7 things project managers should do for an ISC rating

For a project manager, it’s exciting venturing on to a new infrastructure project, whether you are bidding or kicking-off delivery.  

You look forward to leveraging your experience from past projects and starting afresh with new challenges and people. 

You may be familiar with ‘ISC ratings’, but when your client indicates they are expecting one, it’s important to understand the implications this carries for project delivery.  

Spelled out, it means an Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating from the Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC), which is an independent industry association.  

A strength lies in the fact that your client (e.g. the proponent) is driven to achieve superior outcomes across multiple areas, and they’re prepared to delve deep into practical discussions around efficiencies and innovation. They are also likely to be using the IS rating as additional assurance and risk management. 

But when you mention it to colleagues in passing, their response is not universally positive. IS ratings can be a challenging due to the level of detail and complexity, which some project managers initially underestimate. 

At Losee Consulting, having helped many project managers in this situation, we’ve developed seven top tips to get started with an IS rating.

1. Take it seriously

Sustainability may not be top of mind when navigating tricky commercial landscapes or engineering challenges. You may even be unsure what sustainability means.*  

However, an IS rating demands your attention.  

First, it is common for the sustainability ratings to be high profile for clients. Your client organisation may have made a commitment to roll-out IS ratings across multiple projects and assets and then use the results to demonstrate their agency’s environmental and community responsibility to ministers or the public.   

Second, there are project management challenges to acquire the necessary skills, predict the required resourcing, and ensure your contracts and associated budgets can accommodate these.

2. Get advice from an ‘initiated’ professional

Find someone who can help you unpack what the IS-rating requirement means for your project such as a colleague who has delivered an IS-rated project before, a sustainability leader in your business, or a sustainability consultant like Losee Consulting. 

An ‘Infrastructure Sustainability Accredited Professional’ (ISAP) is a good place to start, but working with someone with practical knowledge of the scheme will provide invaluable insight specific to your project and help you identify cost-effective opportunities and potential pitfalls.

3. Clarify what tool and version applies

IS rating schemes apply to different project phases (planning, design, construction, operation) and scales (e.g. IS Essentials for some sub-$100 million CAPEX projects) as well as ‘programs’ made up of multiple projects (e.g. the Inland Rail program).  In some cases, the rating scheme is applied only semi-formally and ‘uncertified’.  

The dominant ‘Design & As Built’ rating scheme has evolved through multiple versions, each of which have crucial differences – from 1.2, to 2.0, 2.1 and is now transitioning to version 2.2.  

A typical client requirement is: ‘Achieve a Design & As Built IS rating, Version 2.1.’ 

These crucial differences include entirely different requirements at the ‘credit level’. For example, it is common to implement regular sustainability auditing with the version 1.2 schemes, but this will not gain points directly under the version 2 series. With the version 2 series, there is greater focus on detailed ‘SMART’ targets, which appear throughout the rating requirements.

4. Clarify what’s been done

Usually, work on sustainability has already progressed, which will affect your responsibilities. For example, the client may have undertaken sustainability work in the planning or business case phases.  

Sometimes a ‘design only’ rating will have commenced or been completed, and you will only be responsible for the ‘As Built’ rating. In this case, what you can achieve under ‘As Built’ will be highly affected by the successes and shortcomings of the design rating. 

Effectively, things can be locked-in, already completed, or become impossible to achieve in earlier stages. Likewise, if you’re in the planning phase, your efforts may enable future successes.

5. Check what’s buried in the specs

Does your project specification (SWTC, PSTS, etc.) have a sustainability appendix? If so, you might be surprised to discover just how long it is.

You may find: 

• • Expectations for sustainability personnel 
  • Hold points for completing a sustainability management plan 
  • Timeframes to meet by Issued for Construction (IFC) in design or Practical Completion (PC) in construction 
  • Details that affect engineering (e.g. minimum % Supplementary Cementitious Material in concrete, or required use of biodiesel) 
  • Financial incentives or penalties for performance 
  • Mandatory ‘levels’ to be achieved in individual rating scheme credits 
  • Vastly greater stakeholder engagement and workshop requirements than usual 
  • Targets (e.g. 15% reduction in whole-of-life greenhouse gas emissions).

Plus, you’ll need to understand which party is responsible for what. For example, does your company have to pay the IS registration or has the client already done that? Does your company make the rating submission, or do you just provide your client organisation with input?

6. Negotiate impracticalities

Sometimes clients’ sustainability ambitions exceed practicality. Of course, this is different from inconvenience or costs you didn’t expect.  

If, for example, you are being asked to use materials that are not on the market, or contravene the client’s own engineering specifications, or complete work months after your team has demobilised, then you need to highlight these matters and negotiate reasonable arrangements with the client.  

The earlier the better.

7. Budget for the effort required

Getting an IS rating involves, among other things: 

• Planning ahead for the delivery phase 
• Setting-up and adapting systems (e.g. data collection and procurement procedures) 
• Engaging with and educating leadership and the wider team 
• Monitoring implementation and preparing regular reports 
• Collecting and collating evidence documents 
• Analysing data and conducting modelling of resource use 
• Writing ‘Credit Summary Forms’ 
• Liaising with ISC, making the rating submission and addressing verifier feedback. 

These tasks are labour-intensive. You will need to secure the necessary expertise and allow for the cost in the budget.  

Fortunately, good sustainability programs generally find cost savings by promoting efficiencies and innovation.

It’s a good problem to have

Embracing the IS rating challenge can unlock new potential in your career as a project manager, cement relationships with clients, increase employee engagement, provide a great talking point with the community and give you a fun new intellectual challenge.

*What sustainability means

Sustainability is about an integrated consideration of environmental, social and economic dimensions in decision making and action. It helps us focus on long-term benefits and costs for society and the environment.