BUILDING AN
ENVIRONMENTALLY AND SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEM A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY An environmentally and socially sustainable transport infrastructure system is essential, not only for tackling climate change. It serves to support community wellbeing without sacrificing economic development. In South Australia, the performance of urban roads and public transport appears to be a real challenge. How can we deliver transport infrastructure in a more environmentally friendly way without compromising on either the principles of sufficiency (involving avoiding and reducing the demand for energy and resources for consumers) or efficiency (involving the boosting of productivity to satisfy human wants by providing more commodities for the economy)? Actually, every one of us can play our part in realising a lean, green and clean system.
THE COMMUNITY
ф Cycle, walk or use scooters – people moving around using their own power! This inexpensive form of mobility can help to tackle pollution by reducing emissions, and improve health.
ф Replace petrol-run vehicles with electric ones to help reduce the emission of carbon monoxide. ф Use public transport more – fuel is conserved, air pollution will decrease, so will the carbon footprint. ф Instead of sitting in a traffic jam in a Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV), and breathing in air from exhaust fumes, car-pool to help reduce the number of vehicles on the road, to reduce pollution and fuel consumption. ф Live closer to work to reduce travel time, enjoy more free time, and take holidays closer to home.
THE CIVIL CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
ф Road construction introduces a lot of foreign material to the natural environment and can disrupt existing soil conditions. Keep project length to a minimum and cut back on the number of stop work orders that can keep a site closed or work to drag on and affect the environment.
ф Limit the usage of fuel (especially fossil fuels) and gas when carrying out projects, to reduce gas emissions of carbon dioxide and
methane, and other waste products that add to pollution. ф Reduce fuel usage by reducing vehicle idling time, minimising haul distances, using alternative green fuel resources, using hybrid equipment and vehicles etc. Reduce transport distances by the preplanning of routes to minimise mileage, plan jobs and load vehicles properly to avoid unnecessary trips to work sites. ф Use local materials and suppliers to help reduce the excessive carbon footprint created by importation. ф With the industry facing increasing challenges from the environmental, social and economic fronts, it has become necessary to search for better construction materials. ф Explore using road base materials that can help to sequester carbon, and build roads that can capture solar or kinetic energy to generate electricity. ф Reuse and recycle existing materials like hardware or appliances and fixtures. Even brick and concrete can be reused as fill or driveway bedding. ф In South Australia, trials with reusing waste plastic and glass in road construction have proven successful. Even metal and wood can find second lives! This approach could be adapted to address supply issues beyond our control eg oil supply issues when another country is engulfed in warfare. ф Explore technological advances to help calculate greenhouse emissions and energy consumption so any carbon footprint created can then be offset by the planting of an appropriate number of trees. ф Properly dispose of waste and not add to landfill unnecessarily.
