Digital Engineering for Resilient Road Infrastructure Outcomes: Evaluating Critical Asset Information Requirements

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9 on building resilient infrastructure highlights the urgent need for enabling evidence-based decision making for Infrastructure Asset Management supported by targeted platforms such as digital engineering and digital earth. In this paper the authors argue that an Asset Information Requirement matrix is an essential decision support tool for authorities and practitioners to evaluate right time, right place use of infrastructure data for resilient outcomes. The authors present an exploratory study that synthesizes the experiences of senior asset management decision-makers from road research institutes, state and local government bodies based in South East Queensland, Australia. The findings are discussed in relation to: digital engineering for managing complex data; current practice and outlook; key asset information requirements; and data structures, interactions and interdependencies. The authors present an ‘Asset Information Requirement Matrix’ that categorises 66 data requirements across four key infrastructure data types (including 13 information categories), and asserts the relevance of these data requirements for the six key phases of planning, design, construction, acquisition, operations and end-of-life treatment. The authors also present an ‘Asset Interaction Matrix’ which depicts the temporal, spatial and logical relationships between the 13 information categories. The authors conclude the importance of these asset matrices to leverage digital engineering for resilience infrastructure outcomes. The two matrices create a common language platform for engaging in digital engineering conversations, wherein authorities and practitioners can establish clear arrangements for measuring and monitoring road infrastructure through its life cycle

Evaluating the COVID-19 impacts on sustainable procurement : experiences from the Australian built environment sector

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global economies to a standstill and created challenges for a variety of sectors, including housing, building and infrastructure. Many business and government organisations have experienced some form of supply chain disruption—either through suppliers going offline, a sudden spike in demand or both. While embedding sustain-ability in procurement is a powerful tool for bringing about positive change in an organisation’s supply chains, this global pandemic has had a myriad of impacts on these procurement processes. Through focus group discussions with industrial practitioners and government decision makers from the Australian built environment sector, this study presents their lived experiences related to COVID-19 impacts on sustainable procurement. The emergent themes are: (1) the effects of COVID-19 on sustainable procurement, (2) the rapid development of reactive procurement responses and (3) levers for post-COVID-19 sustainable procurement. In order to learn from the challenges related to COVID-19, both government and industry need to re-assess their supply chain risks and determine the supply chain design that will deliver the most resiliency in the event of another large-scale disruption. There are several key levers, including developing reliable, trans-parent and local supply chains, leveraging innovative tools and digital engineering approaches, creating a coalition between government and industry and assessing risks at multiple levels. This study is the first of its kind to evaluate the COVID-19 impacts on sustainable procurement in the Australian building and construction industries. Government and industry practitioners can immediately apply these actionable recommendations to overcome the impacts of the pandemic and other disruptions on sustainable procurement activities

Evaluating Barriers, Enablers and Opportunities for Closing the Loop through ‘Waste Upcycling’: A Systematic Literature Review

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aim to ‘do more and better with less’, with numerous calls to action arising from the business sector concerning the substantial reduction of targeted types of commercial and industrial waste. Emanating from the original work on closing material loops by McDonough and Braungardt in the 1990s, over the last two decades the concept of ‘upcycling’ has increased in popularity as a targeted intervention to reduce material and energy use in business processes. Essentially upcycling involves reusing, repairing, repurposing and upgrading waste material to avoid the conventional endpoint of ‘disposal’. However, upcycling is still considered a niche practice and many business enterprises remain unclear as to how to use upcycling opportunities for better management of their waste. In this paper, the authors propose a Tiered Approach to Waste Upcycling for Business, as a strategic way for businesses to close the loop within their industrial processes and production chains. The paper comprises a systematic literature review of opportunities and barriers for enabling business enterprises to close the loop through waste upcycling. The review highlights the ad hoc, champion-based and highly variable use of upcycling practices and uncovers opportunities for more systematic and streamlined practices to produce value-added products from waste material. Synthesising the findings, the authors establish three tiers of ‘macro’, ‘meso’ and ‘micro’ barriers and enablers that businesses can consider identifying upcycling opportunities for managing their waste. The authors also discuss key benefits of upcycling including improved quality and life of material, creating jobs and influencing positive consumer behaviour. The authors conclude the benefits of a structured approach to considering circular economy opportunities, towards improved waste management that is better for the bottom line, people and planet. With regard to future research in the field, the authors define a set of key theoretical constructs relating to waste upcycling, that can facilitate innovation and investigations into applying ideas

