FAQ

The Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation has transitioned to become the Secretariat of the FAST-Infra label, building-up on the SuRe® Standard. GIB is working towards the harmonisation of standards and therefore decided to transition the SuRe® Standard to the FAST-Infra Label.
For updated information and resources regarding infrastructure sustainability and the current status of the FAST-Infra Label’s development, please visit the Label website.

SuRe® – the Standard for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure is a third-party-verified, voluntary standard with global outreach. The standard integrates key criteria of sustainability and resilience into infrastructure projects at all development stages and throughout their lifecycles. SuRe® is based on a multi-stakeholder approach and was developed following the ISEAL guidelines for good practice in standard setting. As such, SuRe® is the first infrastructure standard to be an associate members of ISEAL.

By integrating governance, social and environmental aspects, SuRe® contributes to the incremental achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SuRe® standard development and implementation are currently funded by the MAVA Foundation. The GIB Foundation initial phase of development of the standard was jointly funded by the Swiss Government (SECO) and the MAVA Foundation. Get involved.

GIB offers Training and Capacity Building in the SuRe® standard. Training activities are aimed specifically at Certification Bodies and Accreditation Body auditors, but can also be delivered to partners, institutions, and other interested parties. GIB, as the owner of SuRe®,  also has the following activities:

• Thought leadership: pioneering new approaches to create global change, such as the development of a sustainable and resilient infrastructure asset class;
• Knowledge provision: providing knowledge products and platforms for change for Nature-based Solutions, green and hybrid infrastructure; innovative financing mechanisms for sustainable infrastructure such as sustainable impact bonds, advancing research which demonstrates the superior business case for sustainable and resilient infrastructure;
• Standard setting and tool development: designing and implementing tools like the SuRe® Certification System for infrastructure design and performance assessment with a strong 3rd party assurance system;
• Capacity development: providing technical assistance and strengthening the capacity of public, private and financial stakeholders to create infrastructure that delivers enhanced environmental, social and governance outcomes; 
• Bringing people together: convening multi-stakeholder approaches across sectors and regions to influence global discourse and bridge the gap between projects and funders.

For more information on GIB’s projects and activities, visit the GIB website.  

Our main implementation partner is GIZ GmbH (Deutsche Gesselschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), in its Beijing Office representation. Examples of other implementation partners are: China Association of Plant Consulting Engineers (Capec), IPL (India), GIZ (Indonesia, Jakarta Office).

Multiple advisors have been engaged in developing the standard, amongst them the Standard Committee, the Stakeholder Council and the GIB Foundation Board members. They include representatives from organizations such as WWF, OECD, UNDRR, UN Habitat, Nature Conservancy, Slum Dwellers Initiative, GIZ, Mott MacDonald, the China Association of Plant Engineering Consultants (CAPEC), the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), amongst others. To see our current members, please click here.  

The GIB CEO co-hosts the Cities Climate Leadership Alliance’s (CCFLA) Working Group on Project Preparation Facilities, is member of the CCFLA Steering Board and a member of the ICLEI Resilient Cities Conference Program Committee. Additionally, the GIB CEO is a member of the Steering Board of the Resilience Measurement, Evidence and Learning Community of Practice funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

The application of the SuRe® standard to a project ensures guidance and management of sustainable projects from both a risk management and a benefit creation perspective. These goals are maximized when the standard is applied earlier on in the lifecycle of the Project. SuRe® should to be seen as a tool which goes beyond mere project risk mitigation or cost-effectiveness considerations. It can be used to leverage both public and private infrastructure investment, while at the same time strengthening resilience, maximizing social benefits and limiting the environmental footprint of the project.

When compared to other standards applicable to infrastructure, SuRe® is:

– voluntary and genuinely independent;

– a genuine 3rd party certification system, via Certification Bodies and an Accreditation Body;

– SuRe® is the only infrastructure standard to have achieved associate ISEAL membership.

Smartscan is a self-assessment procedure, based on the SuRe® Standard, but it cannot lead to certification on its own. The differences between the SuRe® Standard and Smartscan lie in the degree of assessment and accreditation of each tool. Of the two, only the SuRe® Standard System, which enforces full assessment and assured third party certification, can lead to a comprehensive SuRe® Standard Certification.

