Our collaboration with Transurban on sustainability is already generating some great ideas that will deliver enduring and positive outcomes to our communities and environment.
David McPadden, Executive Manager Transport Operations
An exciting partnership with client Transurban is helping us to identify ways we can work together to achieve positive sustainability outcomes including reducing our carbon footprint.
Transurban is one of the world’s largest toll road operators, with operations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, as well as in the United States and Canada. As an industry leader, Transurban sets high standards for its performance on social and environmental issues and invests in both areas to create social inclusion and manage environmental impacts.
Ventia provides traffic incident response and maintenance services to Transurban, on motorways and tunnels across Australia.
Transurban is excited to be partnering with committed suppliers such as Ventia to explore what’s possible and push into new and emerging areas of social and environmental sustainability.
Matthew Brennan, Head of Sustainability Strategy, Transurban
At the inaugural meeting of our Joint Sustainability Governance Group in November 2019, senior representatives from Transurban and Ventia identified four areas of focus: road emissions, roadside litter, diversity and modern slavery. The Group now meets three times a year to progress our shared sustainability agenda.
Although the sustainability partnership is in its early days, we have already begun work on two promising initiatives.
Electric vehicles. To reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from our vehicle fleet, we are investigating the possibility of transitioning to electric vehicles on our Transurban contracts. This is in line with Transurban’s own significant emissionreduction targets. One opportunity under investigation is a switch to electric truck-mounted attenuators (TMAS). These are the vehicles used to protect the safety of our road crews and motorists by providing a cushioned crash barrier to absorb the impact of collisions.
M2 roadside litter. Each year Ventia collects approximately 25 tonnes of roadside litter from the Hills M2 Motorway in Sydney. In addition to the small items of rubbish that you might expect to see on the sides of the motorway, we collect a surprisingly high number of large items such as mattresses and Christmas trees.
A roadside litter waste audit is planned within the M2 motorway corridor.
The results of the audit will allow us to explore options for reducing the amount of roadside litter that goes to landfill by redirecting as much as possible to recycling centres or re-using organic matter as compost on Transurban sites.
Additionally, we continue to improve the diversity of our teams supporting Transurban. Our targeted recruitment processes are driving a higher proportion of female applicants which has increased female participation each year for the past two years.
“Our collaboration with Transurban on sustainability is already generating some great ideas that will deliver enduring and positive outcomes to our communities and environment,” says David McPadden, Executive Manager Transport Operations.
“We believe there is a real opportunity to replicate this model with other clients in the future.”
Partnerships like the one with Transurban demonstrate what can be achieved when we focus on the four core areas outlined in our Sustainability Framework: climate, partnerships, people and governance.
