• ACCIONA collected three prizes at the 2022 Infrastructure Sustainability Council Awards, including the prestigious Private Sector – Large award.

This goes to organisations that demonstrate a strong contribution to industry, leading the sector towards low carbon, resilient and inclusive infrastructure.

Our submission leveraged the SMP2025 and the work we are currently doing around decarbonisation. It covered all our SMP2025 pillars and linked them to both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and key credits contained with the IS Rating Scheme.

Watch our fantastic video submission here.

On accepting the award, Head of HSEQS Paul O’Connell thanked ISC for their work with and for the industry, and our clients who value sustainability. “The ultimate challenge of sustainability involves us driving each other daily to do better, to innovate. There’s so much more to achieve, and there’s real momentum. It’s an exciting time.”

“To my team and the projects that should be up here – what a team! And ACCIONA – what a place to work! ACCIONA has given us licence to be brave, to drive regenerative change and invest in our planet.”

The other two awards were for Excellence in Economic Outcomes, won by ACCIONA Samsung Bouygues Joint Venture for developing a world-first shotcrete application process for the lining of the M4-M5 Link Tunnels, and Outstanding Achievement – IS Design (v1.2), won by the Southern Program Alliance for achieving the highest design rating (within the category) of 92 points for their work on AWP2: Edithvale, Chelsea and Bonbeach.

ACCIONA had a compelling presence at the event, with seven finalists and sponsorship of the Enduring Impact award, which saw Executive General Manager Craig McGrory present and further extol the sustainability values of our organisation, saying the three awards were “fantastic recognition of a fundamental ACCIONA value”.

The finalists were:

1. Excellence in Social Outcomes, Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport’s major earthworks package
2. Excellence in Social Outcomes, Edithvale, Chelsea and Bonbeach Level Crossing Removal Project
3. Excellence in Environmental Outcomes, Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport’s major earthworks package
4. Excellence in Economic Outcomes, WestConnex M4-M5 Link Tunnels
5. Private Sector – Large, ACCIONA
6. Emerging Leader, Hala Nader
7. Sustainability Champion, John Wiggers de Vries

We should acknowledge the two individuals in the night's most hotly contested categories: John Wiggers de Vries for Sustainability Champion and Hala Nader for Emerging Leader.

Those who know and work with both John and Hala will know just how amazing they are and how deserving they were of being a finalist. While they didn’t walk away with the award this year, we couldn’t be prouder of their impact and will continue to have within our organisation and the broader industry.

M4-M5 Link Tunnels Collects Excellence in Economic Outcomes at ISC Awards

Congratulations to the WestConnex M4-M5 Link Tunnels project for winning the Excellence in Economic Outcomes award.

After extensive research and development with the supply chain that took more than a year, the ACCIONA Samsung Bouygues Joint Venture developed a world-first shotcrete application process for the lining of the M4-M5 Link Tunnels in Sydney. This process included creating an innovative shotcrete design mix and improving techniques to apply shotcrete to the tunnel walls to reduce rebound.

Tunnel Lining Objectives

• To develop a new offering for this and future projects that use shotcrete for tunnel lining. Future tunnel projects will be able to capitalise on the sustainability benefits of a proven high-performance shotcrete and incorporate it into their tunnel design.
• To provide pathways for future collaboration with stakeholders (supply chain, designers, construction team and independent certifiers) to conduct research and development, to show proof of concepts, and to address engineering challenges with substantial sustainability benefits on upcoming infrastructure projects.

Tunnel Lining Outcomes

• A reduction of more than 33,000 (t CO2-e) of embodied carbon. This has reduced the amount of shotcrete used on the project by 27,000m³ (15%) and reinforced steel fibres by 830 tonnes (10%).
• The removal of 9,000 heavy vehicle movements off Sydney’s local and main roads.
• Demonstrated cost savings of $11 million to the project by minimising materials by applying innovative high-performance shotcrete.
• A permanent shift in the supply chain for how future tunnel projects will be designed and constructed.

The legacy of the high-performance shotcrete used for the lining of the M4-M5 Link Tunnels is a design mix that has allowed the project to reduce the thickness of the lining of the tunnels by 15%. This design mix is expected to be business as usual for future road tunnel projects requiring shotcrete for tunnel linings.

About the ISC Awards

The 2022 Infrastructure Sustainability Council Awards continue the Council’s well-established tradition of advancing sustainability leadership by celebrating best practices across the Australian and New Zealand infrastructure sectors.

• encouraging best practice
• acknowledging leadership
• recognising role models
• rewarding valuable contributions
• promoting leading organisations

This year’s awards exemplified excellence in sustainability across environmental, social, governance, and economic quadruple bottom line outcomes and outstanding contributions to market transformation at organisational, systemic and societal levels.