ABSTRACT
Infrastructure projects are the backbone of society and often result in not only transforming the physical space but characterising the community at large. Adequate involvement of the broader community in the development of infrastructure projects is highly crucial for doing it right and making it happen in the societal contexts. One of the overarching objectives in developing modern infrastructure projects is ‘sustainability’ or ‘triple bottom line (TBL)’. Yet, anecdotally, there is no good example where such a concept has ever resulted in desirable outcomes in projects. While the concept of TBL predominately refers to a measure of effective use of resources and reduction of greenhouse gases in the mainstream literature (Lockie, 2001; Mandarano, 2009; Wittig, 2013), a clear consensus on the measure of social dimensions leading to social sustainability outcomes is not quite prominent within the construction industry practice. Given the built environment demands 40–50 percent of global resources and generates a proportional amount of waste, the construction industry, which contributes 5–10 percent of national GDP globally, has a prominent role to play in managing, controlling and meeting the sustainable outcomes across the projects. The term TBL, first coined by Elkington (1998), suggests that sustainability can be achieved in the intersection of social, economic and environmental performance, where a decision will not result in economic benefit, but also affects environment and society in a positive way. While the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability are reasonably adopted in most modern projects, today's leaders are significantly lacking a holistic approach to quantification of socially sustainable outcomes in projects. In this chapter, the author 136argues that social sustainability and the underlying performance of infrastructure projects is a function of stakeholders being managed well for the whole life of the project.
