the SSA Certification Program, Level 2A, 2B, and 3 is now an ISC Approved Environmental Type I Label, with a Sustainability Factor (SF) of 1.00  

The IS Rating Scheme is the third sustainability rating system to recognise SSA and follows the successful recognition of SSA in the Green Building Council of Australia’s (GBCA) Green Star Buildings and Green Star Communities rating tools. 

The IS Rating Scheme benchmarks best practice sustainability standards on infrastructure assets across the Planning, Design, Construction, and Operation phases of projects, and SSA’s new recognition with ISC leads the way for SSA clients to supply sustainable steel to government and private industry infrastructure projects seeking IS Ratings. 

The ISC is a member-based, purpose-led organisation working in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to enable sustainability outcomes in infrastructure. They provide IS ratings on projects, deliver training and accreditation for infrastructure sustainability professionals, and host networking events, awards and conferences for their members. 

Over 200 projects across Australia and New Zealand are now IS certified and nearly 300 projects are registered, indicating a healthy pipeline of projects seeking sustainability credentials, enabling your SSA Certification to take you further.  

The increasing demand for IS ratings is fuelled by a growing number of government and private sector policies including: 

The Australian Government’s Environmentally Sustainable Procurement Policy that specifies Australian government construction projects over $7.5M must now report on sustainability outcomes and the IS and GBCA Rating tools are approved reporting pathways.  

Transurban, a major infrastructure operator, has mandated the use of IS Ratings for all new major projects across their operations in Australia and North America, requiring its projects to achieve an ‘Excellent’ IS Rating as a minimum standard.

The Infrastructure delivery for the Brisbane 2023 Olympic and Paralympic Games requires all new linear infrastructure or significant upgrades to target an IS Rating of ‘Excellent’ or greater. The Queensland Sustainability Reporter 2024 is available here.

Transport for NSW strongly encourages and promotes the use of the IS Design & As-Built rating system in its infrastructure projects with a capital value over $15 million, to help achieve its sustainability goals and to deliver economic, social and environmental benefits. 

This is in addition to TfNSW mandating that at least 60% of its fabricated structural steelwork is supplied by SSA Certified fabricators (refer S.4 in Appendix G in its Sustainable Design Guidelines) 

For more information on ISC and the IS Rating tools refer to the Infrastructure Sustainability Council website.

For more information on SSA and how to become certified see https://www.steelsustainability.com.au or contact Melinda Coles, Sustainability Scheme Manager melindac@steel.org.au