Month: March 2019

2018 Emerging Young Individual Leadership Award Profile: Laura Pritchard

The IS Emerging Young Individual Leadership Award acknowledges our future leaders for their outstanding leadership and greatest contribution to advancing infrastructure sustainability in Australasia. This award was introduced for the first time in 2018.

Congratulations to Laura Pritchard, who was awarded the IS Emerging Young Individual Leadership Award for 2018.

Winner Profile: Laura Pritchard

Laura Pritchard is the Sydney Metro City & Southwest Sustainability Officer, responsible for ensuring sustainability practices are integrated in all areas of the project design and construction.

Laura has been an IS Accredited Professional for more than a year and is heavily involved in streamlining how the rating will be applied across the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project packages. This includes developing a set of base case assumptions, conducting a verifier briefing to explain how the rating will be applied across the packages of work and developing the ISCA implementation plan. In compiling these, Laura has collaborated with the Sydney Metro Northwest team and ISCA case managers to understand lessons learnt and best practice approach; fine-tuning these for Sydney Metro City & Southwest.

Sydney Metro City & Southwest is being delivered via 15 packages of works, which are undertaken by separate delivery partners. The six major infrastructure packages are seeking an ISCA rating, with some packages being rated under Green Star and smaller contracts to achieve NSW Sustainable Design Guidelines. This increases the difficulty of applying the rating due to the complexities of understanding what elements fit in each scope and in some cases overlap.

Leadership in infrastructure sustainability

Laura has provided outstanding support to the Sydney Metro City & Southwest team, including Senior Manager, broadening her leadership responsibilities significantly.

Laura concurrently manages the sustainability for the Sydenham metro upgrade and Barangaroo Station contracts as an embedded resource in the contract implementation group, with a high degree of autonomy to promote best practice sustainability. Additionally, she was the lead project support for enabling contracts for the Sydney Yard Access Bridge and Northern Corridor Work seeking high Sustainable Design Guideline Rating.

This has allowed Laura to develop her leadership skills in order to influence better infrastructure sustainability outcomes for Sydney Metro. From delivering general sustainability overview presentations to in depth presentations about key topics such as modern slavery and sustainability innovations, Laura is confident in speaking to different audiences and communicating the relevant outcomes.

Laura is part of the monthly Sydenham metro upgrade sustainability leadership committee. It is a contractor led forum, which consists of discipline and project leaders from both the contractor (John Holland Pty Ltd and Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd) and client side and is focused on delivering ISCA outcomes. This collaboration has seen Laura drive vast improvements in the infrastructure sustainability space for Sydney Metro projects with the contractors.

In  addition  to  promoting  infrastructure  sustainability  outcomes  with contractors,  Laura  has  been  involved  in  encouraging  other  professionals  within  the  Transport  for  NSW  cluster  to register for ISAP training.

Laura has also driven initiatives such as:

• Partnerships with social enterprises
• Community benefit fund
• Sydney Metro response to Modern Slavery Act
• Low carbon concreteFine-tuning the strategic partnerships with Green Building Council of Australia and ISCA.

As part of implementing a partnership with Social Traders, an organisation that seeks to improve opportunities for social enterprises  within  large  supply  chains,  Laura  has  presented  to  various  internal  stakeholder  groups  across  the organisation.. Laura’s contribution to sustainability at Sydney  Metro  has  helped  the project evolve  as a  sustainability  leader  in  the infrastructure industry.

Her contribution is valuable for influencing innovation and dynamic change in the organisation’s approach to infrastructure sustainability solutions.

Achievements and Outcomes

Through Laura’s insight and thoughtful long-term approach to infrastructure sustainability, she has  helped  Sydney Metro set new benchmarks and milestones. These achievements have resulted in positive sustainability outcomes for not only Sydney Metro but also wider government, industry and the wider community.

Laura has been the backbone in ensuring that all the contractors working on the Sydney Metro City & Southwest achieve the minimum IS rating standard for both As Built and Design categories. This has been achieved through Laura’s composition of an ISCA implementation plan which outlines the requirements associated with achieving an IS Rating across the City & Southwest project. In addition to this, Laura held a verifier briefing for ISCA to develop the initial ISCA weighting assessments and how the ratings would be applied across the packages of work within the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project.

Through Laura’s transparency and open communication with both ISCA and the contractors involved, she has achieved strong relationships and excellent sustainability outcomes for Sydney Metro.

Her  dedication  towards  infrastructure  sustainability  has  been  recognised by  stakeholders  and  colleagues. Her knowledge  and  commitment  to  sustainability  has  also  been  recognised  through her  invitation  and  subsequent participation as a presenter in widespread workshops and forums including the Sydney Metro environment, planning, workforce & sustainability forums and the Sydney Metro contractor sustainability forum.

