Infrastructure Sustainability Council appoints Laing O’Rourke’s Richard Coleman to board

The Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC) has appointed Laing O’Rourke’s head of HSE Richard Coleman to its board of directors.

The role of the ISC is to accelerate the positive impact of infrastructure to deliver social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits according to Coleman.

“Infrastructure is vital to a well-functioning society, but to deliver that infrastructure without an appropriate long-term perspective on its sustainability impact, risks it being ultimately counter-productive to society.

"In my mind, ISC exists to both drive that forward-thinking, as well as to ensure that there’s no backsliding in performance. We learn, we improve and we go again,” he said.

Coleman also chairs the board of citizen science organisation Reef Check Australia as well as playing a key leadership role in ensuring that Laing O’Rourke meets its sustainability targets.

According to Coleman, this operational and functional experience, and his experience in leading high-performing teams will be critical to developing the ISC board.

“At Laing O’Rourke our executive team has spent a great deal of time understanding each other, our individual purposes and our mutual aims. We know how each other prefer to work, our strengths and our weakness and we spend time checking in with each other about how we are feeling, our capacity and whether we need help. That continues to drive our business forward.

“If I can bring that level of introspection to the board and the wider ISC team then I will have gone a long way to adding value to the board,” Coleman said.

While his remit is broad, it will span creating effective governance as well as fostering a culture of board support for the CEO.

“I’m a practical solutions focussed person, so I’m likely to be pushing the board towards decisions and actions. I’m personally committed to ensuring that the ISC rating schemes continue to drive real and meaningful sustainability improvements in infrastructure," he said. 

The key strategic focus for ISC next year is to support the sustainable transformation of infrastructure, which currently contributes to 70 percent of Australia’s emissions.

“With a strong pipeline, and clear business imperative for ESG, we are building our sector’s bench strength so sustainability becomes a core competency from the boardroom to the graduate pool,” he said.