Across Australia, regions are accommodating investment in energy, infrastructure, housing, data centres and new industries.

Developers need viable sites and investment certainty. Governments need to support growth while coordinating infrastructure, communities and environmental protection. Economic development organisations need credible investment opportunities.

Growth decisions do not occur in isolation. Investment, infrastructure, environmental values and community interests converge in the same places.

Environmental planning and economic development planning therefore need to happen in concert.

Faster approvals require earlier knowledge

Australia's environmental reforms aim to make assessments and approvals faster, simpler and more transparent. Regulatory reform and AI powered approval processes however cannot remove every constraint.

Australian Government guidance advises proponents to allow up to 18 months where environmental information needs to be collected because some ecological surveys can only occur at particular times of year.

Ecological seasons cannot be compressed to fit a project timetable.

This affects due diligence, financing, project schedules and when capital is committed. It can also make established industrial areas, brownfield sites and previously disturbed land attractive where appropriate, particularly where existing infrastructure and environmental knowledge reduce uncertainty.

The cheapest site to acquire may not be the lowest-cost site to develop.

Better information earlier can therefore support faster development without weakening environmental outcomes.

For developers: better siting and earlier certainty

Site selection is rarely about one factor. Depending on the project, developers may need to consider:

• land availability and development cost
• access to energy and transmission
• water availability
• transport and logistics
• workforce and housing
• biodiversity, waterways and other environmental values
• landscape character, views and visual amenity
• community and Traditional Owner interests
• existing infrastructure and previously disturbed land
• cumulative development pressures and opportunities for future expansion.
• Bringing environmental planning into these decisions earlier can identify where impacts might be avoided, where further investigation is required and where environmental or landscape constraints may materially affect feasibility.

It also creates an opportunity to design infrastructure with the landscape rather than adding it to the landscape later.

Landscape character, important views, landform, vegetation and the way people experience a place can influence siting and design. Roads, transmission infrastructure, substations, buildings and water infrastructure can be considered as part of the landscape, alongside opportunities for revegetation, restoration, habitat connectivity and improved amenity.

The question should not simply be: how do we make infrastructure less visually intrusive? It should also be: how can this investment leave the landscape better?

Taking this approach early can deliver more than better environmental and landscape outcomes. It can help identify community concerns before designs become fixed, create opportunities to respond to local priorities, and reduce the risk of objections, redesign and delays later in the development process.

There is a commercial value in getting these decisions right early. Productivity Commission modelling has previously indicated that a one-year delay can reduce a project's net present value by around 7–18%, depending on project timing and discount rates.

For local governments: managing cumulative regional change

For councils, one major development may be manageable. Multiple energy, infrastructure, housing and industrial projects arriving within a relatively short period can place simultaneous pressure on roads and infrastructure, housing, water and services, workforce availability, biodiversity and waterways, landscapes and amenity, community expectations and council capacity.

There is also a cumulative landscape dimension. A project that appears acceptable in isolation may form part of a much larger change once transmission lines, roads, substations, housing and industrial development are considered together.

Councils therefore need to consider not only individual projects but what their landscapes, towns and communities should look and feel like as growth occurs.

Understanding a region's landscape and environmental assets alongside its growth plans can inform where development is best accommodated and where natural assets can contribute to regional resilience and liveability. Green corridors, wetlands, waterways, urban forests and remnant vegetation can support biodiversity while also providing practical infrastructure functions such as flood, heat and stormwater management.

Growth creates an opportunity to consider what lasting value investment should leave behind — from jobs, skills and local procurement to environmental restoration, community infrastructure and improved public amenity.

For State and Commonwealth governments: coordinating at scale

Energy, transmission, housing, transport, water, industry, environmental regulation and economic development may sit in different portfolios, yet they converge in the same regions.

