Environmental and Social Sustainability Assessment of Public Infrastructure - Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Public infrastructure serves as a significant medium for mobility, whereas a drastic proportion of environmental and social impacts are also generated throughout its lifecycle. This emphasizes the need to conduct an extensive assessment to determine the level of ecological and social impacts of infrastructure . Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) are tools that can be used to evaluate these impacts comprehensively over the lifeycle of infrastructure. These tools can identify potential hotspots and help inform decision-making for sustainable practices by examining the entire lifecycle, from material extraction to deconstruction. However, there exists a lack of understanding regarding analysis requirements and what constitutes the optimal or best way to perform such analyses. This paper provides a detailed account regarding LCA and S-LCA for infrastructure projects, and puts forward recommendations based on a review of best practices and lessons learned from an actual performance of sustainability assessment for an infrastructure. The findings emphasize the need for a comprehensive understanding of the environmental and social impacts, the importance of stakeholder engagement, and consideration of long-term societal benefits. Public infrastructure organizations can make informed decisions that can lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and improved social outcomes can also be achieved.