Month: December 2018

Award Winners Profile: 2018 Innovation and Impact Award

The winners of the 2018 Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards were announced at the 2018 Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards Dinner on 17 October 2018, in Sydney. The awards recognise and reward projects, assets, organisations and individuals who demonstrate leadership in advancing sustainable outcomes in infrastructure.

ISCA had the pleasure of presenting the 2018 Innovation and Impact Award to the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) for their Victorian Government led initiative Training for the Future (TFTF). This award recognises the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) project or asset that exhibits the most outstanding implementation of an innovative practice and/or has made a significant and positive impact socially, environmentally or economically. This award is open to all ISCA members and industry partners.

Winners Profile

In 2016, the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) recognised a gap in existing inclusion policies for its projects. The Victorian Major Project Skills Guarantee mandated use of apprentices, trainees and cadets, however no targets existed for employment of broader disadvantaged groups, or inclusion of more sustainable social practices into projects or the infrastructure supply chain.

To address this LXRA consulted extensively with industry partners to create a Social Enterprise Strategy, and subsequently lead the development of the first major industry training program of its kind – the Victorian Government Initiative Training for the Future (TFTF).

A skills and industry development program aimed at creating a sustainable and inclusive talent, and supply chain pipeline for major rail infrastructure projects in Victoria. The TFTF’s aim is to create a diverse and sustainable workforce, while delivering long-lasting social and economic outcomes.

The LXRA objective is to act now to create a sustainable and prosperous future….”We unlock greater capacity, reliability and safety for rail commuters…..We leave a legacy for future projects…We share the journey with our stakeholders and the community.”

LXRA collaborated with eight major government and industry bodies from across rail and private sector infrastructure partners to deliver their initiative and programs. Launched on 16 February 2017, they implemented:

• The Training for the Future (TFTF) program: a suite of employment programs, including GEN44, GEN8, TRANSIT & GROW. Which target disadvantaged and marginalised cohorts, providing access to opportunities on major rail and infrastructure projects.
• Social Procurement Policy: which outlines a commitment to embedding social procurement into LXRA projects and promoting the use of social benefit suppliers, such as social enterprises and aboriginal businesses throughout the supply chain.
• Inclusion and Social Procurement Action Plan 2017.
• Aboriginal Inclusion Action Plan, and
• The Social Procurement Innovators Network: to increase industry collaboration and share learnings.

LXRA overcame several challenges to deliver this five-year program. Key challenges included, addressing industry concerns relating to sufficient social benefit suppliers in the marketplace by partnering with Social Traders and Supply Nation to match buyers and suppliers; Building capacity for social procurement into contracts, through incentive arrangements. Resulting in revised procurement practises and processes of construction partners; Foreseeing potential governance concerns and providing assurance of social benefit suppliers, through Social Trader’s certification processes and Supply Nation’s direct verification practises.

Currently in its first 18 months of delivery, the TFTF program is already delivering direct results. To date, 82 people from marginalised and disadvantaged backgrounds have gained employment, internship and cadetship opportunities as a direct result of the TFTF inclusion and capability programs. Results to date include:

• 114 marginalised or disadvantaged people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds (33.1%), Aboriginal backgrounds (5.6%) and people with a disability (2.8%) have completed the GROW program, with 23 securing employment as a result.
• A 24% average of female participation has been achieved across the programs. With the GEN44 and GEN8 internship programs currently achieving a 30% female participation rate.

Other highlights and achievements from the TFTF to date include, LXRA projects have spent $31.5 million with social benefit suppliers and aboriginal businesses; Investments in aboriginal businesses and employment through LXRA’s program of works has resulted in the removal of level crossings with 367,617 aboriginal employment hours; The first Social Innovators Network was convened in July 2018 to complement the monthly subcommittee meetings to share best practices of effective social impact engagements; Tier 1 contractors such as John Holland and MCD Group have adopted the social procurement policy, and are applying it to their own supply chain, and Western Distributor, another Victorian Transport agency, has adopted a social procurement and workforce inclusion plan.

This initiative has allowed smaller social benefit suppliers to bid for work, helped establish new aboriginal businesses, and increased employment of disadvantaged workers in our industry.

