Importance of Triple Bottom Line in Infrastructure Projects

This article discusses the importance of considering triple bottom line (TBL) in infrastructure projects. It explains how TBL promotes sustainability goals and objectives, balances social, economic, and environmental elements, and increases social value. It also provides examples of successful projects that used TBL. Additionally, the article explores the concept of sustainable design and its objectives. It highlights the characteristics of sustainable design and provides examples of sustainable projects in Australia. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of following relevant environmental legislations when designing civil infrastructure systems and projects. It explains how these legislations protect the environment, ensure proper waste management, and conserve heritage objects or places. Lastly, the article offers strategies for promoting sustainability as an engineer, such as using renewable energy, designing resource-efficient systems, promoting the use of recycled materials, and integrating modern technological tools and processes.

Environmental and Sustainable Practice 1
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE
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Environmental and Sustainable Practice 2
Environmental and Sustainable Practice
Question 1
It is necessary to consider triple bottom line (TBL) in planning, designing, constructing
and maintaining civil infrastructure systems and projects because TBL has become very essential
in promoting attainability of sustainability goals and objectives of these projects. TBL is an
approach that is used to promote and measure performance of a project by considering its social,
economic and environmental elements. This approach ensures that a project is planned, designed,
constructed and maintained by considering its impacts on the society, economy and the
environment (Slaper & Hall, 2011). In other words, TBL helps in ensuring that civil
infrastructure systems and projects benefit the society and promotes economic growth without
affecting the environment negatively (University of Wisconsin, 2019). This balance is achieved
best by use of TBL. For many years, there have been conflicts between social, economic and
ecological sustainability. It has not been easy to achieve balance between these three elements.
However, TBL ensures harmony of these elements and that is why it is very important in
modern-day infrastructure projects, which have huge social, economic and environmental
impacts.
In other words, the main importance of considering TBL in infrastructure systems and
projects is to increase social value (or reduce social risk) of the project, reduce environmental
impact of the project, and lower the project’s lifecycle costs (Kucukvar & Tatari, 2013). TBL
approach ensures proper balance between costs and benefits of all the three elements of
sustainability: social, economic and environmental aspects (Searle, 2009).

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Some of the projects that were successfully implemented and received various
sustainability awards as a result of using TBL system include: North West Rail Link Early
Works project in New South Wales (NSW), Googong Water Treatment Plant Chemical Facility
Upgrade Plant project in Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Whitsunday Sewage Treatment
Plants Upgrade project in Queensland (QLD), and Enlarged Cotter Dam project in ACT
(Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia, 2018).
Question 2
Sustainable design is the strategy of creating structures or components with minimal
lifecycle costs and environmental impacts. It is a plan or project that is resource-efficient and
environmentally responsible throughout its lifecycle including during planning, designing,
construction, operation, maintenance and demolition. Some of the characteristics of a sustainable
design include the following: lower water and energy consumption throughout its lifecycle;
limited resource utilization; zero or minimal waste; minimal climate change impacts; and low
environmental impacts (Wang & Adeli, 2014). The main objectives of sustainable design are to
minimize consumption of non-renewable resources, reduce waste, and create productive, healthy
environments. Therefore sustainable design is not only about environmental element but also
considers the social and economic elements of the project.
There are numerous examples of sustainable projects in Australia. Some of these include:
One Central Park in Sydney, 1 Bligh Street in Sydney, The Commons in Melbourne, Green
Skills Training Centre in Perth, Arup HQ in Sydney, Commonwealth Ban Place in Sydney, 185
Pirie Street in Adelaide, Alkimos Beach in Perth, The Ponds Shopping Centre in Sydney, Aura,
Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Barangaroo South, Bowden Development, Mills ark

