Climate change and resilience

WSP can help governments and businesses reduce their carbon footprint and reap the benefits of renewable energy. These services include emissions benchmarking and supporting organisations to choose the most suitable pathways to meet their energy and emissions reduction targets. This is supported by in-house technical services, green building design, sustainability rating, and feasibility assessments for small and large-scale renewables.

We recently supported the Inner West Council to develop planning controls to transition the Marrickville and Dulwich Hill centres to become a low-carbon precinct, reducing energy use (including electricity, gas, transport fuels) and waste (thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions). Our work included teaming up with an external economist to undertake the Cost Benefit Analysis of the initiatives investigated.

Additionally, WSP is leading the United Nations Global Compact Climate Ambition Accelerator for the Australian, Chinese, Korean and ASEAN Networks. This is a six-month accelerator programme designed to equip companies with the knowledge and skills they need to accelerate progress towards implementing science-based emissions reduction targets aligned with the 1.5oC pathway, creating a pathway towards net zero emissions by 2050.

Hume City Council

Hume City Council is developing a new Climate Action Plan which includes business and industry to take climate actions, including reducing emissions, adapting to climate impacts, and advocating for more action.

WSP supported the Pathways to Carbon Neutrality project for Hume City Council. We completed a gap analysis of greenhouse gas inventory against the Climate Active framework, followed by identifying and estimating emissions reductions measures to develop detailed pathways for the council to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

For this, a gap analysis study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of WSP experts who reviewed emission reduction opportunities for key council activity areas including landfill, buildings, transport, and scope 3 emissions. Summarising the outcomes of the gap analysis study, we produced a detailed report outlining three potential net zero emissions pathways for Hume City Council to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, supported by descriptions of the varying investment levels required for each pathway.

With the impacts of climate change becoming more apparent, expectations are increasing for businesses to assess and communicate their exposure to physical (e.g., flood exposure of assets) and transitional (e.g., service offerings that could be adversely affected by a shift to a low-carbon economy) climate change risk. Our reporting experience helps financial institutions and other organisations disclose the climate resilience of their portfolio and value-chain’s climate resilience.

Our team supports companies across multiple sectors throughout the world to assess, manage, and report climate risks and opportunities in alignment with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations. Experience includes portfolio wide risk assessment and climate risk strategies for organisations such as the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), Ingenia Communities, as well multiple property sector firms.

As a recognised leader in climate risk disclosures, WSP supported the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) to develop a globally relevant guidance document for investors on selecting decision-useful metrics and targets for assessing climate risks and opportunities in their real asset portfolio.

TCFD benchmarking and gap analysis for investors and the financial industry

WSP recently provided support to an Australian Stock Exchange-listed organisation to drive understanding of organisational maturity with respect to TCFD, a multi-criteria comparison to key market peers to contextualise current performance in the market, as well as the development of a succinct and effective road map identifying priority focus areas for consideration by their board. Focussing on risk management, governance, metrics and targets, disclosure, and strategy, our role included the following key steps:

• Understanding the organisation’s current climate change practices in alignment with TCFD guidance
• Identified the organisation’s peers for benchmarking
• Benchmarked the organisation against peers using WSP’s proprietary tool

Compared scores and extracted insights to support organisational performance.

WSP designs and delivers processes to support effective decision-making around future action on climate change and resilience. Our core strength is facilitating complex conversations in contested, highly charged situations such as our Stakeholder Engagement and Communications involvement for the Southern Program Alliance (SPA).  Fundamental to this success is our values-driven approach and ability to draw stakeholders into constructive dialogue.

Each of our major projects is underpinned by a set of values we develop in consultation with clients at project inception. These values drive the way our projects are conducted, protecting and enhancing the reputation of the clients we represent. We also apply a ‘social outcomes’ lens to projects to clearly identify and articulate both social and economic outcomes.

We are a team of creative thinkers who approach our work laterally, looking at exemplary work from across disciplines to deliver robust, rigorous, and evidence-based outcomes for our clients.

A Community-owned and led project – delivering a Regional Drought Resilience Plan

WSP was commissioned to deliver a Regional Drought Resilience Plan (RDRP) for Tamworth Regional Council and Walcha Council. This project will inform and support future Commonwealth, State, local government, and private sector investment, enabling both regions to identify and articulate resilience knowledge, data and hazard risks.

