Jamie Durie OAM, Horticulturalist and multi-award-winning Landscape Designer, and ecologiQ Greener Infrastructure Conference 2025 event MC.
Duncan Elliott, CEO, VIDA Roads
Priscilla Radice, CEO, VIDA Health
Matt Sykes, Specialist, Sustainability, VIDA Health
In the opening session, VIDA representatives examined progress under Victoria’s Recycled First Policy and how lessons from transport infrastructure are shaping its expansion into health infrastructure. Through presentations from Duncan Elliott, CEO VIDA Roads, and Priscilla Radice, CEO VIDA Health, followed by audience Q&A, speakers explored the scale of government investment, market transformation for recycled materials, and the role of design and delivery in embedding circular economy principles.
Duncan Elliott opened by emphasising the Victorian Government’s unique position as the state’s largest purchaser of building materials, consuming around a third of all concrete, steel and asphalt produced. This scale brings both an opportunity and a responsibility to influence supply chains and drive positive change. Since the Recycled First Policy was introduced in 2020, VIDA has focused on building market confidence, evolving specifications, and better understanding of the availability, location and deployment of recycled materials.
Elliott reflected that 20 years ago industry narratives were dominated by why recycled materials could not be used, often citing durability and performance risks. Today, many of those barriers have been overcome through trials, pilots and live projects that have directly informed changes in specifications. Sustainability, environmental responsibility and ethical consumption are now core delivery priorities, rather than optional considerations.
Looking ahead, Elliott pointed to Victoria’s $100 billion transport infrastructure pipeline as a major lever for change, with the potential to divert an additional 10 million tonnes of material from landfill each year if opportunities are fully realised. He positioned the Recycled First Policy as a key vehicle for delivering Victoria’s target of net zero by 2045, particularly as its application expands beyond transport infrastructure.
Turning to health, Priscilla Radice outlined the unprecedented scale of investment in health infrastructure, with the program growing from $3 billion five years ago, to $15 billion today — the largest health infrastructure investment in Victoria’s history. This expansion builds on a long‑standing foundation, with Victoria having implemented health infrastructure sustainability guidelines more than 20 years ago.
Radice explained that although embodied carbon is important, the largest carbon impact of health infrastructure comes from operations. Achieving low-carbon operations requires opportunities to be captured in design, such as planning for circular economy principles in loading docks and waste flows, designing flexible layouts that can adapt to future needs, and delivering high-performance, climate resilient buildings.
Health infrastructure has already made substantial progress, including the delivery of all‑electric facilities since 2023, hospitals powered by 100% renewable electricity, and extensive solar installations across the portfolio. As operational emissions reduce, attention is expanding to embodied carbon in construction materials.
Radice used the session to launch the Net Zero Building Handbook, which takes an asset life-cycle approach and sets both operational and embodied carbon targets for health projects. The handbook formalises expectations for upfront carbon reduction while allowing flexibility in how outcomes are achieved. As Radice noted, “Circular economy is about embedding it in everything we do and every decision we make.”
In the Q&A, audience questions brought to attention cost, ambition and delivery. Addressing cost as a traditional barrier, Duncan Elliott noted that the scale and continuity of the transport program have enabled incremental innovation, with lessons carrying from one project to the next. He likened sustainability to safety: while it requires upfront investment, the long-term benefits justify the cost.
Representing VIDA Health, Sustainability Manager Matt Sykes explained that while Green Star currently targets 20% embodied carbon reductions, VIDA Health has set an initial 15% target that deliberately excludes carbon offsets. This approach prioritises real emissions reductions and reflects the need to balance sustainability outcomes with project affordability and the delivery of critical health services, with targets intended to increase over time.
Design emerged as a critical enabler of sustainability outcomes across both sectors. Duncan Elliott highlighted how evolving design on North East Link enabled far greater integration of recycled plastic noise walls as opportunities were identified and refined. In health, Matt Sykes noted that while sustainability teams have long been involved in design, there is now a stronger focus on validating sustainability initiatives are carried over to delivery.
Yas Grigaliunas, CXO, Videopro (former Founder, Circonomy.
Yas Grigaliunas’ opening keynote was equal parts inspiration and hard‑won realism. Speaking from lived experience at the forefront of Australia’s circular economy movement, she challenged the audience to see circularity not as an abstract ideal, but as something tangible, achievable and already underway — if organisations are willing to lead with courage, values and people.
Grigaliunas traced her journey from founding Circonomy, then known as The World’s Biggest Garage Sale, in 2013 and building Australia’s first circular economy precinct. What began as a one-day charity garage sale quickly revealed something far bigger: a vast, untapped supply of idle products and materials — including construction materials — that people were actively seeking alternatives to landfill for. Turning what she described as a “surprise chain” into a functioning supply chain, her enterprise grew into a large-scale operation repairing, repurposing and re-commercialising assets that would otherwise be wasted.
