Developed and administered by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ICSA), the ‘IS Tool’ is designed to be used to evaluate the sustainability of infrastructure across design, construction, and operational phases. The tool can be used as part of a self- assessment as well as being able to be formally certified as ‘Commended’, ‘Excellent’, or ‘Leading’. Considering specific themes within a range of social, economic and environmental sustainability categories across each project, the users of the rating tool nominate a performance level (1, 2, or 3) that they believe they have achieved for each element and provide supporting evidence as outlined in the tools technical manual.

An assessment is carried out and based on predetermined weightings designed into the tool, the overall rating is calculated, and compared to a possible level of achievement.

This tool is a part of the CRC for Low Carbon Living project (RP2010): Investigating the ‘Low Carbon Readiness’ of Built Environment Supply Chain.