Our role included:

• Conducting a risk assessment to evaluate key exposures and vulnerabilities
• Engaging with key community and council stakeholders to increase understanding of the region’s current and future drought resilience
• Identifying actions, pathways, and opportunities to improve drought resilience, mitigate risks, and adapt to change
• Placing communities in a stronger position to implement strategic actions.

As a community-owned and led project, we developed the RDRP by researching the challenges facing Tamworth and Walcha, gathering input from a wide range of stakeholders, and convening residents and community groups through interviews, phone calls, surveys, workshops, and one-on-one meetings (e.g., through farm visits). More than 200 community members were engaged to support the strategy development - many of them sharing their stories of drought and how, as a community, they can plan for a more resilient future.

While the focal point of this engagement was targeted workshops and surveys, a broader cross section of the community provided insight into local challenges, programs, and potential solutions. From the undulating high fields of Walcha to the sprawling plains of Tamworth and the Peel Valley, we spoke with graziers, health providers, support services, community organisations, local government agencies, and more about their personal drought journey, and the drought journey of the region.

Delivering the NSW Resilience Strategy

WSP was engaged by the NSW Government to support the delivery of the NSW State Resilience Strategy. The State Resilience Strategy will set the strategic direction for the NSW Government in building resilience to natural hazards to 2030. This project aimed to ensure the Strategy is informed by, and meets the needs of, NSW state agencies, local government and non-government partners, and the broader NSW community. WSP supported the development of the Strategy by designing and delivering a comprehensive strategic communications approach, providing targeted and effective engagement mechanisms.

Our role included:

• Developing stakeholder engagement materials for local government, partner organisations, state agency, and public consultations
• Reviewing materials for agency and public consultation including the draft State Resilience Strategy to be released for public consultation
• Delivering multiple engaging workshop sessions with NSW state agencies, local governments, and non-government partners
• Thematically analysing consultation and stakeholder feedback
• Developing the final State Resilience Strategy.

Understanding the risks and impacts of climate change for NSW Ports

WSP undertook a climate resilience risk adaptation study for NSW Ports, to better understand its risk position across port assets, operations, and broader supply chains (i.e. roads, rail, pipelines). WSP identified key infrastructure and operational processes vulnerable to the physical and operational impacts of climate change, collaboratively assessed and prioritising risks posed to NSW Ports including supply chains, reviewed the effectiveness of existing control measures and systems to ensure corporate objectives are achieved, including recommended improvements building resilience and adaptive capacity.

Our role included:

• Developing a novel graph theory-based approach to identifying critical transport links which present a high risk to the council
• Developing a high-level supply chain model of the NSW road and rail network to estimate current and forecasted fright flows along individual road and rail links, considering strategic mode shift goals, applying the latest CSIRO climate projects to determine key risks under differing climate change scenarios

Developing a NSW-wide coastal inundation model, utilising CSIRO’s CANUTE tool for sea-level rise.

With peak temperatures projected to steadily increase, residential buildings and homes will need to become more resilient to withstand hotter temperatures, drier climates, and more extreme weather events.  Using a range of techniques to explore megatrends affecting organisations and governments, we help identify future trends, examining how to prepare and transition for what is to come.

Recently WSP conducted a Future Proofing Residential Development to Climate Change research project for the Eastern Sydney region (Randwick, Woollahra and Waverley Councils). We modelled the performance of BASIX compliant building designs against future climate projections determined the effects of climate change on building thermal performance, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and water demand, and provided advice around the resilience implications for residents. The outcomes of this research project will support the application of additional funding for research in this area and inform policy development to support improved residential design with increased climate change resilience.

Natural disasters such as floods, bushfires, cyclones, and droughts are a natural part the earth's climate system. However, as the climate changes, the frequency, duration, and severity of these events are changing. Organisations must prepare for these impacts. Modern organisations are dependent on highly efficient but increasingly complex and globalised supply chains. The network effects of a disaster in one location can affect customers in locations hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.

