Elecnor Australia (as SecureEnergy JV) is committed to achieving an ‘Excellent’ Infrastructure Sustainability rating for both Design and As Built for Project EnergyConnect. This commitment drives our sustainable project delivery.

EnergyConnect is the first project of its kind in Australia to undertake an Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating.

Some of the key benefits of an IS rating include:

• Drives sustainability outcomes and performance
• Allows for benchmarking performance against other projects
• Recognised approach which provides a common national language for sustainability that the market is familiar with delivering

Elecnor has set numerous sustainability targets for EnergyConnect, under a rating agreement with the Infrastructure Sustainability  Council, the peak body for infrastructure sustainability in Australia and New Zealand

This agreement represents a commitment to deliver real sustainability outcomes for EnergyConnect. The rating means all achievements will be independently verified, to clearly and fairly demonstrate the project’s sustainability performance. This allows for sustainability to be independently evaluated across the planning, design, construction, and operational phases of the project.

Elecnor Australia is strategically focused on applying innovative solutions to reduce our carbon footprint across all project life cycles. This includes minimising the use of energy, water, and materials, reducing waste, and ensuring resilience against forecast climate impacts. Some of the best-practice initiatives include:

• Reducing the project’s carbon footprint (greenhouse gas emissions) by 15% through optimised tower design, using sustainable concrete mixes and reduced land clearing
• Working with the supply chain to minimise unnecessary packaging, and maximise recyclability and
  reusability of required packaging. This includes heat treating of insulator timber pallets (rather than chemical treatment), so they can be recycled
• Diverting a minimum of 50% of construction waste from landfill
• Conserving and beneficially reusing 80% of spoil
• Integrating sustainability when procuring products and services, with an emphasis on environmental attributes as well as other social and ethical criteria as appropriate
• Using recycled grey water from camps and stormwater for dust suppression and earthworks compaction to reduce potable water use
• Designing and locating transmission line structures to avoid sensitive biodiversity and culturally sensitive sites (such as scarred trees), and reduce the requirement for vegetation clearing

This demonstrates the best practices that support Elecnor’s As-built rating for the designed infrastructure.

The collective efforts of our teams have been recognised by the Banksia Foundation and the NSW Government, with EnergyConnect being named a finalist in the 2025 NSW Sustainability Awards, in the Biodiversity category. This recognition celebrates our industry-leading approach to biodiversity protection and ecological innovation in energy infrastructure construction. From the earliest planning stages, our teams challenged conventional transmission line construction methods, working together to review and adjust tower locations, access tracks, and laydown areas to minimise environmental impact. Key actions included relocating towers to avoid threatened ecological communities and culturally significant sites, reducing the width and footprint of access tracks, and introducing guyed suspension towers to further limit disturbance. The approach also saw the elimination of clearing for tower laydowns, careful planning of brake and winch sites, and partial clearing of easements to preserve habitat.

These efforts have delivered tangible outcomes for biodiversity, including a 45% reduction in native vegetation clearing, more than 1,000 hectares of habitat preserved, and over 6,400 nest boxes installed, the largest program of its kind in Australia. In addition, 23,000 hectares are now protected under Biodiversity Stewardship Agreements, supporting long-term conservation and management. Enhanced monitoring and partnerships with local ecologists and government agencies have created a valuable model for future infrastructure projects. As EnergyConnect progresses, being named a finalist is a privilege and highlights our ongoing commitment to sustainable energy solutions. We look forward to sharing updates as the project continues to deliver benefits for communities and the environment.