Host Seth Scott interviews Tania Hyde, Technical Director & Circular Design Lead (Transport & Infrastructure) at Beca. One of our most detailed episodes yet, Tania talks about Beca's Circular Design Framework, how infrastructure projects can achieve circular principles by asking tough questions, accounting for the Planet Price in purchasing, and free Circular Spatial Planning from TU Delft.   

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#podcast #infrastructure #sustainability #buildingtomorrow

S2E7 - Beca's Circular Design Framework w/ Tania Hyde

During our interview with Lisa McLean, Managing Director and CEO of Circular Australia, we learned of some of the impressive circular initiatives happening in Australia, such as: 

- The importance of building circular "precincts", a place to keep resources in circulation locally. 

- The new ISO 59000 Global Framework for implementing circular economy principles 

- Several of Circular Australia's members doing amazing things, such as Allmould's collection of St. Vincent's Hospital's plastics waste to form new plastic blocks for use in the wind industry.  

Lisa is the Managing Director and CEO of Circular Australia, an independent peak body for circular economy innovation. She has successfully advised industry and governments to bring market change with new policy frameworks and regulations enabling the circular zero-carbon economy over the next 20 years. Formerly a political journalist, Lisa was also founder of the carbon accounting service Carbonwise and helped establish the Clinton Climate Initiative. Lisa is leading the transition to a zero-carbon circular economy in Australia.  

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👉 Keep up to date with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council: Website: https://www.iscouncil.org/ LinkedIn:   / infrastructure-sustainability-council       

#podcast #infrastructure #sustainability #buildingtomorrow

S2E6 - Australia's Circular Economy w/ Lisa McLean

Today we're touring one of Waste Management's recovery centres in Auckland and meeting with Ingrid Cronin-Knight, Chief Growth and Sustainability Officer at Waste Management New Zealand. We talked to her about how to turn waste into gold.  

We learned a lot from our visit. Recycling isn't easy but when done right we can recover a good portion of our infrastructure materials, especially concrete, steel, gib, and timber. We also learned that the simple act of higher waste levies encourages more recycling and more emphasis on designing out waste. We need  more facilities like to take the load off landfills.   

Your impact at work far outweighs your impact as an individual. Not much of what you throw out of your home gets recycled. Even if you're sorting your food waste, green waste, glass, and plastics, the vast majority of what you throw out goes straight to landfill. That's what makes specifying recycling on infrastructure projects so important. Since concrete, steel and asphalt are the easiest to recycle, our work can make a massive impact.  

To learn more about Waste Management's construction waste recycling program, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZcK8CemEfU  

To learn more about Waste Management's work with Aliaxis Group to recycle plastic pipes, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS4kV4kkwrM

S2E5 - Eliminating Waste w/ Ingrid Cronin-Knight

Guest Speaker Georgine Roodenrys is a respected leader in regenerative industrial development, with deep expertise in decarbonisation, circular economy, and climate strategy. She is a Director at Rennie, where she advises clients on navigating the complex transition to a low-carbon economy, integrating sustainability, innovation, and human progress.   

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 👉 Like & Subscribe so you won't miss out on our upcoming episodes!

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  #podcast #infrastructure #sustainability #buildingtomorrow

S2E4 - Regenerate Nature w/ Georgine Roodenrys

Dr Nicole Garofano is an Australian leading expert in circular economy systems and sustainable materials management, recognised for her deep expertise in plastic waste and packaging value chains. She is currently the Head of Circular Economy Development at Planet Ark Environmental Foundation, where she works across industry, government, and research sectors to support the acceleration towards Australia’s transition to a circular economy. Nicole has over 20 years of experience in environmental education, waste management, international development, policy design, and circular economy. She holds a PhD from the University of Queensland focused on plastic packaging in island developing states. She has been a key voice in shaping national conversations on circular economy, and her work has advocated for systems-level change to improve design that embraces resource sufficiency and circular solutions.

S2E3 - What is Circular Economy w/ Nicole Garofano

This week on Infrastructure Connections we're talking to Veena Sahajwalla about micro recycling and the circular economy. The takeaways from this episode give us new ways to look at circularity:  

1. Companies are starting to re-think their identity. "We're not a waste company, we're a supply company." We supply resources as feedstock, resources that used to be waste for someone else.  

