IBTTA’s Sustainability & Resilience Task Force’s Message for Earth Day

Earth Day serves to remind the world of the need to prioritize the health and well-being of our planet. This year’s theme, “Invest in Our Planet,” is a call to action for individuals and organizations around the globe to move towards a more sustainable future.

IBTTA is committed to promoting environmental sustainability and sharpening a focus on resilience throughout tolling and the transportation industry and with our partners. In 2021, IBTTA launched the Sustainability and Resilience Task Force, marking a significant step towards strengthening environmentally-minded practices and climate-friendly actions of the transportation network and reversing the effects of climate change.

Mark Muriello, our Director of Policy and Government Affairs, recently had the opportunity to speak with the co-chairs of the Task Force – Pedro Costa, Chief Executive Officer of Northwest Parkway, and René Moser, Managing Director of ASFINAG Commercial Services GmbH and Senior EU and International Affairs Manager at ASFINAG – to discuss how the tolling industry is promoting sustainable mobility and reducing its impact on the environment.

Earth as seen from the Voyager spacecraft, 4 billion miles away.  Photo by: SilverMarten

Q:  What do you think is the most significant environmental challenge that transportation infrastructure faces today?

René Moser:  From my point of view there are two significant challenges: soil consumption and transportation infrastructure’s carbon footprint (Scope 1-3). Both challenges have a global perspective and solutions will require the involvement of a wide variety of stakeholders. I’m glad that IBTTA has created a dedicated Task Force in 2021 to address these challenges, among others.

Pedro Costa:  The UN declared the climate crisis is an existential global emergency. Its effects are self-evident with more frequent extreme weather events. The environmental challenges transportation infrastructure faces are two-fold. First, our infrastructure must be or become more resilient to withstand and operate under extreme weather events. At the same time, we must plan, design, retrofit, and operate in a more sustainable manner. In short, becoming part of the solution, not the problem! For many years, the scientific community has been raising the alarm and given undisputable evidence that human activity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are fueling climate change. On Earth Day, it is important to pause and acknowledge that our planet is the only home we’ve ever known. Not taking it for granted and recognizing it is a delicate and fragile balanced eco-system. Carl Sagan referred to a photo of Earth from the Voyager spacecraft 4 billion miles away, putting it in perspective:  “That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you have ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...Every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every revered teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

Q:  What action can IBTTA members take to meaningfully address our industry’s environmental responsibilities?

René Moser:  We must pursue and strengthen our efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions sharply. One priority is the wide and balanced deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure along our networks. We also need to push green mobility by replacing existing fleets with low- and zero-emission vehicles and improving the energy performance of our buildings with renewable solar and wind energy, ideally on site. Sustainable business practices include recycling waste from operations and routine maintenance, as well as from road construction and heavy maintenance. Incentives can help shape transportation user choices to increase vehicle occupancy and adopt multimodal mobility solutions that reduce CO2 emissions and soil consumption.

Pedro Costa:  It starts with awareness and accountability. We must first understand the impact that our business has on the environment. We cannot manage, or improve, what we cannot measure. Quantifying our current conditions, and the impacts of our actions, will help us better plan and shape deliberate action, where it matters the most! Transportation leaders must be champions for environmental responsibility by ingraining it into the corporate culture, in the strategic planning and budgets. Everyone in an organization can and should play a role. Even small actions can collectively have meaningful impact to get us closer to a more sustainable way of working and living. For example, we have come to learn from the pandemic that it is possible and, in some instances, preferable to adopt hybrid working schedules.

Q:  What are some examples of best practices that you have seen the industry initiate to address climate change?

René Moser:  Many players throughout the road industry have put sustainability and CO2 reduction high on their agenda including road operators, their national and international professional associations, and the businesses that support the industry. IBTTA and its European partner, ASECAP (European Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures), are among the frontrunners. One highlight for me, besides IBTTA’s Task Force, is ASECAP’s first sustainability report, published in 2022. The report includes more than 100 best practice examples and can be found on the ASECAP website.