At its peak, Circonomy employed more than 40 people, with over half from neurodiverse or all‑ability backgrounds, demonstrating that circular economy models can generate social as well as environmental value. Partnerships extended across government, major developers and manufacturers, including large‑scale de‑fits of commercial buildings and shopping centres, proving that reuse could work at scale – long before circularity became mainstream industry language.
Grigaliunas was equally candid about the reality of working at the edges of innovation. Just one year prior, Circonomy was in liquidation. Rather than framing this as failure, she described it as a risk of pushing boundaries – a journey marked by courage, bruises, and endings. But those endings, she argued, are also beginnings not only for the individual, but for others who carry the work forward. “Going to the edge sometimes means you fall off,” she said, recovery comes from staying true to your values and not losing yourself.
Circularity, Grigaliunas argued, is not only about materials and assets but about how organisations show up — particularly when outcomes are uncertain and returns are not yet guaranteed. She warned that agility without stability, or stability without agility, can undermine even the strongest ideas. True capability lies in balancing innovation with governance, courage with structure.
While global circularity remains low — with global circularity sitting at less than 7% — Grigaliunas expressed optimism grounded in evidence. Ideas once viewed as fringe are now embedded in everyday industry conversations, informing standards, policies and procurement decisions.
Her closing message was clear: legacy in the circular economy is not about what remains standing, but what continues to move. Enterprises may end, but values, relationships and lessons can ripple outward, enabling others to build and scale what comes next. Ultimately, she argued, circularity succeeds not through systems alone, but through people willing to act, and to keep going when the outcome is uncertain.
John Thwaites, Chair, ClimateWorks Centre.
In his keynote address, John Thwaites set out a clear and unapologetic case for why Australia must move faster, and more decisively, toward a circular economy — particularly in construction – laying bare the scale of the challenge and the opportunity ahead. Underpinning the argument was the National Circular Economy Framework. Released in late 2024, the Framework is Australia’s first national plan for circularity, and its ambition is anchored in three targets:
- Reduce Australia’s per-capita material footprint, the largest per capita in the OECD at approximately 30 tonnes per person, by 10%,
- Lift materials productivity, the dollar value we get out of each kilogram of materials, by 30%, currently sitting at around half of the OECD average, and
- Recover 80% of resources, a significant step up from current recovery rates of around 60%.
Thwaites was clear that these are not abstract environmental goals, but economic and social goals as well.
A recurring message throughout the keynote was that circularity is now a competitive necessity. With three‑quarters of the G20 already implementing circular economy strategies, and more than 40% of Australia’s exports going to countries embedding circular standards in supply chains, Thwaites argued that inaction risks Australia being left behind. CSIRO analysis suggests that doubling circularity by 2035 could add $26 billion to GDP, reduce carbon emissions by up to 23% by 2050, and ease cost‑of‑living pressures by extending product lifespans and improving repairability.
For the construction sector specifically, Thwaites noted the direct productivity gains of circular approaches, particularly in waste management, which can account for up to a third of project costs. He emphasised that the Framework’s success depends on translating national targets into sector‑specific action, arguing that construction warrants its own tailored benchmarks rather than being obscured by Australia’s resource‑heavy economy.
Beyond targets, Thwaites focused on enabling conditions. He pointed to government procurement as the fastest market‑shaping lever, referencing recent moves to embed circularity within federal procurement for major infrastructure. He also highlighted unfinished reform priorities, including stronger national product standards, mandatory product stewardship, harmonised regulations across states, and support for “transition brokers” that connect waste streams, suppliers and end users — roles already being demonstrated effectively in Victoria via the ecologiQ program.
Ultimately, Thwaites’ message was one of realism backed by confidence. Australia is behind, he acknowledged, but it also has deep strengths: world‑class research, strong design capability, significant investment capital, and proximity to fast‑moving Asian markets. With the right policy framework and industry leadership, he argued, circular construction is not just possible — it is achievable, scalable and economically smart.
Rory Hunter, Founder & CEO, The Model.
In this session, Rory Hunter Founder and CEO of The Model, traced the personal and professional journey that shaped his purpose first approach to Build to Rent (BTR), and explained how long-term ownership can align climate action, community building and design innovation into a commercially resilient housing model.
Hunter began by reflecting on his early experience developing a small island in Cambodia, which he described as the starting point for understanding how business could actively contribute to social and environmental outcomes. Working closely with local communities revealed entrenched “poverty traps” driven by limited access to healthcare, education and employment. Rather than seeing development as extractive, Hunter framed it as a “blank canvas” to align outcomes for multiple stakeholders — community, environment, guests, staff and investors — while still delivering strong financial returns.
This philosophy carried forward into his later work in Australia, where he identified BTR as a fundamentally different proposition to traditional build to sell housing. Hunter argued that conventional apartment development is dominated by short term cost minimisation, leading to misaligned incentives and long-term consequences for residents and the environment. By contrast, BTR — where developers retain ownership — allows decisions to be made through a lens of long-term value. As Hunter put it, “once you start to overlay long term ownership… it’s a totally different frame that you can start to look at property.”
