Meet Australia’s present and future needs by establishing the quadruple bottom line as a goal for all infrastructure policy and investment.
- Bounce back to rapid recovery
- Destabilised world
Key messages
Infrastructure is sustainable when it is planned, designed, procured, constructed and operated to optimise economic, environmental, social and governance outcomes over the life of the asset.
Infrastructure assets, networks, services and communities will be critical in meeting government and industry commitments to sustainability, including reducing emissions.
Certainty, confidence and adequacy of policy settings help investors to manage risk.
Policy reforms need to acknowledge they do not occur independently of the infrastructure that is in place and investment in the future, so they increase value for money outcomes and contribute to emissions reduction while maintaining a strong economy and high quality of life and affordability for all Australians.
What are the impacts?
The increased prevalence of energy efficiency assistance will empower consumers to adapt their energy usage, increase demand response, reduce disruption and decrease variance in service quality. This will also result in improvements to household affordability. Enhanced and more efficient social infrastructure assets will increase access to services for communities, particularly disadvantaged and vulnerable members of society.
Climate mitigation could result in significant economic, gross domestic product and productivity benefits. New sustainability standards and procurement mandates will drive the creation of new industries and increase employment. They will also provide a competitive advantage and new export opportunities for manufacturing and services businesses.
Enhanced consideration of the quadruple-bottom-line will result in environmental, social and governance outcomes. The private sector and governments will have better guidance and tools to seize opportunities to embed sustainability into projects and services. As a result, there are likely to be increased opportunities for education and employment, better health outcomes, and
a reduction in emissions.
How easy is it to implement?
Reform is likely to incur additional costs. However, there is high potential for the costs to be balanced against increased efficiency and cost saving measures.
This specific reform is not complex and is capable of implementation within a 5-year timeframe. It will largely build on current frameworks. However, new standards will necessitate new regulation, guidelines and legislation.
Industry and governments have capacity and are well-positioned to play a role in both social infrastructure upgrades and the rollout of electric vehicles at the right scale and time.
How certain are the outcomes?
The reform has a high degree of confidence. It relies on a credible and robust domestic and international evidence base, the benefits are clear, and it is independent of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australian communities have mixed acceptance for climate change, sustainability and emissions reduction methods. However, there is good community support for quadruple-bottom-line consideration in infrastructure investment and decision-making.
Governments have some control but are also heavily reliant on a broad cross-sectoral coalition of actors to ensure success
| Environment |
Greenhouse gas emissions
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| Governance |
Quadruple-bottom-line
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| Environment |
National climate adaptation scenarios
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Read more about this recommendation in 2.2 Technology-led sustainability in the 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan.
Reform implementation pathway
This recommendation comprises of outcomes and activities, which form the reform's implementation pathway.
The implementation pathway is designed to guide change agents on the supporting activities necessary to achieve the overall reform.
For each outcome and activity, we propose change agents to act as:
- Proposed sponsor: facilitate, coordinate and champion the recommendation
- Proposed lead: deliver specific activities or lead related outcomes
- Support: share ownership, contributions or knowledge to enable the reform process.
Achieve consistency and shared ownership through embedding the quadruple-bottom-line into infrastructure decision-making frameworks.
0-5 years
Ensure consistent understanding by adopting the quadruple-bottom-line definition of sustainability.
0-5 years
Meet Australia’s commitments to net zero through long-term sector-specific plans that set interim emissions reduction targets and strategies that prioritise infrastructure investments and services.
0-5 years
Ensure consistent application of the quadruple-bottom-line at the strategic proposal development phase by embedding sustainability guidelines in investment frameworks and guidance materials. These should include considering sustainability when identifying problems, developing options and undertaking economic analysis.
0-5 years
Facilitate national and cross-sectoral consistency by using quadruple-bottom-line guidelines to develop complementary, sector-specific sustainability principles and frameworks.
0-5 years
Support common approaches to assessment, cross-sector collaboration, shared responsibility and best practice, and develop connections and networks, by forming a cross-jurisdictional sustainability group.
0-5 years
Deliver cost-effective emissions reduction and broad sustainability benefits consistent with the quadruple-bottom-line by prioritising energy efficiency in the built environment and social infrastructure.
0-5 years
Identify potential to embed quadruple-bottom-line outcomes in social infrastructure assets by auditing existing social infrastructure assets and using Green Building Council of Australia's Green Star rating system, Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia IS Rating Scheme and NABERS tools.
0-5 years
Ensure quadruple-bottom-line outcomes by introducing procurement standards. These should mandate sustainable performance, including energy efficiency measures and the electrification of appliances, for government-owned social infrastructure.
0-5 years
Ensure quadruple-bottom-line outcomes by accelerating performance upgrades to social infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and public and community housing stock. Prioritise the increased installation of solar PV, storage and smart meters in social housing.
0-5 years
Improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions from new social infrastructure by increasing performance standards and updating the National Construction Code in line with the Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings.
0-5 years
Support ongoing monitoring and improvements in social housing by creating and implementing a work program for updating energy performance standards that streamlines approval processes and conducts regular reviews.
0-5 years
Ensure the built environment’s emissions reduction pathway is understood and coordinated by establishing collaborative sectoral leadership groups, similar to the Better Buildings Partnership or the Materials and Embodied Carbon Leaders' Alliance.
0-5 years
Deliver cost-effective emissions reduction and broad sustainability benefits consistent with the quadruple-bottom-line by managing zero emissions vehicle uptake and vehicle standards.
0-5 years
Ensure the uptake of electric vehicles at the right scale and time to optimise quadruple-bottom-line benefits by delivering a national electric vehicle strategy through the expansion of the Future Fuels Strategy.
0-5 years
Facilitate cost-effective emissions reductions by aligning vehicle emissions standards with global best practice and requiring manufacturers to reduce emissions over vehicle portfolios.
0-5 years
Ensure national consistency and coordination by aligning state and territory strategies and actions to the national strategy, including targets and timelines for transitioning all government fleet vehicles to electric vehicles whenever they are fit-for-purpose.
0-5 years