Assessing the Impact of Infrastructure Projects on Global Sustainable Development Goals

While sustainability of civil infrastructure is critical to professionals, project owners, regulators, funding agencies and the public, little is done to link individual project sustainability to the United Nation’s 17 global sustainable development goals for 2030. This paper provides some answers but also exposes many questions that need resolution by the infrastructure sector. Using empirical evidence, the authors have identified a ‘golden thread’ between best-practice sustainability-reporting frameworks at project level with those at organisational level. In doing so, they find there is sufficient linkage to embed sustainable-development-goal impact targets into the design stage of an infrastructure project. This would provide a more robust investment appraisal at the project design phase, helping to define project success more widely across the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental outcomes and associated impact.