8 - 2014 - ISCouncil

Gold Coast Light Rail, Main Roads WA and Katrina O’Mara Big Winners at the Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards

Gold Coast Light Rail, Main Roads WA and Katrina O’Mara Big Winners at the Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards

The Gold Coast Light Rail (McConnell Dowell), Main Roads Western Australia and Katrina O’Mara were the big winners at the national Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards in Sydney on Thursday hosted by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA).

The Gold Coast Light Rail won the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Project/Asset Award through McConnell Dowell.

“The judges noted that the Gold Coast Light Rail project demonstrated that there are savings to be made through a sustainable approach. Despite being undertaken in a challenging environment and having a range of obstacles to overcome, the project still achieved exceptional sustainability outcomes and has achieved the highest Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating score to date,” Antony Sprigg, ISCA CEO.

Main Roads Western Australia won the Organisational Leadership in Infrastructure Sustainability Award.

“According to the judges, MRWA demonstrated exceptional evidence of national leadership, pursuit of best practice and embedding sustainability into corporate values and projects. They have shown strong leadership and through its work is positively influencing the take up of sustainable practices and the IS rating scheme. They are actively involved in building staff capability, sustainable practices and sharing knowledge and experience across the industry.”

Katrina O’Mara from Aecom and based in Western Australia won the Individual Leadership in Infrastructure Sustainability Award.

“The judges noted that Katrina has demonstrated strong leadership and stewardship in promoting sustainability not just in Australia but also in New Zealand.”

The Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards recognise and reward projects, organisations and individuals who demonstrate leadership in advancing infrastructure sustainability. The judging panel included:

  • Lyn O’Connell PSM, Deptuy Secretary
  • Megan Motto, Chief Executive Officer, Consult Australia
  • Menno Henneveld, Vice President, World Road Association
  • Ian Webb, Chief Executive, Roads Australia

Also recognised at the event were four infrastructure projects in Australia for achieving their Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Rating.

Sustainability in Infrastructure Award Nominees Announced

Sustainability in Infrastructure Award Nominees Announced

ISCA is delighted to announce the nominees for the inaugural Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards. The winners of the three categories will be announced at the upcoming ISCA Gala Dinner and Awards Night on 20 August at the Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf in Pyrmont.

Individual Leadership in Infrastructure Sustainability Award

This Award will recognise the individual who best exhibits the most outstanding performance, leadership and greatest contribution to advance infrastructure sustainability in Australia.

Nominees are (in no particular order)

  • Sam Donaldson, Laing O’Rourke
  • Craig Tucker, Leighton Contractors
  • Katrina O’Mara, AECOM
  • Matthew Brennan, Tenix
  • Louis Bettini, Main Roads Western Australia
  • Renard Siew, University of New South Wales
  • Jayne Whitney, former Tenix
  • Rob Arnott, Main Roads Western Australia

Organisational Leadership in Infrastructure Sustainability Award

This Award will recognise the organisation that exhibits the most outstanding performance, leadership and greatest contribution to advance infrastructure sustainability in Australia.

Nominees are (in no particular order)

  • ACTEW Water
  • Tenix
  • Thiess
  • Main Roads Western Australia
  • North West Rail Link Project Delivery Office
  • Leighton Contractors
  • AECOM
  • Arup

IS Project/Asset Award

This Award will recognise the IS certified project or asset that has demonstrated the highest overall excellence and sustainability achievements.

Nominees for this category are projects/assets that have achieved IS Rating and will be announced at the ISCA Gala Dinner and Awards Night.

WestConnex Commits to IS Rating

WestConnex Commits to IS Rating

Westconnex, Australia’s biggest urban road project and one of the Australian Government’s key infrastructure priorities commits to register the whole project for IS Rating.

In the WestConnex M4 Widening Environmental Impact Statement Volume 1, released by the Federal Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Jaime Briggs and NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay yesterday, states that “WestConnex Delivery Authority has committed to registering the whole WestConnex project with ISCA and achieving a minimum rating of Excellent for the Design and As Built phases of the M4 Widening Project. A Sustainability Strategy is being prepared to guide the implementation of sustainability across the entire WestConnex project and facilitate the ISCA process.”

Click here to view the M4 Widening Environmental Impact Statement

IS Rating Showcase at IPWEA Conference

IS Rating Showcase at IPWEA Conference

Rating Tool Featured at Sustainability in Public Works Conference

The IS rating tool and work of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) featured prominently in the Sustainability in Public Works conference held on the Gold Coast in late July 2014 by the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA). ISCA has an MOU with IPWEA covering collaboration and mutual support.

The value of the IS rating scheme was highlighted when ACTEW Water’s just-completed Cotter Dam project won the Sustainable Infrastructure category and overall awards in the Sustainable Solutions in Public Works awards held in conjunction with the conference. Cotter Dam is one of the first infrastructure projects in Australia to be certified under the IS rating scheme. The awards were presented by IPWEA President Michael Kahler at the conference dinner.

Accepting her awards, Kirilly Dickson of ACTEW Water said:

‘Following the IS sustainability rating process from the project’s outset made the project more holistically sustainable; ensured a special focus on sustainability early in the dam’s design and encouraged innovation that lead to several infrastructure technology breakthroughs and world firsts. It certainly helped ACTEW Water achieve its water security objective in a sustainable manner. We are proud that this was the first project to register for an ISCA rating, and hope to achieve a ‘commended’ score.’

Two sessions of presentations at the conference focussed on infrastructure projects that have been certified, or are seeking certification, under the IS rating scheme, as well as development and refinement of the IS rating tool.
Scott Losee, an ISCA board member, introduced ISCA and spoke about the uptake, benefits and current initiatives to improve the IS rating scheme.