Congratulations once again to Laura. Submissions for the 2019 IS Awards open in June.

Webinar: Putting transparency in motion: EPDs for infrastructure assets

How do you assess the environmental impacts of a train made up of over 150,000 parts over its full life cycle?  Downer and thinkstep partnered to publish the first Environmental Product Declaration for a train in Australasia.

This webinar presents the key findings of a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of over 550 tonnes of materials in construction and maintenance and puts it in relation to the environmental impacts of the train’s entire 30-year use phase.

Join us for a 30 minute “Straight from the Horse’s Mouth” webinar on 27 March to hear why the findings are also applicable to other products or infrastructure projects, specifically those with a long service life.

Ellese O’Sullivan from Downer will share on Downer’s motivation for this study, the project requirements and the value for Downer’s customers and their internal stakeholders.

Jeff Vickers from thinkstep will give you a peek under the hood regarding how such a complex project can be done in a record time of 13 months.

thinkstep’s “Straight from the Horse’s Mouth” webinars are free of charge but places are limited.

Register here.

Presenters:

Ellese O’Sullivan

Ellese is Sustainability Manager at Downer and has 13 years’ experience in the environment and sustainability sector, with exposure across a broad range of sectors.  Ellese offers strong leadership in environmental sustainability for Rollingstock Services at Downer.

Jeff Vickers

Jeff is Technical Director at thinkstep. He has 13 years’ experience in the fields of eco-design, environmental management, LCA and strategy development. He focusses on assisting large organisations to integrate sustainability into their internal processes.

2018 Award Winner Profile: Rebecca Miller

Congratulations to Rebecca Miller, who was awarded the IS Individual Leadership Award at the 2018 Sustainability in Infrastructure, in October last year.

The IS Individual Leadership Award recognises an individual who best exhibits the most outstanding performance, leadership and greatest contribution to advancing infrastructure sustainability in Australasia throughout the past year. This category is open to all ISCA members and industry partners.

Winner profile

Rebecca is a Director with AECOM’s Sustainability and Resilience Practice based in Brisbane. She is a recognised industry leader and expert in sustainability and resilience, working consistently to demonstrate leadership and advocacy in this space and across a diverse range of infrastructure projects.

Both an IS Accredited Professional and member of ISCA’s Panel of Verifiers, Rebecca has over 15 years’ industry experience and has been associated with ISCA since before its formal inception as the Australian Green Infrastructure Council (AGIC) in 2012. Over the years she has regularly been called on by ISCA to provide support and ad-hoc advice to support a diverse range of credits and categories including workforce; community wellbeing; stakeholder engagement and climate risk and adaptation.

An active urban resilience champion, Rebecca, is frequently asked to contribute towards industry activities that seek to advance the uptake and advancement of urban resilience and help assets and organisations better prepare, adapt and respond to a diverse range of shocks and stresses.  In 2017 she graduated with distinction from the University of Cambridge’s prestigious Masters of Sustainability Leadership, where the focus of her research was Climate Resilient Cities, from planning to action – lessons for success. She is also the Chair of the Green Building Council of Australia’s Expert Reference Panel on Climate Change and Resilience. Her breadth of industry input and involvement, especially over the past 12 months, has culminated in the development of ISCA’s new Resilience Category in ISV2.0 of the IS Rating Scheme.

Throughout her career Rebecca has worked to advocate for sustainable and resilient infrastructure across a diverse range of projects. Most recently this has included working with clients including ARTC, Bega Valley Shire Council, Transport for NSW (TfNSW), Parkes Shire Council, Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA), Landcom, Sydney Metro, and Parramatta Light Rail, to pursue key sustainability and resilience objectives.

She is considered a trusted advisor to several of ISCA’s members and her work with TfNSW in particular, has helped to shape and transform the way they embed and mandate sustainability and the IS Rating Tool across their projects and has supported the organization in maintaining their position as a national leader in infrastructure sustainability.

Congratulations again to Rebecca on her continued impact on the sector, hard work championing sustainability in infrastructure industry and for winning the 2018 IS Individual Leadership Award.

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

New Zealand Transport Agency becomes a member and will trial the IS rating scheme

The Transport Agency will commence a trial of the IS rating scheme in late 2017 on a small number of projects to gain working knowledge of its application. This represents a change from the Transport Agency position of having a watching brief of the ISCA tool to becoming an ISCA member and undertaking trials. This will support medium term plans to develop a robust and long term Environmental Strategy, which will provide more direction around sustainability rating tools. The Transport Agency remains committed to the continued application of Greenroads certification to high value state highway projects.

See the full press release by Harry Wilson, Director Safety and Environment Group

Arcadis recognised as employer of choice for gender diversity

Arcadis, the leading global Design & Consultancy firm for natural and built assets, was today announced as a Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Equal Opportunity Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE).

