ISCA Presents at IAP2 event
ISCA Presents at IAP2 event
On 4th September 50 people gathered in Sydney to hear Rick Walters share the new IS rating tool and the impact it can have on infrastructure sustainability around Australia and New Zealand.
IAP2 is the the Association that supports Community and Stakeholder Engagement professionals internationally. The Australasian Affiliate is the largest and fastest growing affiliate of IAP2. Much of this growth is driven by the growth in infrastructure.
Infrastructure is critical to economic growth in our cities and our regions and as ISCA is committed to sustainable infrastructure, so too IAP2 is committed to ensuring the engagement processes around infrastructure are solid and help reduce the risks associated with major infrastructure projects.
At the Sydney event, hosted by GHD, members of both IAP2 and ISCA attended from a variety of sectors including local and state government, environmental, infrastructure, planning, roads and transport.
The focus of this session was on the IS rating available through the Community health, well-being and safety category (Hea-1 and Hea-3) and the Stakeholder Participation category (Sta-1 to Sta-4). Examples of current and future project case studies were presented to help attendees understand the scope of what is possible through the IS process.
Jill Hannaford of GHD who has been on the task force for the development of this benchmark, discussed some changes made in the review that recommend an audit process to ensure that the engagement has been planned, meaningful, relevant and participatory with community concerns being addressed throughout the life cycle of the project.
IAP2’s CEO, Michelle Blicavs, spoke of the standards for engagement being developed for engagement projects which are expected to be released in early 2015.
The discussions, questions and networking post the event have created a buzz around the country and more joint events are planned to support the promotion and learning around the new IS rating tool. Stay tuned!