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Community Facility, and Regional Rail Link, among others (Green Building Council Australia,
2019).
Question 3
The importance of considering and following relevant environmental legislations when
designing civil infrastructure systems and projects is to ensure that these systems and projects are
assessed by relevant environmental agencies so as to get relevant approvals and permits so that
they have no or very minimal impacts on the biodiversity or environment throughout their
lifecycle. This helps in protecting and conserving the environment in Australia. For instance,
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999 of Australia is a
legislation that provides a guidelines for protecting the Australian environment (Department of
the Environment and Energy, 2013). In general, these legislations ensure that the civil
infrastructure systems and projects are designed in such a way that they protect human health
and the environment. The environmental legislations also help designers to determine the best
type of materials and construction methods that will minimize waste generation, promote
recyclability, increase resource efficiency and facilitate proper waste management so as to
protect and conserve the environment. Another great importance of these legislations is to protect
heritage objects or places in Australia.
Question 4
As an engineer, I would promote sustainability through a number of ways. First, I would
ensure that I design systems that use renewable energy and natural resources. For example, if it is
a building, I would target to ensure that the building relies completely on daylighting to meet its
lighting needs during the day, uses natural ventilation to improve indoor thermal comfort, has a

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rainwater collection system, recycles and reuses water, and has an integrated solar energy
system. Second, I would focus on designing resource-efficient systems. My main focus here
would be to reduce the amount of resources, including water and energy, used by a system
throughout its lifecycle. Doing so will help in minimizing exploration of these resources and the
costs and environmental impacts associated with them. For example, I would ensure that I
procure the most energy-efficient electrical equipment and water-efficient fixtures. Third, I
would use available tools and processes that minimize wastage such as lean construction or
manufacturing principles. This will help in eliminating wastage along the supply chain of civil
engineering systems and projects. Wastage is a major problem in construction industry that must
be solved in order to attain sustainability in this sector. For example, where possible, I would
propose that components and sub-systems are pre-fabricated offsite where all processes and
conditions are strictly controlled so as to minimize wastage.
Fourth, I would promote use of recycled and recyclable materials. This will significantly
reduce exploitation of natural resources thus protecting the environment. For example, in case of
demolishing a building, I would ensure that all reusable and recyclable materials are sorted and
reused or taken to recycling facilities. Fifth, I would promote use of modern technological tools
and processes such as building information modelling (BIM), so as to integrate the design,
construction, operation and demolition processes of civil engineering systems and projects, and
triple bottle line so as to integrate economic, social and environmental impacts of every system
and project. Sixth, I would encourage use of automation to monitor and control utilization of
resources and performance of various systems. This will help in preventing misuse of resources
and also determining the efficiency and effectiveness of various sustainability initiatives taken.
Seventh, I would continue to conduct research so as to identify the latest technologies, practices

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or systems available in the market that can make the engineering systems and projects more
sustainable. Last but not least, I would take it as a personal initiative to promote discussions and
awareness and education campaigns about sustainability. The ultimate goal would be to help
people develop a sustainable culture. For example, I would help my colleagues to develop the
culture of switching off lights whenever they are the last people to leave a room, unplugging
power cables from sockets when the connected equipment are not in use, etc. All these strategies
and efforts would help in reducing environmental impacts and lifecycle costs of the engineering
systems and solutions I develop or work on.

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References
Department of the Environment and Energy, 2013. EPBC Act - Frequently asked questions. [Online]
Available at: https://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/publications/factsheet-epbc-act-frequently-asked-
questions
[Accessed 10 April 2019].
Green Building Council Australia, 2019. Projects. [Online]
Available at: https://new.gbca.org.au/showcase/projects/
[Accessed 10 April 2019].
Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia, 2018. Four Infrastructure Projects Achieved
Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Rating. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.isca.org.au/four_infrastructure_projects_achieved_infrastructure_sustainability_is_rating
[Accessed 10 April 2019].
Kucukvar, M. & Tatari, O., 2013. Towards a triple bottom-line sustainability assessment of the U.S.
construction industry. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 18(5), pp. 1-5.
Searle, G., 2009. Sustainability of infrastructure: Achieving sustainable cities with sustainable
infrastructures, Brisbane: University of Queensland.
Slaper, T. & Hall, T., 2011. The Triple Bottom Line: What Is It and How Does It Work?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2011/spring/article2.html
[Accessed 10 April 2019].
University of Wisconsin, 2019. The triple bottom line. [Online]
Available at: https://sustain.wisconsin.edu/sustainability/triple-bottom-line/
[Accessed 10 April 2019].
Wang, N. & Adeli, H., 2014. Sustainable building design. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management,
20(1), pp. 1-10.