The Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC) has unveiled a new digital tool called IS Essentials, designed to help smaller infrastructure projects in Australia and New Zealand improve their sustainability performance.
This innovative tool extends the ISC’s globally recognised IS Rating Scheme, focusing on projects valued between $5 million and $100 million.
IS Essentials aims to evaluate the social, cultural, environmental, and economic performance of infrastructure assets throughout their lifecycle.
The tool is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, providing government agencies, private asset owners, and investors with a means to measure, enhance, and report on their sustainability efforts.
Patrick Hastings, Acting CEO of ISC, emphasised the significance of this tool, noting that 80 per cent of infrastructure investment in Australia occurs in projects valued under $100 million.
“These projects are often closely tied to communities, such as energy generation, water treatment plants, and road projects.
“IS Essentials will enable them to start on this journey more effectively and accelerate it,” Hastings stated.
The launch of IS Essentials comes at a crucial time, as organisations face increasing pressure to report on their sustainability efforts due to legislative requirements and the adoption of carbon accounting standards.
The tool is designed to scale according to both the asset size and the organisation’s ambition, providing a roadmap for transforming systems and processes into sustainable business practices.
IS Essentials underwent rigorous testing with 26 pilot projects across Australia and New Zealand, supported by the Westpac New Zealand Government Innovation Fund.
One such pilot project involved Maritime Safety Queensland’s program to replace 30 maritime beacons in north Queensland shipping channels.
Amanda Scarpato, Director of the Maritime Program Management Office for Maritime Safety Queensland, shared her experience: “By working with IS Essentials, we challenged many of our business-as-usual decisions to deliver safer, more sustainable infrastructure. We can now apply these principles to other projects.”
Hastings emphasised that sustainability should be a business priority, stating: “It’s about setting strong foundations and investing in the future, not just for the organisation itself, but for the infrastructure assets and networks being delivered and the communities we’re operating in.”
The IS Essentials tool is accessible through the ISC’s new IS Ratings Portal, which covers various aspects of the rating process, including materiality assessment, design and as-built phase credits, and evidence management.
