Why infrastructure leaders need to plan with climate change in mind

A bucket catching droplets of water in one of Dubai’s most luxurious malls, and cars driving on the shoulder of its roadways to avoid flooding is not an uncommon sight in what used to be one of the driest countries on the globe.

The recent torrential rains that the United Arab Emirates has been experiencing is extremely uncharacteristic for the nation. Which makes sense as to why their infrastructure was not design around withstanding such storms.

Climate change, however, has altered that. The number of climate disasters globally has doubled over the past two decades.

Cities like Dubai are not isolated in their experience of devastating environmental events.

Just last year, South Africa’s very own KwaZulu-Natal saw floods that wreaked havoc, causing billions of rand of damage to roads, bridges and buildings.

Olebogeng Manhe, Chairman of the Gap Infrastructure Corporation, said infrastructure leaders must adapt in order to join the fight against climate change.

Future-proofing construction

Manhe explained that given the severity climate change; engineers, architects and developers are now compelled to continually seek out ways in which to ‘future-proof’ construction and infrastructure projects.

This was not just limited to the durability of the structure in the face of harsh weathers, but also in the way it was implemented, so as to reduce the carbon footprint of doing just this.

“There are many practical ways and new technologies that can assist in preparing against any potential future environmental damage. But leaders in the infrastructure sector will also have to adapt their ways of thinking if we are to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions, pushing them outside of their comfort zone and forcing them to obtain new capabilities,” he said.

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“Companies which are involved in large-scale projects must be cognisant of how this will impact demands on leadership. Traditionally, infrastructure leaders with an engineering or technical background have not always been involved in such areas of expertise like climate change. But as modern leaders, it is now crucial to identify, understand and drive companies’ social and environmental agenda as well,” he explained.

ESG

Manhe went on to say that infrastructure projects have an enormous social and environmental impact, and it was for this reason that most employees and investors expect that projects will be constructed with sustainability in mind and executed in a way that provides long-term value to communities.

He said it was up to leaders to convince stakeholders to commit to fulfilling their ESG goals.

According to Deloitte, ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. These are called pillars in ESG frameworks and represent the three main topic areas that companies are expected to report in. The goal of ESG is to capture all the non-financial risks and opportunities inherent to a company’s day to day activities.

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“As a leader in the infrastructure industry, I understand that these requirements are not insignificant, nor are the challenges that companies face in prioritising sustainability at every level of their organisations and projects. Finishing projects on time, within a budget, while still meeting emission reduction targets is no simple task.

“Therefore, it is important for leaders to work across their value chains with all stakeholders to adapt the conventional economic measurements against which the success of a project is determined,” he said.

“We can achieve our goals of reducing emissions if we hire more leaders who think out of the box, challenge norms and look at problems from a unique angle, in order to change lives,” he concluded.