Matthew Brennan of Tenix, then spoke about the $45M design, construct and operate project to upgrade two sewage treatment plans for Whitsunday Regional Council in Queensland, which adjoin the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef. Last year this project became the first project in Australia to have its design certified as ‘excellent’ under the IS rating scheme. Tenix has just registered to seek an as-built rating.

Matthew explained that Tenix was convinced of its value and decided to seek an IS rating to demonstrate leadership on sustainability and to set benchmarks and targets. He listed the estimated benefits that the sustainability rating will deliver for the project, such as reductions of 44 tonnes of nutrients, 470 tonnes of carbon emissions, 460 MWh of electricity and 350 ML of water per year and 4,400 tonnes less of materials and 2,200 litres less of fuel during its construction. Matthew said that: ‘Use of the IS rating scheme on this project allowed Tenix to demonstrate its innovation skills, grow its capabilities in new areas, helped demystify and demonstrate sustainability benefits, catalyse a step-change in sustainability performance, give confidence in seeking further IS ratings and provide a point of differentiation with competitors.’

ISCA’s Technical Director, Rick Walters, gave two presentations on initiatives imminent or in progress to extend and improve the IS rating tool.

In the first presentation he talked about uptake of the rating tool, with two projects now certified and 21 registered. Rick noted that use of the tool is increasingly being specified in the tenders for major infrastructure projects. He spoke about the two projects already certified and the sustainability improvements they had realised. Rick concluded his talk with a brief overview of current or imminent initiatives to further develop the rating tool – including pilot operational rating trials, new economic and workforce themes, planning guidelines and use of the tool in New Zealand.

In his second presentation Rick described the process and likely outcomes of a current review of the rating tool’s climate change adaptation category by staff in the Commonwealth Department of Environment. Whilst that work is not yet completed, Rick expects it will propose refining the existing category to reward good climate risk management – as demonstrated by the implementation of no/low regret adaptation measures and robust planning for all plausible future climate scenarios by mapping and adopting adaptation pathways.

In the following presentation IPWEA’s Sustainability Director, Dr Stephen Lees, introduced PASS. This is a simple spreadsheet-based tool just developed by IPWEA and ISCA. PASS is based on the findings of last year’s pilot application of the IS rating tool to roads operations and maintenance by local councils. Stephen said that:

‘The tool will help local councils prioritise potential actions to make their local roads management more sustainable, and thereby identify the most worthwhile early actions to take to start on their sustainability journey. In the next stage of its development, PASS will be extended to cover all the main types of local council infrastructure assets.’

The next presentation by Anna Scott of McConnell Dowell described the just-opened Gold Coast Light Rail project and how its design and construction was shaped by application of the IS rating scheme. Anna said the key lessons learnt by McConnell Dowell, as a contractor, were the need to get the right governance, culture and accountabilities from the outset, embed sustainability at the start and make sure client’s culture matches that of the contractor. She outlined some of the sustainability benefits of the completed project, which started operating the weekend before the conference, when 80,000 packed the trams on their first day of passenger services.

The final presentation in those sessions by Kirilly Dickson of ACTEW Water concerned design and construction of Cotter Dam near Canberra. She outlined the reasons for the project, why it was decided to seek an IS rating and how that influenced the project’s planning, design and construction. Sustainability initiatives taken included achieving carbon neutrality, biodiversity offsets, re-use of resources, use of biodiesel, protecting endangered fish, water recycling, compulsory car-pooling for workers and community education.

Enlarged Cotter Dam Wins IPWEA Award

Enlarged Cotter Dam Wins IPWEA Award

Enlarged Cotter Dam, a project registered for IS Rating, has won the inaugural IPWEA Sustainable Solutions in Public Works Award. We congratulate ISCA member ACTEW Water for this achievement.

The Sustainable Infrastructure category and also the overall Winner Awards were presented to ACTEW Water at the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia’s (IPWEA) Sustainability in Public Works conference held on the Gold Coast last week.

Accepting the awards, Kirilly Dickson of ACTEW Water explained that the newly constructed Cotter Dam will increase Canberra’s water supply by 35%, helping the city cope with future droughts and climate change.

She said: “The project team is particularly proud of:

  • several technical innovations that speeded up construction of the dam
  • the 7km long artificial reef built within the dam to protect ACT’s last population of endangered Macquarie perch
  • community open days held during construction attended by 200,000 residents
    no deaths or serious injuries during the two years of the dam’s construction.”

‘The project will be one of the first in Australia to be certified under the new national infrastructure sustainability rating scheme,’ Kirilly added.

Orange City Council won the Sustainable Communities category award for its 50-year water supply strategy, which was developed in response to the severe water shortage during the last drought that threatened the local economy and many local jobs. The award judges liked the strategy’s strong efforts to gain community support and reduce water demand.

The award was accepted by Council’s Chris Devitt, who explained: “The strategy includes both physical works and measures to reduce water usage. It aims to encourage economic growth and make Orange’s water supply more resilient to climate change.”

The winner of the Climate Change Resilience category award was the Climate Change Adaptation Best Practice Guidelines developed by City of Canada Bay Council in Sydney and the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government. This provides guidance on embedding climate risk considerations into council business through a step-by-step framework and 70 adaptation case studies from around Australia and overseas. The guide shows, the award judges noted, that despite the uncertain policy environment many local councils are showing leadership in ‘getting on with the job’ and making climate change ‘business as usual’.