• Are infrastructure and environmental planning happening together?
• Are environmental and landscape constraints known early enough to influence investment and land-use decisions?
• Can regional environmental information be collected once and shared more effectively?
• Where should public infrastructure unlock development — and where should cumulative pressures influence future growth?
• Australia's move towards bioregional planning is particularly relevant. Looking at whole regions rather than individual projects creates opportunities to inform planning and investment decisions, understand cumulative impacts and identify where development may be more appropriately accommodated.

It also creates potential to identify cumulative opportunities — including coordinated infrastructure, strategic restoration, biodiversity and natural-capital investment, and landscape enhancement.

Some questions simply cannot be answered one project at a time.

For economic development organisations: is the region environmentally investment-ready?

Economic development organisations already build detailed intelligence about land, workforce, energy, water, transport, supply chains, target industries and investment opportunities. Environmental intelligence needs to be integrated into the regional development picture.

If a region is actively seeking substantial investment, should every developer have to discover its major environmental opportunities and constraints independently?

A stronger regional investment proposition could include information about locations suited to different forms of development, significant environmental and landscape constraints, brownfield and previously disturbed land, infrastructure requirements, areas facing cumulative pressure, and opportunities for restoration, natural-capital investment and climate resilience.

Economic development organisations do not need to become environmental regulators. Bringing environmental planners into regional investment conversations can help create more credible investment propositions and reduce uncertainty for proponents.

Environmental readiness becomes part of investment readiness.

Creating value beyond individual projects

Bringing environmental considerations into growth planning earlier also creates opportunities to think beyond the impacts and benefits of individual projects. Investment can bring infrastructure, jobs and economic activity, while healthy landscapes and natural systems support biodiversity, resilience, recreation, liveability and a region's attractiveness to residents, workers and investors.

Visual amenity is therefore not merely aesthetic. It can be part of a region's economic, environmental and social capital.

When multiple projects are planned for the same region, the opportunities also change in scale. A pipeline of energy, infrastructure, housing or industrial development can create the critical mass for:

• shared infrastructure — reducing duplication and improving regional connectivity
• coordinated transmission and transport — considering networks and corridors across multiple developments
• local supply chains — creating sufficient demand to support local businesses and new industry capability
• workforce and skills development — coordinating training and employment pathways around a longer-term project pipeline
• strategic environmental restoration — connecting restoration efforts across projects to achieve greater landscape-scale outcomes
• investment in nature — directing environmental investment towards regional natural-capital priorities
• green and blue infrastructure — strengthening biodiversity, climate resilience, recreation and liveability
• landscape enhancement — coordinating revegetation, screening, habitat connectivity and visual amenity across a wider area
• community infrastructure and benefits — aligning investment with facilities and services that provide lasting local value.

These opportunities may not be viable, or even visible, when projects are considered individually.

Considering cumulative opportunities alongside cumulative impacts can help turn a pipeline of individual projects into broader and more lasting regional value.

Environmental readiness is investment readiness

Regions competing for investment increasingly need to demonstrate more than access to land, infrastructure and workforce. They also need to understand where investment can be successfully accommodated and how development can contribute to the long-term economic, environmental and social value of the region.

Earlier environmental intelligence can improve site selection, inform infrastructure investment, identify opportunities for restoration and natural capital, strengthen community outcomes and help regions attract development aligned with their long-term ambitions.

Connecting environmental planning with economic development and regional planning creates better information earlier — when there is still scope to influence sites, designs, infrastructure and investment decisions.

My work sits at this intersection. I work with regional organisations and project partners to bring environmental, economic and impact considerations together — identifying opportunities for green growth and investment, anticipating impacts and cumulative pressures, and developing strategies and projects that create measurable regional value.

The regions best prepared for growth will be those that understand not only what investment they want to attract, but how that investment can strengthen the places, landscapes and communities in which it occurs.

Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). EPBC Act environmental assessment and approval guidance.
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/epbc/advice

Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). Bioregional planning.
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/epbc/epbc-act-reform/bioregional-planning

Productivity Commission. Minerals investment and regulatory delay.
https://www.pc.gov.au/media-speeches/speeches/minerals-investment/