Creating a common understanding of how different policy instruments can drive best practice will allow public and private organisations to deliver infrastructure projects that both prevent or mitigate against known shocks and stresses, and are able to respond better to those events that can’t be predicted or avoided. We have researched into four key areas of policy and standards to date - see the reports grouped together at the bottom of this page.

Public policy instruments, like regulation and standards, can play a role in embedding resilience in critical infrastructure systems. Our report provides clarity in the use of key terms including ‘public policy’ and ‘policy instruments’ and highlights early innovations in critical infrastructure resilience policy.

The impact of a legislative policy instrument used in the state of Victoria, Australia, relating to the resilience of critical infrastructure, is studied in our report on the role of legislation. Based on in-depth interviews with infrastructure owners and operators, it highlights how legislation, as a policy instrument, can drive more comprehensive resilience approaches, both within organisations and at a sector and cross-sector level. Legislation is an important piece of the overall puzzle, and there are valuable findings from this work, that can inform the strengthening of critical infrastructure resilience in other sectors and geographies.

Resilience value is different for public and private sector stakeholders, and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) create the potential for resilience value to be understood and realised by all those involved. A guidance note shares industry insights on the role that infrastructure PPPs play in driving best practice for resilience. ‘Best practice’ could include long term thinking, risk sharing, whole system approaches and recognising future uncertainty through adaptive planning for example.

The Resilience Shift captured the journey of how the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) worked with industry to develop a third party, independent Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating scheme to measure sustainability performance on new infrastructure projects. A film captures infrastructure sustainability experts from across Australia sharing their experiences in establishing a successful industry-led IS rating scheme, now including a resilience credit, including the enablers and challenges of developing a tool that is now mandated by most state governments in Australia.