Sustainability & Climate ChangeBringing climate opportunities to life

A holistic systems view delivers the right advice

Our difference is that we maintain a holistic systems view to provide a collective voice for clients on their journey towards lowering carbon emissions and decarbonising. Aurecon offers a depth of expertise in transition risk, environmental, social and governance (ESG), circular economy transition, energy transition, decarbonisation, carbon markets, and physical risk and resilience.

Our teams work with clients to execute sharply on their current business models while developing a multitude of options to secure future growth and competitive advantage in response to climate change and elevating uncertainty. We have market-recognised innovators and technical specialists across strategy, advisory, project development and delivery who are working with clients, and also contributing to progressive change as representatives and members of industry associations.

Our comprehensive range of design, engineering and advisory services are designed to assist company leaders across the markets we work in to address the complex challenges posed by the transition and physical risks associated with climate change. We understand their risks and opportunities so clients can make informed decisions.

While there are challenges to overcome as society transitions to a more sustainable future, if industry, government and communities have the right capacity and advice, they can model what a successful transition looks like for all. Organisations seek our knowledge and experience to understand their climate change mitigation options and priorities, and costs and benefits, including quantifying the costs of not acting.

How we deliver sustainable, competitive advantage

We place people at the heart of all we do. We partner with clients to realise their competitive advantage and create economies of scale for operational productivity and value chain optimisation. Then we use design, engineering and advisory expertise to help build climate resilience into infrastructure, assets and corporate strategy, to achieve an organisation’s ESG objectives.

While the business case for decarbonisation and net-zero carbon emissions is clear, there is no standard pathway to reach this destination. Therefore, we work with each client to define solutions that respond to their specific requirements and objectives.

We deliver differently by focusing on optimising operations across entire asset lifecycles using three specific levers of change:

Treat decarbonisation as an operations opportunity – Understanding the implications today for an asset’s life will determine its value and investment decisions on balance sheets. For instance, embedding circular economy practices today means carbon and sustainability savings in the short, medium and long-term.

Achieve system level decarbonisation – Decarbonise value chains and make them more sustainable. Work with clients to reduce the cost of decarbonisation inside their specific organisations.

Manage carbon – Determine what can be removed by using carbon markets or creating high-quality carbon credits. Having a forecast of the likely carbon price over the coming decade, or longer, will help an organisation to decide when, and to what extent, to decarbonise operations to reduce carbon costs.

Our services

The urgency for public or private organisations to address sustainability is driven by several factors. Global reporting frameworks and standards are likely to be adopted in Australia, and potentially other jurisdictions. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) are the most progressed and will pressure organisations to buy carbon offsets to address current emissions while simultaneously working on programmes to decarbonise.

In Australia particularly, company directors are being reminded of their directors’ duties as climate risks are foreseeable and therefore must be reported on, and managed, similar to other business risks. There may be penalties for directors and companies that do not manage climate risk, or report and act accordingly.

In addition, stakeholders such as customers, investors and regulators are increasingly demanding sustainable practices and transparency. Aurecon partners with clients to identify and manage reputation and asset risk, creating social value, environmental value, and meeting stakeholder expectations.

We identify key business risks and opportunities and devise advice pathways and solutions to the technical challenges associated with physical and transition risk.

Transition risk: Our teams are working with organisations to identify their corporate pathways and target setting with the aim of decarbonising operations and preparing for international reporting requirements, directors’ duties, and increasing scrutiny from regulators and stakeholders.

Physical risk: Our specialists are in demand for their use of climate scenarios to assess and protect against short-term and long-term risks to all sorts of infrastructure, including tailings dams, road and railway infrastructure, water and energy infrastructure, retail property, hospitals, airports, data centres and communities. We also advise on risks across value chains, including resources, manufacturing, materials and food supply.

We guide company leaders around how their operations, business models, value chains or assets, interact with the natural environment and have an impact on human, social and environmental well-being.

Transition risk services

Physical risk services