New Infrastructure Sustainability Council report highlights the critical role of digital infrastructure in delivering sustainable, resilient and future-ready assets
The Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC) has released a new thought leadership report, examining the growing importance of digital infrastructure in shaping the planning, delivery and operation of infrastructure assets across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
The report – Digital Infrastructure Futures – Phase 1: Emerging Insights Report (June 2026)- is the initial report in a thought leadership series exploring a simple yet critical question: what does the digital enablement of infrastructure mean for sustainability outcomes in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand?
The report, sponsored by Jacobs, Honeywell and Sydney Water, highlights that digital infrastructure is a core component sitting alongside and within traditional physical assets, fundamentally reshaping how infrastructure delivers economic, environmental and social value.
ISC Chief Executive Officer Toby Kent said the report underscores the need for a more intentional and coordinated approach to digital infrastructure as part of the broader sustainability agenda.
‘Digital infrastructure is rapidly becoming a core part of how infrastructure systems function,’ Mr Kent said.
‘Our digital backbone is in itself, critical infrastructure. Connectivity, data and intelligent systems are further reshaping how we plan, build and operate the assets our communities depend on. If we get this right, digital infrastructure can significantly enhance performance, resilience and sustainability outcomes.’
Adam Beck, Managing Director, NEON.URBAN, who contributed to the report, said the pace of digital transformation presents a significant opportunity for the infrastructure sector.
‘We are entering a new era where digital and physical infrastructure are converging,’ Mr Beck said.
‘This report highlights the opportunity to harness data, connectivity and emerging technologies to unlock smarter, more adaptive and more resilient infrastructure systems that can better respond to the needs of communities and the challenges ahead.’
The report identifies an initial ‘Action Framework’ for the infrastructure sector, outlining three approaches which reflect the uncertainties of planning for change in a rapidly evolving environment:
- Adaptive planning: Rather than locking in a single forecast and designing to it, adaptive planning frames decisions as a sequence of staged choices with built in review points. Initial commitments are sized to what is reasonably known. Trigger conditions, such as a demand threshold, a regulatory change, or a cost shift in a key input, prompt the next decision.
- Scenario-based infrastructure design: Project teams develop multiple plausible futures for digital demand, energy availability, water access, workforce capacity, and regulatory settings, and test design and procurement decisions against each. The aim is not to predict which scenario will occur, but to identify decisions that perform reasonably well across all of them, and to flag decisions that depend heavily on a single assumption.
- Flexibility and upgradeability: Digital infrastructure assets benefit from modular design, oversized passive elements such as conduits and power feeds, and clear separation between long-lived physical components and shorter-lived digital ones. Designing in this way trades a modest uplift in upfront cost for substantially reduced stranded asset risk and waste over the asset lifecycle
By bringing together insights from industry leaders and emerging best practice, the report aims to support practitioners, asset owners and policymakers to better understand the role of digital systems and embed them effectively within sustainable infrastructure strategies.
This initial report is the first step towards production of a final thought leadership piece offering deeper guidance for the infrastructure sector on how to act on the opportunities presented by digital infrastructure, while ensuring sustainability travels along with this.
The full report is available to download here.
Media enquiries
Annie Manson
Policy & Advocacy Manager
Infrastructure Sustainability Council
+61 422 131 741