The role of education in the circular built environment: Analysis of Australian educational programs impact on construction and demolition waste management

Resource circularity has become a necessity in the built environment sector. A significant amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is generated worldwide. This waste results from poor resource efficiency in the sector. Australia is among the lowest-ranked countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regarding the sector's resource efficiency. A circular economy and resource efficiency can be achieved primarily through education, enforcement, and encouragement in the sector. Of these three elements, education is the focus of this paper. Education can generate attitudinal and behavioural change among stakeholders to move towards effective waste management (WM). This study aims to determine whether current Australian educational programs have successfully achieved circular economy objectives and improved resource efficiency. This paper provides an insightful overview of the programs and proposes a framework to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs in a circular built environment. Lastly, it recommends a few practical suggestions to improve their effectiveness in the built environment sector

Trackless trams and Australian urban fabric

There is growing interest in the concept of Trackless Trams as part of the suite of transport technologies available to help shape more urban outcomes. However, there is much more for decision-makers to consider than the vehicle itself. This paper discusses both the city shaping possibilities of these systems and the challenges and opportunities inherent in integrating new technologies into existing city systems. Informed by studies, field trips and current trialling of the technology this paper documents the history of the trackless tram from rail to optically guided bus with level 4 autonomy. It describes the potential role of integrated transit systems anchored by Trackless Trams in transforming our cities from car-dominated roadways to green interconnected living streets or activated transit corridors with new urban centres. The paper then applies the technology to Australian cities using the theory of urban fabrics and how it can assist urban regeneration in all three fabrics: walking, transit and automobile urban fabric. A framework of seven design approaches is used to see how the Trackless Tram could be integrated into the urban regeneration process. It uses work done in Townsville, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth as case studies to illustrate how Trackless Trams could help transform Australian cities in various urban fabrics across their cities

Creation and Stimulation of End-markets for Construction and Demolition Waste in Australia

The generation of construction and demolition (C&D) waste from infrastructure, and building and housing activity across Australia is increasing, leading to C&D waste management becoming a high priority for federal, state, territory and local governments, private industry and the general public. In response to industry and public concerns related to unsustainable C&D waste management, this project aimed to enhance understanding of the operation and capacity of end-markets for C&D waste recyclables in Australian jurisdictions. This understanding involves the integration of circular economy principles and a cradle-to-cradle approach into C&D waste management systems in the Australian context

Improving sustainability teaching by grouping and interrelating pedagogical approaches and sustainability competences: evidence from 15 worldwide higher education institutions

There has been increasing research on pedagogical approaches, sustainability competences, and how to connect them in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper's aim is to provide deeper insights into the system of pedagogical approaches and sustainability competences, as well as how these interrelate. A survey was developed to investigate sustainability teaching in 15 HEIs. The survey was sent to educators of each HEI from which 668 responses were obtained. The responses were analysed in a five-step process: (1) descriptive statistics; (2) Pearson correlations; (3) principal component analyses (PCAs) to detect groups; (4) Pearson correlations between the groups; and (5) regressions. The first step provided the base to carry out the PCAs, from which three groups for the pedagogical approaches (Universal, Social, and Environmental) and three for the sustainability competences (Extrospective-social, Introspective-personal, and Cogitative-processual) were obtained. The correlations between the groups showed that: (1) the competences are closely interrelated; (2) the pedagogical approaches are somehow interrelated; and (3) the pedagogical approaches are somehow interrelated to the competences. The regressions showed that the Universal and Social groups would be most suitable to develop all the competences' groups. The Environmental group develops only the cogitative-processual competences' group. The results served as bases to propose the Sustainability Teaching System (STS), which provides deeper insights into the system of pedagogical approaches and sustainability competences by grouping them, as well as showing directionality and strength. To improve sustainability teaching, it is necessary to understand the pedagogical approaches' groups and how they can develop the competences' groups.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluating the COVID-19 Impacts on Sustainable Procurement: Experiences from the Australian Built Environment Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global economies to a standstill and created challenges for a variety of sectors, including housing, building and infrastructure. Many business and government organisations have experienced some form of supply chain disruption—either through suppliers going offline, a sudden spike in demand or both. While embedding sustainability in procurement is a powerful tool for bringing about positive change in an organisation’s supply chains, this global pandemic has had a myriad of impacts on these procurement processes. Through focus group discussions with industrial practitioners and government decision makers from the Australian built environment sector, this study presents their lived experiences related to COVID-19 impacts on sustainable procurement. The emergent themes are: (1) the effects of COVID-19 on sustainable procurement, (2) the rapid development of reactive procurement responses and (3) levers for post-COVID-19 sustainable procurement. In order to learn from the challenges related to COVID-19, both government and industry need to re-assess their supply chain risks and determine the supply chain design that will deliver the most resiliency in the event of another large-scale disruption. There are several key levers, including developing reliable, transparent and local supply chains, leveraging innovative tools and digital engineering approaches, creating a coalition between government and industry and assessing risks at multiple levels. This study is the first of its kind to evaluate the COVID-19 impacts on sustainable procurement in the Australian building and construction industries. Government and industry practitioners can immediately apply these actionable recommendations to overcome the impacts of the pandemic and other disruptions on sustainable procurement activities

