We are proud to share this new paper published by the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI): A Review of the Landscape of Guidance, Tools and Standards for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure. This paper is an output of the Guidance, Tools and Standards Action Track.
Guidance, tools and standards play a key role in the development of sustainable and resilient infrastructure. Stakeholders across the infrastructure lifecycle need them to better plan, finance, design, deliver, and operate and maintain their infrastructure assets and systems.
This paper set out to understand what resources already exist and where key gaps are, how what exists can be better utilised or promoted and what actions should be taken to close the identified gaps. The catalogue of existing guidance, tools and standards for sustainable and resilient infrastructure used for the landscape analysis was crowdsourced from ICSI members.
Four key gaps have been identified:
- Line of sight for sustainability and resilience across the infrastructure lifecycle
- Support in the early stages of the infrastructure lifecycle
- Procurement practices to implement sustainable and resilient infrastructure
- Integration of sustainability and resilience into infrastructure operation and maintenance
As an engineering-led and action-oriented coalition with deep knowledge of sustainability, resilience and infrastructure development, ICSI plays a valuable role in supporting the users/recipients of guidance, tools and standards through targeted steps to accelerate uptake of sustainable and resilient practices for infrastructure.
Going forward, the ICSI Action Tracks will implement tangible and feasible actions toward filling the identified gaps. These include:
- Providing clear, actionable and consistent guidance across the infrastructure lifecycle
- Developing a common set of indicators for sustainable and resilient infrastructure
- Providing support at the early stages of project development
- Accelerating uptake of sustainable and resilient procurement
- Increasing awareness of available guidance, tools and standards
This paper serves as a foundational resource for future work undertaken by ICSI and we look forward to working with ICSI and other stakeholders across the infrastructure lifecycle to address the identified gaps through action.
