SUNRA - a sustainability rating system framework for National Road Administrations

National Road Administrations (NRAs) across Europe strive to improve the performance of their road networks. This improvement has been underpinned by significant research in the optimisation of road planning, design, construction and maintenance, which has enhanced the understanding of the social, environmental and economic aspects of managing a road network. Whilst there is common understanding in some aspects of sustainability there is not a common understanding of sustainability as a whole and thus how to benchmark and improve overall performance. The Sustainability: National Road Administrations (SUNRA) project aims to provide a common way of defining sustainability, identify how to measure sustainable development at a strategic level and integrate sustainable decision making into key intervention points. The project has developed a series of sustainability frameworks that allow NRAs to develop a tailored approach to sustainability based on national priorities, significant issues, stakeholder concerns and individual organisational structures.