GIB rating is an earlier version of the standard, which has been successfully deployed by the Foundation since 2012, on a global scale and on over 150 projects.

The SuRe® Standard is  in its first implementation phase, projected to finish at the end of2019. A number of  projects in India, China, and Indonesia are undergoing the first SuRe® assessments in hopes of achieving the SuRe® certification.  The forecast certification date for these projects is 1Q 2020.

Project Overview

Twenty-eight projects have been assessed with Smartscan, valued at 20Bi USD CAPEX. The projects are located across Europe, Asia and the Americas and include infrastructure such as airports, railroads, transportation systems, power plants, LNG terminals, solid waste and wastewater management facilities.

A total of 150 projects have undergone the GIB rating process.

Regions include Europe, Asia, Americas and Africa. Sectors include: social infrastructures, energy generation and distribution, transportation, mobility, logistics, water and solid waste processing, energy, information & communication technologies, urban development and regeneration.

The SuRe® system relies on third party certification throughout the Project lifecycle. Certification Bodies are accredited to the SuRe® certification scheme and are responsible for auditing projects for compliance with the SuRe® standard requirements. The audit process carried out by the Certification Body ensures a full assessment of criteria for compliance and high level of standard application quality. A SuRe® Certification Body must be accredited by the appointed SuRe® Accreditation Body in order to audit the infrastructure project’s compliance with the SuRe® System. For more information on how to become a SuRe® Accredited Certification Body, click here.

The following Certification Bodies are currently in the process of achieving preliminary accreditation to the SuRe® System(2019): SGS-CSTC Standards Technical Services Co. (Beijing Head Office, China), PT. TÜV NORD (Indonesia), true&fair (CH based, involved in the certification of a project in India).

The detailed steps for SuRe®certification are available here. In general, the project can register on our website at no cost, complete the SuRe® materiality assessment, select an accredited certification body to conduct the SuRe® assessment (which includes a desk review and onsite audit) and is then evaluated for compliance. If successful, this will result in a SuRe® certification.

To register your project, click here.

A ‘Certify a project brochure’ is available in the Documents section of the website and illustrates costs in relation to the assessment process which are paid directly to the Certification Body. Costs might vary in accordance with the Certification Body’s own pricing structure. The sector, size, location and status of the project will also affect the cost of certification.

Additional costs might arise in the case of time and costs relevant to sanity check of all occurrences that might affect compliance with SuRe® criteria.

Licensing fees shall be paid to GIB and collected by the Certification Body. For more information on the licensing fee structure of the SuRe® System, click here.

The Certification lasts for 5 years. After the certification validity period has elapsed, the Project that wishes to keep its SuRe® Certification status must apply fore recertification.

The overall timeline for SuRe® Certification spans between 4 to 8 months. This enables all the certification process steps to take place, from project inception and registration into the SuRe® scheme to assurance and full certification. For a detailed certification roadmap, click here.

The Project is entitled to select its own accredited Certification Body from the list of SuRe® accredited certification bodies available on the SuRe® website. This is a mandatory pre-condition, required to comply with the two-layer assurance as required by SuRe®.

The Accreditation Body is the body that audits and accredits the Certification Bodies. It is part of the SuRe® third party accreditation system, which provides an extra layer of assurance for the project, a system practiced by other mainstream industry standards. The current appointed Accreditation Body working with SuRe® Certification Bodies is Assurance Services International (ASI).

All SuRe® Certification Bodies must conform to the requirements of ISO 17021-1 (2015), will comply with the requirements stated in RQ01 Certification and Accreditation Requirements and will comply with the accreditation requirements set by the appointed accreditation body.

The 3-day training in the SuRe® system serves as the first step for auditors to understand SuRe® specific requirements. In addition, the applicants will need to complete online training including our Massive Open Online Course developed in partnership with the Polytechnic University of Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne Switzerland. Their competency is also assessed through a head office assessment, during project audits (on site) and a desk review. This assessment is done by the third party accreditation body, currently Assurance Services International (ASI). Only after successfully completing the above, can auditors (and their certification bodies) be SuRe® accredited and able to conduct SuRe® project assessments.

