Education

To start with, Ground Level Alliance are developing the outline of a practical course on Sustainability in Civil Construction.

The idea is to help civil construction professionals understand and then implement sustainability practices into their daily work. The course is focused on the earlier stages of greenfield and brownfield projects where you can have more impact.

The emphasis is on learning by doing, combining the academic with the practical in your workplace. Learning will be a blend of live online learning and small group work. The objective of the small group work is to embed the learnings based on projects in participants organisations or relevant similar case studies so that learnings can be immediately applied. Small groups will be curated to blend knowledge, skill level and diversity. 

The Sustainability in Civil Construction course covers three main elements; setting the scene, what role you can play and creating the environment for change. The obstacles as well as how to overcome them are practically worked through using in-class activities.

The course provides guidance, knowledge and skills and a strong cross industry network to lean on. Ground Level Alliance will form an active alumni network.

The learnings draw on best practice uncovered through our case studies and resources global investigations and course alumni practical experiences with the course material developed and delivered by industry practitioners who are the best subject matter and content delivery experts.

It is anticipated that participants will be supported by their employers, with either time allocated, a financial contribution or a combination of both.

The course is aimed at ambitious mid level civil construction professionals including designers, engineers and project managers, who are passionate about using their professional work to make projects more sustainable, leading by example and embedding their learning into their work environments.

From an organisation perspective, you will:

1. Educate your team on sustainability principles and civil construction project application – learn from the best. Generate multiple internal educated seeds to facilitate the spread of knowledge.
2. Gain competitive advantage including winning more work by having cross discipline sustainability best practice accessible and integrating into your offering.
3. Become part of a strong alumni network, who continue to learn and share their practical experiences and applied case studies.
4. Create strong retention and attraction incentives for team members by providing clear pathways for using their civil construction professional work, on a daily basis, to make a positive impact. This changes the dynamics of why people come to work.
5. Accelerate the journey to making the adoption of sustainability principles in civil construction projects part of your every day.
6. Associate with a pre-eminent organisation, driving sustainability at the earlier stages of civil construction projects.
7. Enable your team to be active and contributing in the civil construction sustainability arena and be seen to be doing so.

From an individual perspective, Sustainability in Civil Construction course participants will:

1. Learn about sustainability principles, real world civil construction project applications and overcoming the obstacles.
   • Understand and articulate what ‘sustainability’ means generally and how the UN SDGs fit in.
   • Understand and articulate how the civil construction sector influences sustainability outcomes (the biggest impacts and opportunities).
   • Become familiar with the legislative and policy requirements at the National, State and Council level.
   • Understand sustainability (e.g. carbon) and it’s measurement from a project lifecycle perspective and how to influence and activate its adoption.
   • Be clear on the roles different disciplines play implementing sustainability and their interconnections and develop depth of knowledge in your own discipline.
   • Have a toolkit of practical strategies, guidance documents, frameworks and actions for supporting sustainability good practice implementation.
   • Get hands on experience of overcoming the obstacles on the implementation journey covering everything from design standards, to materials, to perceptions around cost to cultural change.
   • Lead project processes to integrate sustainability considerations.
2. Become the internal educated seeds to facilitate the spread of knowledge and accelerate the journey to making the adoption of sustainability principles in civil construction projects a reality.
3. Become part of a strong alumni network, who continue to learn and share their practical experiences and applied case studies.
4. Learn how, on a daily basis, to make a positive impact through your work. Typically, this changes the dynamics of why people come to work.
5. Associate with a pre-eminent organisation, driving sustainability at the earlier stages of civil construction projects.

An important part of the course is the strength of the people who have passed through it. Ground Level Alliance will form a strong alumni network, who we will lean on to enhance the value of the course by learning from their practical experiences and applied case studies.