Читать книгу Integrating Sustainability Into Major Projects - Wayne McPhee - Страница 45

The use of public-private partnerships (P3s) gained popularity in the 1990s as a way for governments to reduce the tax investment required for infrastructure projects. Similar structures have also been used in resource projects where governments share in the investment in access roads or ports for resource areas and then recover the investment from user fees or tolls on the roads.

Although in theory creating a partnership between the private and public sectors should create the best potential for a well-integrated sustainability program, the public piece of the partnership was typically the government rather than the local community or the general public. As we will discuss later in this chapter, the government and the local community are often two distinct players with diverging interests in the project. In some cases, P3 projects have led to poor sustainability outcomes and in extreme cases a loss of community support, lawsuits, and protests. P3 project teams need to integrate sustainability into project delivery to ensure that they have local community support, ensure that positive opportunities are achieved, and create better projects.

P3 contracts should clearly identify who is responsible for meeting project commitments, how sustainability will be incorporated into all project activities, and how incentives will be used to optimize long-term performance, maintain community support, build a strong local workforce, and utilize innovative solutions.