Requirements for auditors and certification bodies are extremely stringent. For example, auditors are expected to have extremely high levels of competency in the field of sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including auditing of projects and experience in the sector of the Project to be assessed.

All SuRe® requirements for certification bodies and auditors can be found in the document RQ01- SuRe® Certification and Accreditation Requirements.

The Materiality Assessment is an indispensible and Project specific part of the assessment process, as required under the SuRe® Standard.  Its scope is to identify which Sustainability and Resilience topics are most relevant (in terms of materiality and applicability) to the specific Project applying for certification. The outcome of a SuRe® Materiality Assessment is the identification of criteria to assess variations of materiality in the project. For further information on the SuRe® criteria, please refer to the document “ST01 – SuRe Normative Standard” available on the SuRe® Document Library.

The SuRe® Standard requires compliance on a series of Criteria, covering the  Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues,  of which 21 are defined as Safeguarding Red Criteria.  They  are considered the minimum requirements which SuRe® stakeholders deem as critical for ensuring that a Project is designed, built, operated and/or decommissioned in a sustainable and resilient matter.

The Project pursuing Certification cannot opt out of compliance with the 21 SuRe® Red Criteria.

There are different levels of assessment under the SuRe® suite of products, relevant to the grade of assurance a Project wishes to obtain.
The assessment conducted in line with the SuRe® Certification process can determine the level of eligibility of the Project for a higher or lower level of certification (SuRe® Gold, SuRe® Silver or SuRe® Bronze certified).

Please note that the assessment is independent from the Certification. All projects pursuing Certification must undergo assessment, but not all assessed projects will reach the Certification status. Achieving certification depends on project compliance with applicable SuRe® criteria.

If the Project opts out of the SuRe® Certification process, it will not achieve Certification status. 

The SuRe® Certification scheme particularly encourages projects to start the process at an early stage of project development, so as to maximize its potential to drive sustainable and resilient infrastructure through lifecycle thinking. However, the standard allows for  certification at any stage of development of an infrastructure project: planning, design, construction, commissioning, operation, upgrade/augmentation, decommissioning. 

SuRe® is applicable to all countries, regardless of country- specific regulations. SuRe®’s local applicability is achieved through the materiality assessment which the Project completes at the beginning of the SuRe® certification process. The project’s applicable and relevant criteria, in addition to the mandatory red criteria, are assessed for compliance depending on its sector and location. Whenever there is a dispute between SuRe® and local regulation, the latter shall prevail. Our system documents specifically allow for this. 

In practical terms, this means that if the Project is in a location where by local regulation it already has implemented practices that go beyond federal regulations, this is taken into account for the SuRe® assessment. Therefore, the Project may already be compliant with a greater number of SuRe® criteria in comparison to those projects that only follow federal regulation, and thus achieve a higher level of certification (i.e. SuRe® Gold).

Each criterion was developed from established international frameworks, SDGs, expert advice and then approved by consensus. For example, the criteria related to Disaster Risk Reduction used the Sendai Framework of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) as a benchmark, and discussed with UNDRR Headquarters in Geneva, additionally the Head for UNDRR of Asia Pacific is a member of our SuRe® Stakeholder Council. 

Each criterion has specific requirements to verify compliance and may request evidence in different forms. The Certification Body is in charge of verifying all applicable and material criteria, through desk reviews and audits. They may require documents such as policies, contracts, reports and make site visits to the Project site for assessing such compliance.

For specific evidence on each criterion please see the “SuRe® Standard document ST01”, Theme G2 Sustainability and Resilience Management and especially criterion G2.4 Emergency Response Preparedness, which outlines the evidence requirements related to disaster risk reduction (among others). 

Data confidentiality is regarded highly by GIB.

The Project is safeguarded by two Non Disclosure Agreements (NDA), signed respectively with GIB and with the Certification Body. The NDA covers the handling of sensitive or proprietary data throughout the Certification duration.

GIB will publish on its website only the following data: name of the Project, location (city, country), CAPEX, sector and current status of the SuRe® certification assessment (i.e. ‘in progress’, certified, etc.).

