The reality of climate change means reducing both our energy use and our reliance on non-renewable materials is imperative: effective action now will help reduce future impacts.
At Transurban we’re redesigning the energy, materials and methods we use with the goal of transforming our environmental impacts and bringing them ever-closer to net zero.
This reimagining of our operations is extending to the protections we give to local flora and fauna, and to how we manage noise and air pollution impacts for communities living near our roads.
Worried about your own vehicle emissions?
While the world’s reliance on fuel is slowly changing – in the future the vast majority of vehicles will likely be powered by electricity – right now, road transport emissions account for about 12% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
If you’re concerned about emissions, travelling with us can make a difference. Our roads are designed to support more efficient driving: smooth surfaces; minimal bends and steep climbs; zero traffic lights and quick incident response to keep traffic flowing.
In the last year, customers driving on our roads:
446,000 hours
total travel time saved each workday
2,974 tCO2-e vehicle emissions
saved per workday
29% reduction
in GHG emissions
All figures are averages over the 2023–2024 financial year. GHG savings shown are compared to next best un-tolled route(s). See the Transurban GHG Basis of Preparation for more information.
Smoothing out your own driving can also make your travel more fuel efficient. Eco-driving is a driving approach that – and we researched this to confirm it’s true – reduces fuel use and the associated emissions.
Our business is roads and, for most of us, driving on any road burns up petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline or diesel. Almost all (95 per cent) of the world's transportation energy comes from non-renewable petroleum-based fuels.
To reduce emissions now, we are:
- improving road efficiencies and reducing the amount of time vehicles idle in traffic
- advocating for the transition to electric vehicles and promoting eco-driving
- shifting our own dependence on fossil fuels to more sustainable energy sources
- working to halve our own emissions by 2030, and reducing the emissions intensity of our supply chain, with Transurban becoming the first ASX20 company to have targets validated by the international Science Based Targets initiative.
- committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, encompassing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
See our Corporate Report to check our latest progress.
About our targets
Our 2050 net-zero target (scope 1, 2 and 3) is aligned with SBTi methodology. See our Transurban GHG Basis of Preparation for detailed information about our targets and approach.
We continue to transition towards 100% renewable electricity use as part of our pathway to net zero by 2050. In FY24, more than 87% of our electricity use came from renewable sources, playing a key role in reducing our scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions to 70% below FY19 levels. We have 212 kW of onsite solar PV generation capacity installed across our facilities, but most of our energy comes from buying electricity, which we look to do through long-term renewable electricity contracts:
Our North American and Victorian markets are now backed by 100% renewable electricity
Our Sydney toll roads have 80% of their power needs met by renewable electricity from NSW wind farms
More than 90% of the electricity needed to run Brisbane toll roads and tunnels comes from QLD wind power.
Combined, this is the equivalent of powering over 35,000 Australian homes with renewable electricity and avoiding 150,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the atmosphere each year – delivering the same environmental benefits as planting about three million new trees.
Restoring the natural environment along our motorways is important to local communities and us. We do this through our major construction projects - for example, the West Gate Tunnel Project in Melbourne will plant 170,000 trees and one million shrubs. In our day-to-day operations we look for sites next to our motorways that we can regenerate.
We’ve partnered with Landcare Australia and local artists to restore targeted sites, including (as at 30 June 2023):
- a one-hectare site next to CityLink (Melbourne) where natural ecosystem restoration was combined with the installation of a striking public artwork, Habitat Filter, built with recycled materials. The artwork has built-in nesting boxes for birds and bats and solar panels to offset night-time lighting.
- a five-hectare site next to the Hills M2 Motorway (Sydney) where we improved the local creek’s water quality and planted thousands of trees. Another piece of public art was commissioned, called Kinetica, and this represents native flora.
In Queensland, we’ve been planting more than 128,000 koala habitat trees to enhance over 146 hectares of koala habitat across Brisbane, including along the Gateway and Logan motorways.
The mining, manufacture and supply of materials used in construction, such as concrete and steel, impacts both the environment and communities living near our project works. Sourcing sustainable materials and methodologies can create benefits such as reducing the use of non-renewable resources and lowering emissions.
Reusing existing materials (such as spoil from tunnel excavation works) can also reduce the number of truck movements around project sites.
Given the scale of our construction projects, we are developing a circular economy strategy to help us integrate sustainable materials into our construction projects and road-maintenance works.
As part of this strategy, we’re also working with our suppliers with the goal of creating a more sustainable supply chain.
See how we’re saving emissions with smarter design and construction solutions
