Importance of Triple Bottom Line in Infrastructure Projects

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).

Environmental and Sustainable Practice 3
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