Infrastructure Projects’ Impact on Sustainable Development – Case Study of a Water-Utility Company

2015) is of paramount importance. However, for engineers and project managers to take meaningful action, they need to be provided with the practical tools, processes and leadership to turn grand rhetoric into viable engineering solutions. Linking infrastructure project sustainability performance to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets is problematic. This paper builds on the previous development of a innovative Infrastructure Project Transformation Process Model, called the ‘Infrastructure SDG Impact-Value Chain’(IVC) (Mansell et al., 2019b) to link tactical-level project delivery with global-level strategic SDG impacts. It uses a case study of a water utility company to demonstrate how the IVC process model can integrate the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ to ensure balanced definition of success across economic, environmental and social thematic areas. The results led to a proposed methodology for project leaders to align stakeholders on a common definition of project success during the design phase. It includes selection of longer-term outcomes and strategic SDG impacts – which it is suggested are improved definitions of project success. The practical application is significant since, with improved linkage of tactical delivery to strategic SDG impacts, improved investments decisions will be made, and systemic level lessons can be applied to increase the likelihood of success in achieving the SDG 2030 targets.