Sustainable Infrastructure: Definition, Dimension, & Benefit

With many environmental impacts caused by global warming and climate change, humans must be more careful when building infrastructure. According to the UN Environment Program, infrastructure contributes 79% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s why green actions like sustainable infrastructure must be supported to reduce damage caused by carbon emissions and human activity. This article discusses the ins and outs of infrastructure, so read the explanation here.

What Is Sustainable Infrastructure?

Sustainable infrastructure is an infrastructure providing economic, social, and environmental advantages in the long term. Sustainable infrastructure is important to achieve global climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, this effort also grows the global economy.

As the global population grows, this can disrupt the economic, social, and environmental balance because infrastructure must be designed appropriately to provide everyone with equal opportunities and facilities.

It is not uncommon for some areas of the world to have areas that are chaotically designed, use too much energy, and even lack adequate public transportation facilities. Thus, sustainable infrastructure is here with more integrated, climate change-resilient, and sustainable urban area solutions.

The concept of sustainable infrastructure is designed to fulfill the population's needs, such as power plants, roads, bridges, and others, adhering to sustainable principles. As a result, the infrastructure must be entirely environmentally friendly and include governance, economic, and social factors.

4 Dimensions of Sustainable Infrastructure

Sustainable infrastructure has characteristics that consider four sustainable dimensions, such as:

1. Environment

Sustainable infrastructure reduces the environmental impact and supports natural resources conservation. This also includes the efforts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, manage waste wisely, implement water and energy efficiency, and conserve biodiversity.

Regarding this dimension, Chandra Asri Group, as the leading energy, chemical, and infrastructure solution company in Southeast Asia, commits to environmental responsibility in every operational network.

Some of the actions are lowering harmful emissions, preventing air pollution, monitoring emission levels, managing resources efficiently, reducing wastewater, minimizing operational waste, and protecting biodiversity.

2. Social

Sustainable infrastructure supports inclusion and social equality, meaning that everyone must be able to access the basic infrastructure and services they need.

Some efforts are to consider community input in planning and decision-making for sustainable infrastructure development, ensure accessibility for people with disabilities, create local jobs, and improve the quality of life in the surrounding communities.

The Chandra Asri group also emphasizes the participation values and community’s involvement as well as collects inputs from the community. This action aims to ensure that the company’s social responsibility programs stay relevant.

We target education, health, the economy, the environment, and social sectors and make sure that the community can get the optimal services and facilities.

3. Economy

Sustainable infrastructure must contribute to sustainable economic building and be proper in terms of finances in the long term. The actions can support the efficient use of financial resources, maximize return on investment (ROI) over the infrastructure lifecycle, and encourage job creation and technological innovation.

Chandra Asri Group also contributes to supporting the local economy with skill development to create proper and diverse jobs. We also develop businesses through partnership programs so that communities can benefit economically.

4. Governance

Sustainable infrastructure must support the sustainability of infrastructure management and development. This is certainly supported by a strong governance framework, accountability, and transparency.

Regarding governance, Chandra Asri Group upholds business ethics and ensures that all aspects of the company's operations remain transparent, with integrity and accountability. We also develop training to comply with ethical standards and emphasize fairness, honesty, and respect among our employees.

Sustainable Infrastructure in the Triple Bottom Line

The triple bottom line (TBL) emphasizes three aspects, which are people, profit, and planet. According to “Sustainable Infrastructure: An Overview, Placing Infrastructure in the Context of Sustainable Development,” here is the concept of sustainable infrastructure in terms of the triple bottom line:

1. Profit

In general, sustainable infrastructure is not only about financial resources but also about economy and cost advantages, in which this structure must contribute to gross domestic product (GDP), creating job openings and opening access to the market.

This book also notes that to be sustainable, an infrastructure project must have a positive net present value (NPV) and an economic rate of return that is greater than the minimum value determined by the government.

2. People

Sustainable infrastructure must include hard and soft components. Hard infrastructure is physical assets supporting social service development, such as hospitals and schools.

On the other hand, soft infrastructure is an asset that enables the public to get their social rights and encourages public service governance.

Sustainable infrastructure should include both hard and soft infrastructure, contribute to the development of the local area, and be able to mitigate any social impacts of the project, such as relocation.

3. Planet

Sustainable infrastructure must be environmentally safe and develop its role as a tool to adapt to extreme weather and climate change. This surely is achieved by utilizing natural resources and ecosystems responsibly.

Advantages of Sustainable Infrastructure

Sustainable infrastructure provides some advantages affecting the economy, society, and environment. Here are the benefits:

1. Improving Life Quality

Sustainable infrastructure can provide essential services, such as sanitation, transportation, energy, and clean water. It can improve the public’s quality of life by ensuring that they have access to basic services, especially for vulnerable communities.

2. Escalating the Sustainability of the Environment

This infrastructure is built to minimize adverse impacts on the environment. In this regard, project executors need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, use resources efficiently, and carry out ecosystem conservation.

3. Saving Cost

This infrastructure is more efficient in using energy and resources. Consequently, it can be more cost-effective in the long term, especially for maintenance costs. Not only that, but sustainable infrastructure players can also benefit from environmental services and renewable energy services.

4. Adapting to the Environment

Sustainable infrastructure is more resilient in overcoming natural disasters and extreme weather since it is designed to withstand and recover from disasters effectively. As a result, material and life losses can be lowered.

5. Opening Job Opportunities

The operation and construction process can create new jobs in various sectors. This can boost the region's economy and build a stronger and more diverse economy.

That is the information about sustainable infrastructure you can learn. As the population continues to grow and the effects of climate change become more visible, implementing this infrastructure could be one solution.

Regarding eco-friendly infrastructure, Chandra Asri Group, as a chemical, energy, and infrastructure company, has carried out several sustainable efforts, such as developing plastic asphalt.

This year, Chandra Asri Group, together with the Garut Regency Government and Yayasan Bakti Barito, released an evaluation research on the implementation of plastic asphalt. The research was conducted on 23 roads in Garut Regency, and the results showed that the asphalt with 6.1% plastic in it can improve the durability of the road.

To support the plastic asphalt implementation in Indonesia, Chandra Asri Group also develops the CIRCLOⓇ franchise. CIRCLOⓇ is an asphalt plastic mixture product made from shredded plastic bags.

The franchise allows regional vendors and recyclers to produce standardized raw materials for asphalt mixes. In addition, Chandra Asri Group helps local recyclers and vendors convert plastic bags into high-quality mixtures. This surely can be a green action to develop sustainable infrastructure in the future.