Evaluating the enablers and barriers for successful implementation of sustainable business practice in 'lean' SMEs

Sustainable business practice’ is an aspiration for an increasing proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) around the world, promising profitability, resilience and positive social and environmental impacts. ‘Lean thinking’ has evolved as a popular business strategy for SMEs to achieve sustainable business practice, addressing the need for efficiency in production and waste reduction. In this study we explore the co-evolution of ‘lean and green thinking’ and the potential for lean and green practices to enable successful transitions to sustainable business practice. Focusing on investigations into manufacturing SMEs in Queensland, Australia, we first establish four key enablers and six key barriers to sustainable business practice, derived from a series of in-depth interviews with Chief Executive Officers and senior managers involved in sustainability and lean manufacturing. We offer an institutional theory perspective on these findings, concluding the potential for normative, coercive and mimetic drivers to influence SMEs to shape environmental, social and economic decision making and legitimize the transition to sustainable business practice. We then present a novel ‘Model of strategic enablers of sustainable business practice’ to guide SMEs to intentionally use their lean and green strategies to successfully adopt sustainable business outcomes. We propose that through adopting lean and green thinking to transition to sustainable business practice, SMEs can more rapidly contribute to the circular economy at the level of firm. Agencies and professional bodies can support SMEs in this transition through targeted interventions that address the enablers and barriers presented

Transforming manufacturing to be 'good for planet and people', through enabling lean and green thinking in small and medium-sized enterprises

Background The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals remind us of the urgent need for every business to operate in ways that are good for planet and people. Manufacturing is a critical sector to address, where industry is compelled to rethink the acts of sourcing, producing, consuming and handling goods and their subsequent ‘waste’ components. Over the last decade in particular, lean and green thinking has emerged as a desirable strategy to improve efficiency and environmental outcomes towards sustainable business practices that meet circular economy objectives. However, moving beyond ad hoc and champion-based take-up by organisations with deep pockets, there is generally a lack of momentum towards mainstreaming such lean and green focused operations in the many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) internationally. This research used case study analysis within the manufacturing sector in Queensland, Australia, to investigate how SMEs could readily engage in lean and green processes to achieve sustainable business practice with regard to the ‘3Ps’ of the triple bottom line (i.e. Planet, Profit and People). ‘Natural resource-based view theory’ and ‘Institutional theory’ were used to develop a conceptual framework to explain the findings. Results The paper describes the lean and green practices observed in the SMEs, drivers for implementation, and the perceived benefits within the realm of sustainable business practice. Building on case study findings, the authors provide the first 3P Model for lean and green strategy, presenting four steps that SMEs can follow, including a 3P matrix of tools to selectively engage with lean and green actions towards sustainable business practice. This model guides SMEs to use the best tools and processes given their circumstances and aspirations. Conclusions The model has the immediate benefit of focusing SME time and resources towards circular economy enquiry, reducing uncertainty and enabling forward-planning. The findings provide practical guidelines to enable SMEs to achieve sustainable business practice while appreciating the ‘triple bottom line’ approach. The findings also have immediate policy and governance implications within the public and private sector, providing guidance on integrating lean and green thinking to advance from doing ‘business as usual’