirements – but also the why of making people’s lives better. Communities that may deal with years of lorries trundling through their streets deserve to share in the celebrations when the infrastructure projects finally deliver.
After Transurban completed Queensland’s first Leading IS rating, the $512 million Logan Enhancement Project, the community which had shaped the project to widen the motorway was invited to come together to celebrate the outcomes for people and wildlife inhabiting the area. Motorists and businesses, welcomed the economic benefits through fuel savings, trip time certainty and efficient freight movement. It may seem like a simple gesture, but it serves as a powerful reminder: infrastructure is built by people, for people.
From margins to mainstream
How you are measured, is how you behave. So we’ve welcomed more executives and middle managers into the sustainability conversation and started to democratise sustainability.
What was once in the minds of a few people is now at every level of every organisation and every link the in the supply chain.
The number of industry collaborations today compared with just five years ago is testament to this transformation. Take Infrastructure Net Zero, launched last year, which is the culmination of many years work, and which brings together many leaders to create the system-level change we need to drive an effective, efficient and inclusive transition to net zero. I am personally excited to see what Infrastructure Net Zero does next.
The four-fold growth in the IS Council’s membership is clear evidence of a profound shift in attitudes. So is the tripling of IS ratings and accredited professionals.
We had more than $297 billion of assets under rating in 2023 and an engaged member base with a combined annual turnover of more than $50 billion.
We now welcome financiers, investors, manufacturers and asset owners among our members and our team has grown to 40-plus. We can make bigger waves across a full suite of rating tools, across all asset classes, and across all Australian states and territories and in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Everyone in is engaged and motivated to build infrastructure by people for people. Where once sustainability was exclusive and hard to understand, now it is a language being learned by everyone.
Ainsley Simpson is the outgoing Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure Sustainability Council and takes on a new role as inaugural chief executive officer of Seamless in March 2024. The Infrastructure Sustainability Council’s board has appointed Patrick Hastings, chief delivery and capability officer, as acting chief executive officer.
I don’t understand how a toll road corporation that strives to encourages private motor vehicle use, road freight and urban sprawl – and resulting climate, environmental, health, social impacts – can be considered sustainable. These impacts far outweigh any efforts to reduce emissions in its own operations. Blatant greenwashing.