Pedro Costa:  Tolling has been successfully used to manage and reduce congestion, thus lowering vehicle emissions. Congestion pricing can be a valuable tool while transitioning into a green(er) economy. In Europe, we are starting to see a push towards toll differentiation based on emissions. Transportation corridors must embrace and promote the necessary changes in the fight against climate change, namely the adoption and conversion to low/zero emission vehicles. Embracing innovation and change is key. Best practices are not limited to vehicle types and user choices and behaviors. Our policy and business decisions can profoundly shape positive outcomes. Land use optimization and infrastructure management are good examples. Efforts to use rights-of-way to install solar energy panels, or landscaping with native drought-resistant vegetation adapted to the local climate can transform transportation assets into environmental solutions. There are many other good examples out there, and IBTTA’s Sustainability and Resilience Task Force provides a forum to discuss and share them.

Q:  How will IBTTA’s Sustainability and Resilience Task Force work to promote transportation infrastructure resilience in the face of climate-change related risks, such as extreme weather events and rising sea levels?

René Moser:  Resilience is one of the Sustainability and Resilience Task Force’s current priorities. The Task Force aims to stimulate information and knowledge exchange between its members, and to draw from the expertise and experience of additional experts from different regions of the world. A dedicated sub-committee is being created to address resiliency and establish awareness and recommendations for the entire IBTTA membership.

Pedro Costa:  Resilience depends upon the risks that confront our transportation facilities and operations. Therefore, resilience varies by location, type of infrastructure, operating conditions, landscape, etc. We are fortunate to have a diversity of members within the Sustainability and Resilience Task Force, representing different geographies, facing different climate-related risks, in different operating and political environments. The Task Force is a forum where members can share their experiences and learnings so that everyone can be better prepared. Resilience is still a novel area – one in which we learn from experience. We must strive to understand our successes and failures in risk mitigation and incident response.

Q:  What critical partnerships are being developed to enable toll operators to be more responsive to emissions reduction?

René Moser:  Offering electric and hydrogen charging and fueling infrastructure will require new partnerships with energy suppliers. The cooperation between infrastructure operators and vehicle manufacturers should be further strengthened to align adoption of future vehicle designs with the infrastructure needs to support these vehicles. Further, interoperability, reciprocity, and interjurisdictional cooperation is crucial as traffic flows do not stop at state and national borders. And finally, close cooperation with public officials and policy makers will be essential to also ensure political support.

Pedro Costa:  When it comes to emissions reduction, vehicle electrification is often front and center, and rightfully so, since transportation is the top GHG emitter activity in the U.S. As such, it is important that toll operators facilitate the transition to low-emission vehicles and partner with utilities, vehicle manufacturers and EV charging businesses. But this is only one aspect of our operations under scope 3 emissions. Transportation infrastructure will play a significant and critical role in addressing emissions. Choices of construction materials, including asphalt and concrete, will be a key part of the solution in emissions reduction. Partnerships with universities in R&D and contractors in the development of more sustainable and environmentally effective construction processes are also critically important.  Asphalt can be recycled. Manufacturing and industrial processes can adopt GHG emission mitigation practices. A heightened focus on a “circular procurement” framework can help create a closed loop within supply chains for  energy and materials that represent the best in sustainable business practices.

Q:  How are toll operators and agencies engaging with the public to promote awareness of sustainability and resilience in transportation?

René Moser:  Public involvement and engagement is critically important to change mobility behaviors and to accelerate the adoption of zero- and low-emission mobility solutions. Most important for me is to act as a role model. All transportation professionals are spokespersons. If we team-up for our way to work or if we change our (branded) vehicles to zero emission technologies, others will follow. We need to make what we do more transparent and illustrate the sense of urgency to act. Therefore, communication will be key.  Ideas and best practice examples are always welcome!  Feel free to reach out to us.

Pedro Costa:  IBTTA and its members recognize the importance of Sustainability and Resilience. The creation of the Task Force back in 2021 attests to that. Also, the topic of has been ubiquitous in recent IBTTA conferences with many well attended panels and sessions dedicated to discussing and presenting practices and experiences on the subject matter. In 2022, ASECAP held their first Sustainability forum, and a second is scheduled in June 2023 in Vienna. The Sustainability and Resilience Task Force enjoys one of the largest participation rates from international members of any IBTTA committee, working group, or task force. The Task Force provides a forum for members to exchange experiences and best practices.  As a short-term goal, the Task Force has been tasked by the IBTTA Board of Directors to put together a Climate Action Principles Statement for IBTTA.