This is what sustainable infrastructure looks like and why it will fast-track recovery

The Great Reset will be shaped by the infrastructure we plan, design and construct. And infrastructure development is likely to take a leading role in national economic recovery efforts in the wake of COVID-19. Historically, it has been a significant factor in catalyzing economic growth.

There is also a tide of opinion swelling towards the idea that the world we build after this pandemic needs to be significantly different to the one we had before. The dual economic and health shocks of 2020 seem to have increased the appetite for change, offering a rare window for radical thinking.

The infrastructure that results from this momentum must be the type of sustainable infrastructure that can help societies meet the challenges of the future.

But what do we mean by sustainable? While often understood to mean environmentally sound, sustainable infrastructure has a much wider framing. These projects and systems must also be economically, socially and technologically sustainable to truly meet the moment and endure well beyond it.

These qualities can help ensure that the infrastructure we build is sustainable in a variety of ways. While they are comprehensive and may seem ambitious, they are by no means impossible to achieve.

There are many infrastructure projects built around the world already that can serve as guides. A group of hospitals developed by Meridiam for the Turkish government incorporates all of these qualities, from focusing on environmental resilience by becoming the first public-private partnerships in Turkey to feature comprehensive ESG, SDG and climate monitoring reporting, to critical mass potential by developing a specific framework for executing on these types of healthcare sector PPPs.

The story is much the same with the Saïss Water Conservation Project developed in Morocco and backed by the European Bank for Reconstructing and Development. To integrate social acceptability, a stakeholder engagement plan was developed that included an emphasis on supporting the creation of women-led businesses to improve female economic inclusion. Future-proofing was also a focus to ensure the long-term viability of the fragile water source, with technical cooperation grants mobilized to monitor the water level and control water extraction.

These are just a few of the examples of the many projects that provide sustainable infrastructure and establishing a clear defibition of the characteristics of sustainable infrastructure is an important factor in financing its construction.

With governments fiscally constrained by efforts to stabilize their COVID-ravaged economies, they will likely have to draw on multiple sources for financing to fund sustainable infrastructure development, including the private sector.

ESG-focused investments have become ever more attractive and are projected to increase in value when the pandemic wanes. More concretely definitions help create an investable asset class that can draw in the financing needed.

The pandemic has laid bare a world in crisis. Environmental degradation and climate change continue to threaten lives and livelihoods around the world. Economic inequality within and between societies is becoming untenable. Long-running injustice and exclusion has forced a worldwide reckoning with how we treat one another.

To address these deficiencies, economies and societies must be supported by high-quality, future-focused infrastructure. As all of our successes depend ever more on developing in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable way, we must focus on how we can build the infrastructure to support the architecture of a better future for all.

This op-ed draws from the findings of the recent World Economic Forum report, Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure In Action.