The Infrastructure Sustainability Council has welcomed Infrastructure Australia’s 2021 Infrastructure Plan and its emphasis on sustainability and resilience.

The 2021 Infrastructure Australia Plan is a 15-year roadmap for infrastructure reform that responds to the challenges and opportunities identified in the 2019 Australian Infrastructure Audit. The Plan sets out detailed recommendations to deliver better infrastructure for all Australians.

“We are very pleased to see sustainability and resilience valued as strategic priorities and called out on page three of the Plan, rather than buried one hundred pages deep. This speaks volumes about Infrastructure Australia’s priorities and the future direction of infrastructure investment in this country,” says Infrastructure Sustainability Council’s Chief Executive Officer, Ainsley Simpson.

“The Plan clearly articulates that sustainability and resilience are among the biggest risks to our nation and are at the core of public value. This makes sustainability and resilience our biggest opportunities and a shared responsibility.”

Ms Simpson says Infrastructure Australia’s direction aligns with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council’s strategic plan, released in July, which seeks to embed sustainability into infrastructure decision-making “by making it easy to compare and improve sustainability performance”.

“We must consistently measure what matters because we know measurement leads to better management – and that in turn attracts investment. Members of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council are committed to measuring what matters and more than $200 billion of investment has been registered with the IS Rating Scheme since 2012.

“Our data confirms that sustainable infrastructure delivers for communities, with projects rated under the IS Rating scheme reducing energy consumption by 68%, for example. We also know that every $1 of investment in an IS-rated project returns up to $2.40 in benefits to Australians – benefits like better health outcomes or human capital development.

“Infrastructure Australia’s Plan emphasises the importance of national harmonisation, sectoral and system-level policy and principles, as well as the importance of collaboration to achieve best practice. The IS Council is behind Infrastructure Australia’s call to collaborate to accelerate, because a problem shared, is a problem solved faster.

“We also applaud Infrastructure Australia’s collaborative spirit during the development of the plan. The result is a testament to the many hours of engagement, input and support from industry.

“We support systemic reform and are pleased to see a Plan that advances infrastructure policy, planning and procurement for a resilient, inclusive and low-emission future,” Ms Simpson concludes.