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Achieving sustainability ratings on our existing roads
Achieving sustainability ratings on our existing roads,We’ve set high sustainability standards for our assets – the roads, tunnels and bridges we are building and operate. One way we endeavour to meet

Achieving sustainability ratings on our existing roads

We’ve set high sustainability standards for our assets – the roads, tunnels and bridges we are building and operate.

One way we endeavour to meet these standards is by participating in leading Australian and North American infrastructure sustainability ratings. These ratings are mandatory for all new major projects and we have had eight projects rated to date and four project ratings underway.

But we’re not stopping there. We have started reviewing existing motorway operations and have recently achieved an ‘Excellent’ Infrastructure Sustainability rating for the operation of Sydney’s Hills M2 Motorway – the highest IS operations score to date across the industry.

This rating was achieved by:

  • Switching to renewable energy, including facilitating the development of wind farms
  • Trialling low-carbon materials
  • Determining climate adaptation plans, which include considering how our assets can be resilient to extreme weather impacts over time
  • Implementing a driver behaviour program with our contractor Ventia, which provides education around safer and more efficient driving habits to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Together, these measures will achieve a 48% reduction in GHG emissions over the M2’s lifetime.

Through our partnership with Landcare we also embarked on a roadside regeneration project to significantly increase the biodiversity value on what was a degraded site previously used for the motorway’s upgrade in 2012.

Further, industry-leading waste diversion rates have been achieved, with over 97% of operations and maintenance waste and 63% of office waste diverted from landfill.

Transurban’s Acting Head of Sustainability Jarrah Bassal said “The results achieved for the M2 through the IS rating process show us how our organisation-wide commitment to sustainability is enhancing our older operating assets and creating additional value for our customers, the local community and our stakeholders”.

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