Australian Green Infrastructure Council's New Rating Scheme

Written by Network Member: Rob Turk, AGIC

The Australian Green Infrastructure Council (AGIC) is a not-for-profit organisation formed in 2007 by a group of industry professionals from engineering, environmental, legal, financial, government and construction backgrounds.

The vision of the organisation is to embed sustainability in Australian infrastructure by driving market transformation through the provision of education and training, advocacy and the development of a sustainability rating scheme. AGIC has attracted a strong membership base of key industry players, and has over eighty member organisations in Australia, including thirteen foundation members.

Climate change and infrastructure
Infrastructure has historically and will, in the future, play an important role in the form of our urban environments. With the need to reduce the level of carbon emissions, so increasingly are the traditional approaches to the movement of people and freight and distribution of water and energy being questioned. This questioning is leading to greater focus on the legacy infrastructure decisions will have for future generations in terms of locking in higher carbon approaches.

Climate change also has significant potential to disrupt or damage existing or future infrastructure.  The January 2009 Victorian heatwaves lead to a warping of Melbourne suburban train lines and wide spread power failures. This disruption coinciding with a period of high vulnerability for sections of the population adversely impacted by heatwaves, such as the elderly and infants. There is an overriding case therefore to assess the risk of existing and future infrastructure to climate change and to incorporate this within the maintenance or design process.

It is recognised however that infrastructure also has the potential to play an important role in reducing future impacts, for example through the construction of sea walls. These options need to be carefully assessed to ensure unexpected negative impacts do not occur.  For example where the option increases the level of carbon emissions, or adversely impacts a vulnerable population.

Driving market transformation
Since its inception, AGIC has been providing workshops, seminars and conferences to increase the awareness of sustainability principles and best-practice techniques applied to Australian infrastructure. However, AGIC's primary mechanism for embedding sustainability in new and existing infrastructure will be through development of the AGIC Rating Scheme. The Rating Scheme will provide a framework to benchmark the design, construction and operation of Australian infrastructure against world-leading practices in sustainable infrastructure.

Once established the assessable infrastructure projects will include:

• roads, rail, bridges and tunnels
• ports, wharves or boating
• airport airside facilities
• distribution grids (pipes, poles, wires)
• water or resource management
• water infrastructure
• waterway or foreshore management
• preparatory civil works for other types.

The AGIC Rating Scheme is based on a holistic approach to sustainability that considers not only the environmental, but also the social and economic performance of infrastructure. To frame this assessment 7 categories and 27 sub categories have been defined.

AGIC recently received significant funding to progress development of the tool from the Federal Department of Climate Change ($440,000), Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government ($110,000) and Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads ($50,000). 

Prior to receipt of this funding the only sub category to progress was 'Climate Change Vulnerability', the development of which was sponsored by the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water.

Climate change and the AGIC Rating Scheme
Within the 27 AGIC Rating Scheme sub categories, three are directly relevant to climate change.

• Climate Change Vulnerability – (under the Project Management and Governance category) Intent is for climate change vulnerability considerations to be made for all infrastructure projects and the identified risks and associated impacts addressed.
• Energy Use – (under the Using Resources category) Intent is to emphasise the need for energy use to be minimised and, where possible, sourced from renewable sources.
• Greenhouse Gas Management – (under the Emissions, Pollution & Waste category) Intent for the measurement, reporting and minimisation of GHG emissions across the infrastructure assets lifecycle.

As previously noted the Climate Change Vulnerability sub category has progressed ahead of the other sub categories and is now in final draft form. There is an intention for it to be released as a guideline prior to the completion of the remaining 26 sub categories. 

Under the Climate Change Vulnerability sub category the extent to which a project has incorporated and adapted to potential future climatic changes will be determined through assessment against six criteria:

• Commitment – Level of commitment by key stakeholders to undertaking and incorporating the results from a climate change vulnerability assessment.
• Adaptive Capacity – The capacity of those responsible for managing climate change risks to the project or asset.
• Climate Change Projections – The credibility and appropriateness of the climate change projections used to assess climate change risks.
• Climate Change Risks Assessed – The range of climate change risks assessed – how narrow or broad – and the appropriateness of the risk assessment methodology used.
• Adaptation Options Assessed – Quality of the assessment of adaptation options identified, decisions made, and implementation timing, flexibility and innovation.
• Adaptation Measures Designed or Implemented – Effectiveness of the adaptation measures designed or implemented to address the climate change risks. 

Under the sub category a project will be scored against each of the criteria and then a total determined through application of a criteria weighting. Between the six criteria the 'climate change risks assessed' and 'adaptation measures design or implemented' are weighting more heavily to reflect the importance of these steps in the adaptation process. The resulting score for each criterion will then be scored to provide an overall value for the project against the sub category.

Summary
The next six months represent an exciting time for AGIC as considerable effort is directed towards development of the remaining 26 AGIC Rating Scheme sub categories. Following drafting the complete scheme will be tested on a range of pilot projects representing differing infrastructure types and geographic regions. From this process the AGIC Rating Scheme will be finalised with an intended launch towards the mid to later part of 2011.

For further information regarding AGIC please contact Rob Turk on 03 9668 5644 or rob.turk@arup.com.au.

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