Sustainability

Creating lasting value for cities and communities

We’re serious about ensuring our activities support the cities we operate in and the communities living and working near our roads. We’ve set high sustainability standards for our projects and operations, and we measure our environmental, societal and governance (ESG) performance against leading international benchmarks.

Our sustainability strategy is aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, joining a global effort to establish a path to peace and prosperity for people and the planet by 2030.

With the impacts of climate change already being felt, we’re also reducing our own climate-change impacts. We’ve set ambitious, science-based greenhouse-gas emission-reduction targets and have a clear plan for meeting these targets.

Sustainability

Creating lasting value for cities and communities

We’re serious about ensuring our activities support the cities we operate in and the communities living and working near our roads. We’ve set high sustainability standards for our projects and operations, and we measure our environmental, societal and governance (ESG) performance against leading international benchmarks.

Our sustainability strategy is aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, joining a global effort to establish a path to peace and prosperity for people and the planet by 2030.

With the impacts of climate change already being felt, we’re also reducing our own climate-change impacts. We’ve set ambitious, science-based greenhouse-gas emission-reduction targets and have a clear plan for meeting these targets.

Explore our sustainability data

How we do sustainability

How we’re ensuring our growth delivers lasting benefits; and how we measure our performance on a global scale

How we’re tracking

View our sustainability performance data, including our sustainability reporting for the 2021—22 financial year

Creating a better future

How we design, build and operate our roads to deliver sustainability benefits for our cities and their communities

Road infrastructure’s role in global emissions

Almost every city in the world has significant road infrastructure, and this infrastructure is integral to how cities’ residents, workforces and goods and services get around. In Australia, we rely on roads to deliver almost all the food we eat, for example, and governments regularly invest in building new roads to ensure cities stay productive and liveable even as city populations increase. Governments also partner with private industry (including us) to deliver this essential infrastructure.

Building and operating transport infrastructure generates greenhouse gases (GHG); the main cause of the global heating that’s changing our climate. These emissions are generated in part through the manufacture, transportation and installation of materials used to build new roads, tunnels and bridges. Operating and maintaining existing roads also generates GHG: lighting; tunnel ventilation; and pavement (road surface) works all use energy and materials. And most vehicles travelling on roads also generate emissions.

As an owner and operator of toll-roads in Australia and North America, we have a key role to play in leading our industry, adopting and advocating for innovative sustainable practices and low- and zero-emission technology and design solutions. Our roads are designed and built to support free-flowing traffic, which helps minimise the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from vehicles. For example, travel on our roads generates, on average, 27% less emissions than the alternate routes: delivering more efficient roads sooner will help reduce road-travel-related emissions. 

16.2%

of global GHG are transport emissions, with 12% coming from road travel

8%

of global GHG emissions come from cement production—including the cement used in road construction

27%

Average customer GHG emissions saving made when travelling on our road (versus the alternate route) 

Learn how road travel contributes to emissions and how we can all help reduce the impact of our travel choices.

Joining a global effort

Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) establish a path to peace and prosperity for people and the planet, both now and in the future. These 17 goals are an urgent call for all governments, industries, groups and individuals to take both immediate and long-term action on critical social, environmental and economic issues.

Our sustainability strategy is aligned with nine SDGs most relevant to our operations, as shown. These goals inform our overall approach to sustainability.

Global benchmarking

Setting industry-leading standards

We participate in (and are affiliated with) multiple global benchmarking and asset sustainability rating programs. We are rated among the world’s best across many of these leading performance measures.

Benchmarks
Affiliations

See our current ratings and learn more about these initiatives.


Our sustainability journey

Our purpose is to strengthen communities through transport

We’ve been monitoring and measuring our sustainability performance formally since 2006, when we produced our first sustainability report. Since then we’ve been implementing an expansive program of sustainability initiatives—all focused on generating benefits for people, the planet, the places we operate and our partnerships. These have been aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals since 2019.

All our activities support our purpose—to strengthen communities through Transport—and are designed to address the needs of our stakeholders. Here’s some of what we’ve been up to since we formalised our sustainability efforts in 2006.

2006

Produced our first sustainability report

2007

Established a Financial Hardship Policy to support customers in need

2008

Drafted our first Sustainable Purchasing Policy

2009

Established our first Workplace Flexibility Framework

2010

Produced our first Climate Change Strategy

2011

Delivered our first Women in Leadership program

2012

Initiated our first Community Investment Strategy

2013

Set our first energy-use reduction efficiency target: 10% energy-efficiency savings in 10 years

2014

Adopted a road safety key performance indicator (KPI)

2015

Launched our roadside regeneration program

2016

Invested more than $1M in local community partnerships, grants and donations

2017

Set our first science-based GHG emissions reduction target: 52% by 2030

2018

Adopted the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures recommendations

2019

Aligned our sustainability strategy with the UN SDGs

2020

Validated our science-based emission-reduction targets
(Scopes 1, 2 and 3)

2021

Established a Human Rights Policy

2022

Switched more than 50% of our energy to renewable sources