Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure

The World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Infrastructure has developed the 'Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure' (GFC-6) to provide a vision for sustainable, resilient, and inclusive infrastructure. Drawing from United Nations and Inter-American Development Bank frameworks, the GFC-6 emphasizes access and benefit-sharing, environmental and climate resilience, social acceptability, economic and institutional effectiveness, future-proofing over the lifecycle, and replicability for critical mass. The report argues that defining these qualities is essential for creating a recognized asset class that attracts private investment and provides a roadmap for integrating sustainability into every stage of an asset's lifecycle, from strategy to decommissioning.

• The Global Future Council on Infrastructure developed the Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure (GFC-6) to incorporate economic, social, environmental, and technological components into a vision for sustainable infrastructure.
• The GFC-6 framework consists of six specific qualities: access and benefit-sharing; environmental and climate resilience; social engagement and acceptability; economic and institutional effectiveness; future-proofing over lifecycle; and critical mass potential through replicability.
• The Council identified a need to expand existing standards to include technological sustainability, specifically regarding the risk of assets becoming stranded due to emerging technologies, and lifecycle sustainability, focusing on the management of aging, dismantling, and replacement.
• The primary objective of establishing the GFC-6 is to facilitate the creation of a sustainable infrastructure asset class to increase the flow of private capital into sustainable projects.
• The GFC-6 was formulated by synthesizing and expanding upon two existing standards: the United Nations' Guiding Principles on People-First Public-Private Partnerships (UN-5) and the Inter-American Development Bank’s Framework to Guide Sustainability Across the Project Cycle (IDB-4).

APA

World Economic Forum (2020). Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GFC_6_Sustainble_Infrastructure_2020.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure. 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GFC_6_Sustainble_Infrastructure_2020.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure |date=June 2020 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GFC_6_Sustainble_Infrastructure_2020.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2020six, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2020}, month = jun, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GFC_6_Sustainble_Infrastructure_2020.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }