Page 3356 - Week 11 - Thursday, 11 November 2021
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The ACT Waste Management Strategy 2011-2025 includes key actions to increase recycling and avoid greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling avoids the generation of greenhouse gases by reducing the production of raw materials and scope 3 emissions while also reducing scope 1 emissions from landfill in the ACT. Introducing household food and organic waste collection will allow us to turn that waste into valuable compost and further reduce emissions from methane.
Reducing emissions produced in the delivery of major infrastructure is also a priority as we roll out the government’s record $5 billion investment program. This is a challenging space where we need to balance safety and longevity of infrastructure assets with sustainability, both in the construction and over the life span.
It is government policy that each of the projects directly delivered by Major Projects Canberra will have an independent sustainability rating, such as an infrastructure sustainability rating from the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia, a green star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia, or another relevant equivalent.
The ISCA rating undertaken as part of the light rail stage 1 project included a tool for reporting and calculating the embedded emissions from material used in the construction of light rail, including the concrete, steel, asphalt and aggregate, and piping. As part of the ISCA rating process, the total quantum of materials and the corresponding embodied emissions from these construction materials were recorded in the infrastructure sustainability rating submission.
On the basis of this accounting, the light rail stage 1 project achieved a “leading” ISCA rating, the highest available rating at the time the project was completed. In fact, it was just the seventh project ever to receive this rating and has set the standard for future stages of light rail in Canberra. It was both a great environmental outcome and an opportunity for the ACT to learn a lot about how to continue cutting all types of emissions in future projects.
With work getting underway on stage 2, the government has recently released the light rail sustainability policy, which sets out commitments against multiple sustainability themes, including several that were late to low emissions construction material. This project is establishing sustainability targets against the themes and the commitments in this policy. The target includes net zero emissions across construction and operations for scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. This will be achieved through emissions reduction initiatives and addressing the residual emissions through the purchase of carbon offset or equivalent investment initiatives.
The project will also target a 30 per cent reduction in scope 3 emissions from a baseline model. Reduction in scope 3 emissions will be achieved through material reductions and substituting recycled or low embodied energy materials. Low and zero emissions construction materials will be prioritised through procurement and design activities. Sourcing materials from local manufacturers will also reduce scope 3 emissions.
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