WGEA is an Australian Government agency that provides employers with advice, practical tools and education to help them improve gender equality. The WGEA EOCGE is a voluntary citation that publicly recognizes an organization’s commitment to gender equality through strong actions.

Greg Steele, CEO Australia Pacific, Arcadis: “We are very proud to be announced as a 2018 WGEA Equal Opportunity Employer of Choice for Gender Equality.

“At Arcadis we are firm believers in creating a diverse and inclusive workforce for all colleagues. I believe a diverse team will always come up with a better outcome than a team lacking diversity,” Steele said.

“In a male-dominated industry it’s critical that we take strong action, set targets, intervene when necessary and hold ourselves to account.

“We have made good progress as an industry but there is still a long way to go.”

Libby Lyons, WGEA Director: “This year, I am particularly delighted to see some of the innovative and exciting initiatives by our EOCGE citation holders on such issues as flexibility, paid parental leave, supporting women in leadership and addressing gender pay gaps.

“I congratulate all the 2017-18 citation holders for their commitment and recognition of benefits improved gender equality can bring to their business. These employers are setting the benchmark for other Australian workplaces to follow.”

Key Arcadis diversity initiatives in Australia include:

• ‘FlexAble’ certified workplace flexibility policy for all roles
• Ongoing gender pay-gap analysis focused on achieving gender pay equity
• Gender diversity targets for the business overall and individual business units

ISupply Launches In Melbourne

Victorian IS Stakeholders came together for networking drinks to celebrate the launch of ISCA’s latest innovation, the ISupply Directory.

The ISupply Directory connects sustainable suppliers with projects and assets undertaking the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating scheme. Since 2012, over $120b worth of infrastructure projects and assets are in engaged in the IS rating scheme. The ISupply Directory provides a unique opportunity for suppliers to market their products and services to projects that have requirements through the IS rating, and for IS rating partners to identify suppliers that will help them achieve sustainability outcomes rewarded under the scheme.

In Melbourne, delegates heard presentations from sponsors SMEC and Liberty, as well as John Holland, Vital, Good Environmental Choice Australia and eTool. The full-capacity networking event was hosted in SMEC’s beautiful offices, overlooking a green wall.

Nicole Boyd, ISCA’s General Manager of Infrastructure Innovation commented, “It’s always fantastic getting the industry together over a few drinks to celebrate millstones as we did today. I see the ISupply program as being one step towards creating a more sustainable industry in ANZ.”

There will be ISupply launch events soon in Brisbane and Sydney – register today.

Melbourne ISupply Launch in partnership with:

For International Women’s Day (8th March), ISCA asked a series of questions to a handful of inspirational female leaders in our industry.  These were published on our LinkedIn page each day last week. 

See below all of the responses, including ones which were not showcased on LinkedIn.

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Ainsley Simpson – ISCA CEO

If you could use a giant billboard to share a message, what would it be?

Alice Chaplin, General Manager NZ, Coffey

If you could use a giant billboard to share a message, what would it be?

Alison Rowe, CEO, Moreland Energy Foundation, and ISCA Chair

What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth? 

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be? 

“Believe in yourself, Believe in others , Believe in the power of us”
What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry? 

“Optimism, Creativity, Altruism”

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Allison Frencken, Project Analyst – Infrastructure Services, Fulton Hogan

What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

 

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be?

“Be the Change you want to See”
What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

“My mother was a single parent to four children juggling everything parenthood brings. Through it all mum has always encouraged me to aim high and fly even higher. My mum is my biggest supporter, critic, mentor and sounding board, her support has allowed me to follow my dreams. My children also encourage and support me to follow my dreams”

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Becky Wood, Executive Director – Fleet Program Delivery, Infrastructure & Services, Transport for NSW

If you could use a giant billboard to share a message, what would it be?

What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

“Lucy Chadwick is the most inspiring and personally invested boss I’ve ever had in terms of how working hard to get to know me as an individual and helping me understand how I could best grow as an individual leader as well as performing at my best professionally. What’s even better is we are still very much in touch 10 years on and she’s inspiring me even at distance of 10,000.
What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

“Listening well is a skill that cuts across professional and sectoral boundaries. To design and build infrastructure which will truly serve future generations’ needs, we need to start listening better”

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Dawn Watt, General Manager Testing Australia, Coffey

If you could use a giant billboard to share a message, what would it be?

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Gayle Sloan, CEO, Waste Management & Resource Recovery Association of Australia

What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

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Heather Campbell, Chair, Sustainability Victoria

What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be?

“We only have one planet. All is not lost. Let’s commit to taking action today to harness our collective brain and chart a bright future.”
What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

“Being in the natural world, with local communities working together to protect our environment and create positive change inspires me.”

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Katrina Fong Lim – Northern Territory President, United Nations Association of Australia

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be?