2. "If we zoom down to the micro recycling level, every material is important." If it was an important component of the original product, it will be important to recover for the next product.  

3. "Sustainability is a normal way to think. The more we can make it a norm, the more we can think of practical ways in which sustainability comes to life." 

4. We need to think of sustainability and recycling on a local level, specific to the local industries who need it, and make that recovery a priority. This is compared to the current method of sending our waste overseas and then buying it back as sources.   

Veena puts the re in resource.   

Veena is the Director of SMaRT Centre (Sustainable Materials Research & Technology) and Associate Dean (Strategic Industry Relations) faculty of Science, University of New South Wales.   

Her research interests include sustainability of materials and processes with emphasis on environmental benefits. She invented an environmentally friendly process for recycling plastics and rubber tyres in electric arc furnace steelmaking.   

She is an international award winning engineer. In 2012 she was named Overall Winner of the Australian Innovation Challenge Award. She was awarded the 2012 Banksia Award, the GE Eco Innovation Award and the 2005 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research.  

We hope you enjoy this episode. From now on we'll be releasing episodes on Thursdays fortnightly.   

👉 We'd love to hear your feedback, share your questions or comments below.  

👉 Like & Subscribe so you won't miss out on our upcoming episodes!  

👉 Keep up to date with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council: Website: https://www.iscouncil.org/ LinkedIn:   / infrastructure-sustainability-council        

 #podcast #infrastructure #sustainability #buildingtomorrow

S2E2 - Circular Innovation w/ Veena Sahajwalla

Welcome back to Infrastructure Connections, the podcast where we explore what makes sustainable infrastructure work, brought to you by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council. I'm your host, Seth Scott. And hooray! We made it into Season 2. 

This season we're exploring Circularity and the role it plays in infrastructure. What better way to start off than by looking at the circularity metrics of steel, a product that is virtually 100% recyclable. Nearly half of all steel is used in the infrastructure and construction industry, things like bridge beams and reinforcing bars and mesh, and much of the rest is used on what uses infrastructure, the planes, trains and automobiles. So today we'll be talking about steel with Steve Porter of Infrabuild.   

Steve is Head of Sustainability, Innovation & Trade at InfraBuild Australia, Australia's largest integrated manufacturer and supplier of steel long products. He's spent most of his career as a General Manager in the steel industry, and he is committed to shaping a sustainable, low-carbon future in energy intensive environments.   

We discuss circularity initiatives in the steel industry, initiatives like the Electric Arc Furnace which allows phenomenal recycling of scrap metal using renewable energy. We also look at how Material Circularity Indicators (MCI) can enhance EPDs for customers.  

For even more information, InfraBuild collaborated on the ISC Impact Notes on the Circular Economy, which you can find here: https://www.iscouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Circular-Economy-Impact-Note_Final-for-Publication.pdf

S2E1 - Material Circularity Indicators w/ Steve Porter

Guest Speaker Dr Sina Cotter Tait discusses the practice of equity and culture in infrastructure. From her vantage point as Director for the Infrastructure Commission, we investigated the role these will play in the future pipeline of sustainable infrastructure.

Episode 6 - Equity and Culture w/ Dr Sina Cotter Tait

Guest Speaker Sam Donaldson, Hub Sustainability Leader at Laing O’Rourke discusses the practice of Nature Based Financial Disclosures as a practitioner who has seen this work in the field. We also zero in on the  implications it has for the future of sustainable infrastructure.

Episode 5 - Taskforce for Nature Based Financial Disclosure w/ Sam Donaldson

Host Seth Scott discusses with Guest Speakers Neelesh Rampal, Climate Data Scientist and Dr Peter Gibson, Climate Scientist both from NIWA on the role of data in New Zealand climate projections. We looked into their NIWA research on "High-resolution climate projects using physics and AI" and tackled its potential impacts on infrastructure.

How AI and physics create high-resolution climate projections

A knowledge sharing podcast brought to you by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council.
Follow and join us on our next episodes!

Infrastructure Connections

A knowledge sharing podcast brought to you by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council. 

Follow and join us on our next episodes!



Infrastructure Connections

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