Congratulations to the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) and their partners in the continued success of this program, and for winning the 2018 Innovation and Impact Award.

Keep an eye out as information for the 2019 Sustainability in Infrastructure Awards submissions dates and categories become available.

Indigenous Australian artist Nadeena Dixon designed the ‘Sustainability Story Map’ artwork for the 2018 IS Annual Conference. Sydney Metro’s Laura Pritchard spent the afternoon with Nadeena, where Nadeena offered her perspective on sustainability, the story behind the artwork, and told stories from her childhood. “Sustainability is about wellbeing; it’s wellbeing of people, land, water management, communities – we need to live in cities with beautiful spaces”

ISCA and GRESB Sign MOU – Partnership Focuses on Industry Alignment and Collaboration

Measuring and driving sustainable outcomes in the built environment will become more aligned now that international body GRESB and ISCA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

With collaboration embedded in the DNA of both organizations, the MOU will create the basis for coordination, alignment and mutual recognition between the GRESB Infrastructure Assessment and the IS Rating Tools.

The vision is to provide asset managers and operators with one “process” that facilitates both reporting to the GRESB Infrastructure Asset Assessment and applying for an IS Operations rating.

GRESB and ISCA will collaborate to streamline connections between IS project and asset operations ratings and GRESB assessments for companies and assets with the aim of reducing participant reporting burden, enhancing data validation processes, and maximising value.

ISCA and GRESB will also work together to advance the rigor of the conversation about sustainable infrastructure, which will result in a joint output.

“We have an obligation to accelerate and enable sustainability wherever we possibly can, and by partnering with GRESB, we are creating more pathways, making sustainability even more accessible for the infrastructure industry,” said Ainsley Simpson, ISCA CEO.

“We’re big advocates of increasing the alignment between sustainability guidelines, frameworks and rating tools in the infrastructure sector. We are excited by this opportunity to work with ISCA to provide greater clarity on what constitutes sustainable performance in infrastructure investments, which then serves as the base for the industry’s collective efforts to help drive improvements,“ said Rick Walters, Director Infrastructure, GRESB.

About GRESB and ISCA

GRESB’s mission is to enhance and protect shareholder value by assessing and empowering sustainability practices in the real asset sector.

GRESB assesses the sustainability performance of real estate and infrastructure portfolios and assets worldwide. It offers ESG data, Scorecards, Benchmark Reports and portfolio analysis tools.

The Assessments are guided by what investors and the industry consider to be material issues in the sustainability performance of real asset investments and are aligned with international reporting frameworks such as GRI and PRI.

Assessment participants receive comparative business intelligence on where they stand against their peers, a roadmap with the actions they can take to improve their ESG performance and a communication platform to engage with investors.

Investors use the ESG data and GRESB’s analytical tools to improve the sustainability performance of their investment portfolios, engage with managers and prepare for increasingly rigorous ESG obligations.

Now in its third year, the 2018 Infrastructure Assessment covered 75 funds and 280 assets (an increase of 75% on the previous year) valued at over US$500 billion. GRESB Investor Members jointly represent over USD 18 trillion in institutional capital.

The Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) is certified social enterprise, member-based not-for-profit and the peak industry body for advancing sustainability outcomes in infrastructure. ISCA’s purpose is to accelerate sustainability in infrastructure. ISCA’s values which drive our culture of value creation are:

Collaboration | Passion | Change | Knowledge

The principle means by which ISCA is advancing sustainability outcomes in infrastructure is through; the development and facilitation of the IS rating scheme, building capacity of industry through training and workshops, engaging industry stakeholders through a community of practice and driving innovation.

 

No Tree Is An Island!

By Paul Davies (ISCA)

Next time you look at that tree in your front garden think about it less as a single specimen but more as a part of a wider urban forest. 

