End of year CEO review: Sustainability and Productivity in Infrastructure

Dear members,

As 2025 draws to a close, it is timely to reflect on the progress and the strains shaping infrastructure across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
This has been a year of sustained delivery pressure across the sector. While investment remained strong across housing, transport, energy, water and social infrastructure, projects continued to face challenges from cost escalation, workforce shortages and market capacity constraints. In this environment, sustainability has become more closely tied to practical outcomes, strengthening funding confidence, supporting productivity, improving long-term asset performance, managing climate risk and lifting whole-of-life value.

2025 brought some turbulent times for sustainability globally. Australia, however, saw continued policy momentum:

• The release of Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction target
• The National Climate Risk Assessment and Adaptation Plan,
• The Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS) are coming into effect
• The launch of the first Australian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy;
• Australian companies leading in the voluntary adoption of the TNFD, including several ISC members
• Together, these developments continued to push climate-related strategies, disclosures and nature considerations firmly onto corporate agendas.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the picture has been more mixed. Key climate targets have been delayed and reporting thresholds significantly raised. At the same time, sustainable finance remains high on the agenda with public consultation on the NZ Sustainable Finance Taxonomy commencing at the end of this year.

In our sector specifically:

• INSW’s Decarbonising Infrastructure Policy 2025 was complemented with Technical Guidance to standardise methods across projects; and
• The NSW Government launched their policy to drive digital transformation in infrastructure, both driving progress toward more harmonisation.
• Infrastructure Australia published the Delivering Net Zero Infrastructure: Workforce Report, highlighting the capacity needs required for lowering emissions in delivering infrastructure.
• All such actions tie well with Infrastructure Net Zero’s Defining Net Zero, which was published by the ISC and related parties under the Infrastructure Net Zero initiative, now hosted by ASBEC.

For the Infrastructure Sustainability Council, this year has been about delivering tangible outcomes and laying clear foundations for the future. In FY25, we certified 29 “As Built” projects spanning rail, road, energy and water sectors. Together, these projects delivered an estimated emissions reduction of nearly 3.5 million tonnes of CO₂e and approximately A$1.274 billion in avoided costs, representing around 10 per cent of total project capital expenditure.

We also delivered significant upgrades to our tools. The release of the IS v2.2 Design and As-Built tool has improved clarity, flexibility and accessibility, supporting projects of different types and scales to integrate sustainability from early design through to delivery.

One of our most important milestones this year was the launch of Strategy 2030. This sets a clear roadmap for how ISC will support the sector over the next five years, with an expanded focus on delivering across sustainable finance, water, energy and nature-positive infrastructure. As we look ahead, our commitment remains clear:  to enable connected infrastructure that supports people to thrive on a healthy planet.

I thank our you, partners, members and supporters, for the shared commitment, trust and collaboration that continues to make this work possible and impactful.

Best wishes for safe, healthy, and restorative festive seasons!

Toby Kent,
Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure Sustainability Council