These downstream impacts are difficult to intuitively assess and quantify using traditional methods. WSP has specialised tools and expertise to assess these impacts, testing different scenarios. These range from basic GIS analysis to complex discrete event simulation models driven by AI/ML to assign appropriate probability distributions, to model parameters.

We can mobilise quickly to support governments, businesses, and communities when things don’t go to plan. After the bushfires of summer 2019/20 we mobilised 40 staff from WSP as part of the Laing O’Rourke team, the lead contractor to undertake the clean-up of more than 5,000 properties across the state. This was a critical step in rebuilding and supporting bushfire recovery in NSW. Our staff case-managed each property, resulting in over 300 clean-ups a week.

In the aftermath of the 2021 and 2022 floods throughout the Hawkesbury and Northern Rivers regions of NSW, our team lead community engagement for NSW Public Works Advisory in the assessment and clean-up of residential caravan parks and recreational facilities.

Finally, as a result of our disaster recovery efforts work in 2019 – 2022, WSP were engaged by Resilience NSW to undertake an evaluation of the Regional Disaster Preparedness Program. This two-year project involved extensive engagement with key stakeholders, including interviews with 41 councils, focus groups with community representatives, and surveying of community members.

WSP also provided specialist analytics support to Infrastructure NSW and Regional Fire Service during the 2019-2020 bushfires. This included planning support to Incident Management Teams with our analytics staff assisting with mapping and subsequently rapid damage quantification to task road clearing crews. We also supported Infrastructure NSW in quantifying the impact on public assets state-wide.

Community engagement is critical to impactful disaster recovery programs. WSP values the role that our Communications & Engagement team’ play when working with clients and communities to bounce back from natural disasters and build resilient, Future Ready™ places for decades to come.

WSP understands the importance of assessing risks and opportunities early in project planning phases. We perform industry-recognised risk and opportunity assessments to develop more sustainable and resilient infrastructure across Australia. We leverage our multi-disciplinary consultancy to integrate sustainability opportunities into designs and planning documentation, to deliver value-for-money projects that do not cost the earth.

WSP supported Laing O’Rourke as a member of the Fremantle Bridges Alliance (WA) to develop planning-phase resilience planning and performing calculations to understand resource consumption. We advised the team on key energy, water, and material savings opportunities to reduce the Swan River Crossing project’s resource consumption. WSP facilitated a multi-stakeholder risk assessment process, identifying acute shocks and chronic stresses that may impact the resilience of the surrounding community. WSP developed adaptation measures for integration into the project’s design and operation phases, which also gained Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia Planning phase accreditation.

WSP delivered ground-breaking research in climate impacts and resilience, bringing researchers and practitioners together to tackle some of built environment’s biggest challenges and develop impactful policies, guidelines and strategies.

This includes research analysis to identify interventions that build or contribute to resilience, such as our recent work with the members of the Better Buildings Partnership. It also includes looking at best practice approaches in the industry, such as undertaking a literature review focusing on current and emerging good practice of multi-modal network vulnerability assessment for a Queensland agency.

WSP works at the forefront of biodiversity and natural capital. We are industry leaders in the development and application of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) in the UK and rapidly expanding our capabilities in Australia. BNG is the process of leaving the environment in a better state following development.

Our natural capital experts excel at providing bespoke solutions for clients that address the opportunities and risks associated with integration of nature’s value into decision making.

Notable projects include the development of a roadmap to increase investment in biodiversity conservation in Scotland, pioneering new ways of funding nature conservation in the country. This involved setting up the strategic framework for the partnership between the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Scottish Wildlife Trust resulting in the development of ten potential projects to feed into the challenge’s conservation/finance pipelines.

Team capabilities include:

• Biodiversity and natural capital policy and strategy development
• Biodiversity and natural capital for sustainability strategies
• Capacity development and knowledge exchange.

Green financing involves the increasing transfer of financial flows from traditional of public, institutional, and not for profit organisations into sustainable development priorities. Green financing sits at the cross section of government, businesses, and citizens. Green financing also involves transferring traditional financial flows to support sustainable development priorities.

WSP has the experience and expertise to help organisations navigate green financing frameworks, identify, and manage the environmental and social risks associated with green financing, understand and seizing the unique opportunities it offers, delivering these with transparency and accountability.