The real value of digital infrastructure lies in better decisions
Why digital infrastructure is becoming a critical enabler of sustainability outcomes
By: Cath Hill | Submitted by Jacobs
Sustainability leaders are no strangers to working with imperfect information. Siloed operations and difficulty measuring and tracking impact all contribute to the challenge.
At the same time, the decisions they face are becoming more complex and consequential. Climate pressures, changing demand patterns, the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and evolving regulations are reshaping how infrastructure is planned, delivered and operated. Leaders must balance environmental, social and operational outcomes while making investment decisions that will influence performance for decades, even as future operating conditions become harder to predict.
To navigate this environment, organisations need better data and better ways to evaluate options, understand trade-offs and model potential impacts on how assets perform before decisions are finalised.
This is why digital infrastructure is becoming increasingly important to infrastructure planning and delivery across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Digital infrastructure refers to the data, platforms, models and technologies that help organisations understand and improve how assets and systems perform, including sensors, automation, digital engineering, digital twins, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. The capabilities and insight each deliver are important, but the true value lies in the decisions and outcomes they enable.
Digital infrastructure should not be adopted simply because it is available. It should be evaluated based on its ability to improve decisions and deliver measurable outcomes. For sustainability leaders, this means using digital infrastructure to better assess options and understand impacts to build confidence in decisions before teams make changes in the physical environment.
Digital twins are a strong example of this.
A digital twin is a digital representation of an asset, system or process that is connected to relevant information about its design, condition and operation. Depending on how it has been designed, it may incorporate as-built design data, asset information, engineering models and live sensor data. Bringing these sources together creates a more complete picture of how an asset or system is performing and how it may perform in the future.
For sustainability leaders, one of the greatest benefits of digital twins is the ability to test initiatives before investing.
Organisations are under growing pressure to reduce emissions, improve resource efficiency and demonstrate progress against sustainability commitments.
Most digital twins incorporate sophisticated visualisation, simulation, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities. They support teams in modelling and measuring the impact of different strategies before committing capital or resources. This reduces uncertainty around investment decisions, provides evidence to support business cases and measures reportable outcomes.
For example, Jacobs’ Replica platform uses dynamic simulation models to test water and industrial processes before changes are made in the physical environment. For one client, the approach helped identify process improvements that reduced energy consumption by 33%. The platform’s advanced analytics capability translates digital insights into measurable environmental and financial benefits.
Digital twins can also help organisations navigate trade-offs.
Sustainability decisions often impact multiple objectives. Most require leaders to balance environmental outcomes with operational performance, resilience, cost and community expectations. Wrong decisions made early in an asset’s life cycle can have long-term consequences that are difficult and costly to reverse.
By bringing information together that would otherwise remain siloed across departments and systems, digital twins support decision-makers in understanding how changes in one area of operations affect performance and outcomes elsewhere. This makes trade-offs more visible and measurable, supporting more informed and transparent decisions.
The ability to connect information also creates opportunities to improve collaboration across organisations.
Spatial WA, for example, is developing a spatial digital twin involving 30 state government agencies. By bringing together spatial data and other information to support planning, infrastructure delivery, land management and emergency preparedness, it demonstrates how connected digital environments can help organisations make more coordinated decisions and support sustainable growth at a system level.
Perhaps most importantly, digital twins can help organisations prepare for future uncertainty.
Infrastructure assets are often expected to perform for decades. Yet the conditions they will face are becoming harder to predict. Climate impacts, changing resource availability, growing demand and emerging technologies are all reshaping infrastructure needs.
Digital twins can help organisations explore future scenarios before they occur.
For example, Jacobs has created a digital twin for a healthcare client that, alongside other capabilities, models the impact of extreme weather events across several of its campuses. Combining historical, building information modelling and geographic information system data, the twin highlights the rooms, assets, buildings and land that are most at risk of future flooding, across multiple scenarios. This insight can inform decision-making around ongoing asset management risks and the location and design of future upgrades, supporting a more proactive approach to planning and resilience.
When combined with engineering expertise and human judgment, digital infrastructure, including digital twins, can help organisations test options and prepare for future conditions with greater confidence.
As the industry moves rapidly from technology-led pilots to outcome-led implementation, the question is whether these investments are improving sustainability outcomes.
The organisations that succeed will be those that connect digital capability to measurable sustainability outcomes, using technology as a tool for making better decisions for people, communities and the environment.