 

What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

“My Mum, a stay at home nurturer inspired my personal growth, she brought myself and my 5 sisters up to believe that anything was possible and nothing should stand in our way.  My professional growth has been championed by people like Michelle Hanton, of Dragon Sisters who is a life coach and Annette Gillanders from Biznorth who is a business coach.  It has also been encouraged by the many volunteer Board Members who I have had the privilege to work for.”
What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

“It is really important for sustainable development for everyone in the infrastructure to value inclusion, accessibility and community connection”

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Kerryn-Vine Camp, Executive Director Western Sydney Unit, Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities

What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be? 

“Imagine the possible, Build your networks, Embrace ambiguity, Step forward”
What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

“Diversity of roles, the opportunity to be part of something bigger, to make your mark.”

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Laura Pritchard, Sustainability Officer, Sydney Metro

What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be? 

“Find what you’re passionate about and take every opportunity to make your contribution count.”
What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

“Optimism and perseverance. Being optimistic lends you to exploring new and better ways of doing things that people who’ve been a long time in industry might not see. And perseverance, or being stubborn, helps you learn, improve yourself and make change happen.”

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Louise Dudley, CEO, Queensland Urban Utilities

What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be? 

“To reap the benefits of diversity, a business must first foster an inclusive culture – one that promotes respect, equity & acceptance of differences.”
What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

“It’s important to exhibit confidence in your skills and abilities, but also a willingness to learn and grow. Never quench your thirst for knowledge.”

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Nicole Lockwood, Chair, Westport Taskforce

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be? 

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Nina Kilpinen, Managing Director, Seed Engineering

What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

“Nothing builds a better work environment, than having a diverse and inclusive team. I would challenge that anyone (at any stage in their career), can influence diversity and inclusion in their organisations. Anyone can create instant change, with very little effort. I would never accept excuses such as “It takes time to create change…” Great leaders, create meaningful change.”

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be?

“#TimesUp”
What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

“I am lucky enough to have a network of mentors, from a range of industries, who have supported and encouraged me in my career. I think some of my mentors sometimes back me harder, than I back myself! It’s important to have mentors and sponsors who are prepared to challenge your thinking and behaviour, yet are ready to provide kindness and support, when you most need it.”

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Rebecca Miller, Associate Director Sustainability & Resilience, AECOM

What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be? 

‘There’s no silver bullet – but if you believe in something strongly enough, keep going, the payoff will be worth it.”
What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

“I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have worked with a number of great leaders (both male and female) who have not only provided inspiration and direction, but who have also provided encouragement and support – two elements crucial to both professional and personal growth.”

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Rebecca Dickson, Senior Legal Counsel, ACCIONA

What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

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Romilly Madew, CEO, Green Building Council of Australia

What key value(s) would you foster if you were a new graduate in the infrastructure industry?

If you could use a giant billboard to share one message what would it be? 

“Keep fighting the good fight – it’s our role to keep the industry and government honest.”
What/who has championed, inspired or encouraged your personal and professional growth?

“I grew up as one of three daughters, with very open-minded parents. We grew up in a household where we were taught to debate and be inquisitive, I carried this through to my undergraduate studies in agricultural economics.”

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Stay tuned for announcements about ISCA’s 2019 Annual Conference – #Connect, 15-17 October 2019, where you can hear more from some of these leaders.

The IS High Flyers video series identifies and showcases projects which have achieved Level 3 scores across a variety of ISv1.2 credits.

The purpose of these videos is to share successes and knowledge, and to gain insight into the best implementation of sustainability.

The third video of this series explains how Sydney Metro achieved a Level 3 score on the Ene-1 Credit for the Sydney Metro Northwest – Tunnels and Station Civil Works project.

Here’s how they did it:

ISCA’s Paul Davies has been delivering a series of talks to engineers around Australia on the increasingly important role of sustainability in infrastructure. Part of Engineers Australia’s Infrastructure thought leaders series, the talks have been well received in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle.

The central message in Paul’s presentation is that sustainability is no longer a “nice to have” but now a “must have” in the planning, designing, construction and operation of infrastructure. Sustainability requirements are increasingly embedded in government infrastructure contracts and embrace the broadest definition of the term – environmental, social and economic sustainability. Achieving and demonstrating sustainability performance is also attached to major incentives and penalties for infrastructure contractors.

This has far reaching implications and impacts on professionals such as engineers, designers and project managers. It also reaches well down into the infrastructure supply chains and upwards into State and Federal government policy.

In response, ISCA (as Australia’s peak infrastructure sustainability body) is doing much around thought leadership, advocacy, education and research to help ensure that the industry can respond to this new dynamic and that Australia is leading the pack in terms of delivering sustainable infrastructure now and into the future.

For more information about the event, visit Engineers Australia’s website.