The first time I came across the topic, I was part of a team developing a sustainability framework for a mega transport project in the UAE. While there were a number of emerging local guidelines relating to sustainable buildings and neighbourhoods, there was a void when it came to local guidance on sustainability for infrastructure projects. Nevertheless, the client had the foresight to introduce the requirement for a comprehensive sustainability framework from the early planning stages. I love a challenge, and this was one I learnt a great deal from and thoroughly enjoyed.
Having gone through that project and a few more since then, below are some thoughts on ‘must-haves’ for sustainability frameworks related to infrastructure planning. I have focused on areas that are of particular relevance to major infrastructure projects and thus may be overlooked by professionals coming from other backgrounds. However, that is not to say that the list is exhaustive or that other sustainability topics (e.g., energy, water, waste, materials) are not applicable to the infrastructure scope and scale
Climate Change Adaptation
Unlike buildings, infrastructure projects are planned to have lifetimes of 50+ years (often 100+ years). Given that time frame, climate change adaptation is a topic that cannot be ignored, even from a pure risk management perspective.
The Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) recognised this and took the bold step of including a credit on climate change adaptation in their IS rating tool released in 2012.
For the Middle East, and particularly the Gulf region, sea level rise, temperature rise, and drought-related water shortages are all risk drivers to be considered carefully. Once project-specific climate change risks have been identified, they can be addressed by introducing adaptation measures in the design, construction, and operational stages. As usual, the key is starting early and planning for change from the outset.
Community Impact
Due to their scale, infrastructure projects can be significantly disruptive to their surroundings during both the construction and operational stages. It is, therefore, essential to plan the project on the basis of avoiding and mitigating negative impacts on aspects such as the acoustic and visual environment, traffic, and connectivity.
It is critical to have a strict internal mechanism for checking compliance against sustainability goals and objectives throughout the project’s lifetime. For community impact, this can be undertaken by gathering live feedback from the neighbouring areas and taking action to address any issues which arise. An environmental assessment at the planning stage can only go so far in predicting impacts that a reality check during construction and operation is necessary.
The CEEQUAL rating scheme includes a whole section focusing on People and Communities, providing useful guidance on aspects to be considered.
Articulating the wider benefits
Major infrastructure projects are generally built to fulfill a social purpose, be it providing access to water and electricity or facilitating the efficient movement of people and goods. As such, infrastructure projects will likely have wide socio-economic benefits, many of which could be difficult to capture in traditional cost-benefit analysis.
Nevertheless, it is important to identify these wider benefits at least since they will be what justifies the project when budgets are scrutinized, as they inevitably will be.
Social Return on Investment (SROI) is a methodology that has gained much attention over the past few years and has helped organisations and projects assess value in its broadest sense.
Whether your infrastructure project is providing access to employment opportunities, improving health, saving time, reducing pollution, or promoting safety, these are all huge positive impacts that need to be clearly captured and then quantified if possible.
Final thoughts
Just because there does not yet exist a ‘ready-to-use’ infrastructure rating scheme for the Middle East does not mean we can afford to ignore sustainability on infrastructure projects. I am aware of a few rating schemes being developed, and until they are released, there is a growing body of international guidance and best practices from which to draw.
Major infrastructure projects cost a few orders of magnitude more than a typical building and are built to last twice as long at least. As such, it seems absurd not to invest some time and effort early on in developing meaningful sustainability targets and embedding them into the project. The returns are definitely worth it.