The concept of urban forests is easily overlooked in cities and suburbs, but those trees perform the very same functions that trees do in natural forests.  They help trap moisture, clean the air, act as wind breaks, minimise soil loss and repel heat. These trees and other vegetation are in fact, a key ally to city-communities in terms of our well-being, and that of our local environment. We all have a part to play in ensuring these trees thrive, or at least survive, in the somewhat hostile and unnatural landscape in which they’ve been planted. All sectors working across the built environment need to focus more attention on the retention, maintenance and enhancement our urban forests. The extreme pressures on the limited number of urban trees in many cities, coupled with climate change is resulting in increased heat island effect, topsoil loss, landscape erosion and declining air quality. We also pay more for energy to cool homes and offices lacking shade from trees, and our visual amenity is compromised.

It’s now better appreciated that urban forests enable better public health outcomes by encouraging us to engage and interact with the local landscape, through outdoor activities and exercise. We can now even monetise the health benefits that individual trees provide to wellness – and its substantial!

Local Councils are now applying urban forest strategies to reduce tree loss and improve existing canopy cover in urban settings.  These strategies need to embrace both private and public land and consider current and future land uses. In November 2018, the Western Australian Planning Commission, the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage and the Western Australian Local Government Association released a guideline to assist Local Governments in preserving and enhancing their urban canopy. The Better Urban Forest Planning Guideline focuses on best practice in managing urban tree canopies.

The new guideline also closely aligns with, and supports, the Green Infrastructure category in the new ISv2.0 infrastructure rating scheme recently released by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA). ISCA’s members and projects pursuing ratings are always looking to push the boundaries in sustainable infrastructure development and operation, and initiatives by projects and asset owners to preserve and enhance urban forests can be explored and rewarded under the scheme as an innovation challenge.

With case studies across Australia, this is a useful resource for the active projects registered for ratings in in the planning and design stage. The Green Infrastructure Category rewards the implementation and/or incorporation of green infrastructure and can be undertaken as an Innovation challenge by all active ISv1.2 projects. This along with the many linkages to energy, ecology, context and legacy these credits can improve rating performance and importantly the longer term benefits including well-being and resilience.

ISCA commends the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) and the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) for producing this important guide which will increase awareness about and implementation of more green infrastructure.  https://www.planning.wa.gov.au/7216.aspx.

ISCA in Rwanda

ISCA collaborates with the Global Green Growth Institute at the Africa Green Growth Forum, to advance infrastructure sustainability in Rwanda.

Upon invitation from the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), Kieren Heikkinen and Jon Avery headed over to the African Green Growth Forum, 26-30 Nov 2018, to collaborate with the GGGI. The aim of this trip was to gain an understanding of what is needed for Rwanda to establish interest in an Infrastructure Sustainability Rating Scheme and to begin to develop a community of practice around IS International.

According to the World Bank in 2017, the world will require about $90 trillion in new infrastructure over the next 15 years, – most of it in developing and middle-income countries. Making the right choices in favour of infrastructure that is climate resilient and locks in a low carbon development pathway is critical and urgent. Action now will avoid huge costs later.

It is through schemes like IS International that the benefits of infrastructure sustainability will lead to a more climate resilient and lower carbon Africa.

Our collaborations culminated in a range of regional and international stakeholders coming together to devise action plans to advance the Green Growth Agenda in Africa. During the week ISCA and GGGI co-hosted a Rwandan diagnostic roundtable on Infrastructure Sustainability, providing participants with a general understanding of the benefits of sustainability techniques on infrastructure projects. Participants also engaged in a dialogue on the current processes Rwanda is using to address these issues, and how infrastructure sustainability frameworks can assist in improving overall performance. Kieren and Jon also had the opportunity to present and discuss the Australian Infrastructure Sustainability journey.

“The political will to advance the sustainability agenda in Rwanda was truly eye opening. Indeed the support from the private sector in this endeavour will ensure greater sustainability performance in the region.” said General Manager of Sustainability Leadership, Jon Avery.

“Economic growth in Africa is being led by Rwanda, with an annual 8% increase being sustained over the last ten years. This is an impressive statistic, and is testament to the strong leadership and courage of its citizens to embrace a green agenda for the future”

Through the roundtable events and engagement meetings, ISCA and GGGI will continue to advance infrastructure sustainability in Rwanda. A second phase of activities is in the works for 2019, likely to include further training and piloting of IS International.