At the moment of registration, the Project needs to complete the SuRe® Registration Form. The information contained in this form will be shared with a certification body (and no other third party), should the Project wish to undergo a SuRe® assessment.

SuRe®’s  governance bodies maintain a balanced representation of stakeholders in the standard, ensuring a fair representation of each group’s views. Additionally, members provide due diligence safeguards for the process while also ensuring independence, transparency and credibility.

SuRe® is constituted and run by three governing bodies. These bodies are the SuRe® Secretariat, the Standard Committee and the Stakeholder Council, in addition to the GIB Foundation Board.  Each is responsible for diverse functions and has its own mandate for the development of SuRe®.

The bodies are responsible for the stakeholder identification process and ensure that a wide stakeholder representation is involved in the definition of the standard. Specifically, project developers, infrastructure financiers and public sector institutions are represented as major groups in the development and implementation phases of the standard.  Underrepresented and disadvantaged stakeholder groups have also been consulted in the development process. Public Consultations with stakeholders have been conducted during the development phase of the standard.

The Standard Committee is a body involving up to 15 experts in the infrastructure industry and in sustainability and resilience issues which decides on the standard approach, content and standard-setting procedures;  the Stakeholder Council is a forum of up to 40 stakeholders, tasked to provide feedback on the standard and ensure its relevance across groups of stakeholders and regions of the world. Stakeholders include public entities, infrastructure developers and contractors, public and private financial institutions, certification and consulting, civil society, and academics from around the world.

For further details on the governance procedures please refer to the document “SuRe® Governance ToRs – GO01” available on the SuRe® Document Library.

The Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation (GIB) as Scheme Owner of SuRe® and through the SuRe® Secretariat, will periodically (at least every 5 years) review and update the Standard.  

The project with a  full SuRe® Certification can maintain its status through yearly reporting for assessment of compliance and a 5-yearly recertification process.

Dedicated Transition procedures are in place to ensure the Project can benefit from SuRe® Standard updates.

The Sustainable Infrastructure Alliance (SIA) is an alliance constituted by Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation (GIB) and GIZ (Deutsche Gesselschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit). The Alliance was established to promote sustainable and resilient infrastructure in Asia, through training and certification activities.

The two partners each contribute according to their specific expertise to generate an effective synergy. GIB contributes with research and technical knowledge for sustainable infrastructure, advocacy capabilities, and SuRe^® – The Standard for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure.

GIZ contributes its excellent connections with the public sector,  and its solid standing as the world’s largest development agency, employing over 20 000 people in more than 130 countries.

Working together as a team enables SIA to engage key stakeholders in the sustainable and resilient infrastructure sector worldwide, through governance advocacy, knowledge exchange and assessment and certification of projects.

There are four different ways you can contribute to supporting SuRe®.

You can join the two main governance bodies, responsible respectively for updating upcoming versions and developing the current standard, the SuRe® Stakeholder Council and the SuRe® Standard Committee. Alternatively, you can endorse SuRe® by becoming a SuRe® Endorsing partner or an Independent Ambassador. Finally, if you want to have an active part in assessing a project’s ESG performance and applying the SuRe® Standard for preparedness reviews or Pre-Certification assessments of projects,  you can take a further step and engage in the journey to become SuRe® Associated Professional.

The SuRe® scheme gives the opportunity to professionals engaged with an infrastructure project to autonomously conduct a SuRe® Self-Assessment. A SuRe® Associated Professional can perform an ESG self-assessment according to the SuRe® scheme. He/she can assess a project autonomously and determine the project performance prior to committing to a full SuRe® 3^rd party certification. Last but not least, SuRe® Associated Professionals, although not entitled to make project SuRe® claims, can benefit of showcasing the SuRe®Associated Professional logo on their relevant project webpages under the conditions specifically defined in the terms & conditions of our Agreement.

The SuRe® Self-Assessment is newly introduced with the SuRe® ST01 Normative Standard v2.1. It stands for a self-assessment, or pre-certification assessment that can be carried out by either by the SuRe® Secretariat or, autonomously, by a SuRe® Associated Professional. See here how to become a SuRe® Associated Professional.