Central to this value-based frame is decarbonisation of the built environment, which Hunter noted accounts for approximately 40% of emissions. He emphasised that relying on market forces alone will not achieve Australia’s 2030, 2035 and 2050 climate targets, and warned of growing stranded asset risk for buildings not designed to be future ready. Drawing parallels with commercial real estate, he cautioned that assets designed purely on cost are increasingly difficult to lease or sell.
Hunter outlined how The Model applies this thinking in practice through projects designed to standards not previously delivered at scale in Australia. These include mass timber construction, Passive House certification, six-star Green Star ratings and minimum 50% reductions in embodied carbon. Passive House design was highlighted as a clear example of stakeholder alignment, delivering up to 70% reductions in energy use, improved indoor air quality, better acoustics and lower operating costs — benefits that flow simultaneously to residents and investors.
To respond to investor scepticism, Hunter described commissioning independent global research through Jones Lang LaSalle to compare sustainable BTR assets with conventional base case developments. The findings, which The Model has open sourced, indicate that high performance buildings can outperform through multiple mechanisms: rental premiums of 5–10%, lower household energy costs (around $1,000 per apartment per year), faster lease up, higher occupancy, and compression of terminal yields. Combined, these factors were modelled to deliver an additional 300–400 basis points of annual outperformance relative to traditional approaches.
Hunter concluded by returning to the core lesson underpinning both his early work and his BTR model: business does not need to be zero sum. By prioritising long term value over short term cost, and by recognising the full ecosystem of stakeholders affected by development, housing can be both a better home for renters and “a better business for housing."
Alison Scotland, CEO, ASBEC (moderator)
Fiona Bowie, Director Sustainability, Engineering & Environment, North West Program Alliance
Rory Hunter, Founder & CEO, The Model
Tanja Conners, CEO, AustStab
Martin Heide, Principal, NH Architecture
This panel brought together perspectives from architecture, construction and materials, across both public and private projects, to explore why sustainability outcomes are strongest when embedded early, and how collaboration, data and long‑term thinking can fundamentally reshape project decisions. Moderated by Alison Scotland, CEO of ASBEC, the discussion emphasised that sustainability is not a specialist add‑on, but a shared responsibility across the value chain.
A consistent theme was the central role of collaboration. Scotland opened by noting that achieving decarbonisation outcomes requires “all of us working together and doing it in a way that we haven’t really done before,” stressing that responsibility sits across the entire supply chain rather than with any single actor. Panellists reinforced this view, highlighting that both vertical infrastructure and buildings draw on the same materials, suppliers and incentives, and that real progress depends on aligning those systems rather than shifting impacts elsewhere.
“Collaborate, don’t compete” was the moniker from Fiona Bowie, Director of Sustainability, Engineering and Environment at the NWPA. She spoke to the Level Crossing Removal Program’s KPIs that reward teams for adopting the innovations of their counterparts and candidly shared how NWPA is scaling the use of new suppliers, viewing failure as lessons learned, and recognising progress as a win even when innovations are not ultimately adopted. Martin Heide, Principal, NH Architecture reinforced the importance of collaboration through generosity with IP, arguing that sharing knowledge—rather than holding it back—is essential, with digital platforms playing a key enabling role.
Data and digital tools were repeatedly identified as critical to better decision‑making in design. Bowie described how improved carbon metrics now allow teams to directly compare options during tender and design stages. Access to Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) from suppliers has made previously invisible trade‑offs visible, supporting more informed and defensible decisions. She described this shift as “a revelation” compared to just a few years ago, enabling sustainability to move from aspiration to evidence‑based decision‑making.
Rory Hunter, Founder and CEO of The Model, reframed sustainability as “long‑termism,” urging the sector to design for future regulatory, technological and social change rather than present‑day conditions. With the built environment lasting decades, he argued that today’s decisions must account for uncertainty and change, and that reframing projects around long‑term value rather than short‑term cost can “change the paradigm” for both buildings and infrastructure.
Early engagement with suppliers was also highlighted as essential. Tanja Conners, CEO of AustStab, explained that sustainable construction methods such as in‑situ stabilisation deliver clear environmental and cost benefits—but only when considered from the outset. When raised late, these approaches cannot be properly costed or resourced, increasing risk and expense. She challenged the sector to stop treating sustainability as an afterthought, warning that when it is not part of the initial thought process, it becomes “just a buzz word”.
The panel also argued for reframing sustainability as a set of practical solutions rather than supplementary requirements. Bowie captured this shift succinctly: “They’re just solutions. They’re not sustainability add‑ons. They’re just the best solution,” often delivering multiple benefits such as resilience, cost savings and improved performance. This framing echoed throughout discussions on specifications, procurement and policy, with panellists calling for greater standardisation, shared data platforms and reward structures that incentivise sustainable behaviours.
The session closed with a clear call to action from each panellist: to scale impact, the sector must “think bigger”, “change the specifications”, “unlock the supply chain” and “reward the right behaviour”. Collectively, the panel demonstrated that when collaboration, data and long‑term value are embedded from the start, sustainability represents a more intelligent and resilient way to deliver projects.