Dr Hossein Sharifpour, Chief Executive Officer at Petro Contract Navigators and winner of the 2021 Asset Management Excellence McKeown Award for Individual Achievement, considers how we can make sure decisions taken today will enable future generations to thrive Dr Hossein Sharifpour Dr Hossein Sharifpour has more than 20 years experience in engineering and management in the aviation and energy sectors in Iran. Throughout his career, he has always sought to share knowledge and has provided training and consulting services in areas such as quality management, operations management and asset management. In 2018, he and some peers founded Petro Contract Navigators as a consultancy, research and training firm focusing on national and international cooperation in asset management. S ustainable development was defined in the World Commission on Environment and Developments 1987 Brundtland report Our Common Future as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Accordingly, John Elkington, who is credited with coining the term Triple Bottom Line, introduced a framework with the 3Ps People, Profit and Planet reflecting the triple concern for social, economic and environmental issues. Considering the concerns, principles and requirements of sustainable development and its three pillars, as well as the mission and scope of asset management, a fundamental question can be asked that may help to better identify and describe the crucial links between asset management and sustainable development. It is: what is the role and contribution of asset management in terms of sustainability? In other words, in light of the above definition of sustainable development, how and to what extent can asset management weaken or strengthen the ability of future generations to meet their own needs? In order to answer this question, two sub-questions must first be addressed. What causes or factors may weaken the ability of future generations to meet their own needs? What measures or initiatives can counteract such a weakening process? Long-term detriment What is the role and contribution of asset management in terms of sustainability? To address these questions, I would like to recall that in recent decades a significant number of projects related to the development of critical infrastructure and major asset systems, especially in developing countries, have not paid sufficient attention to sustainability concerns, especially environmental and social consequences. One of the best-known examples of such neglect can be found in the water collection, transmission and distribution sector. Today, we are witnessing the disturbing consequences of this neglect in some arid and semi-arid regions of the world in the form of local and regional conflicts and disputes. The construction of massive dams, the implementation of large inter-basin water transfer (IBT) projects, and the establishment of water-intensive industries in water-scarce regions (some of which are very successful from an engineering point of view) have been identified as the main culprits for the many sustainability challenges in some countries. Some of these large-scale or megaprojects have created short-term benefits and value for groups of stakeholders at the local and regional levels, but have had long-term detrimental consequences at the national and global levels. And the worst complication of such projects has been to severely compromise the ability of future generations to access the water they need. If it is to be determined which discipline bears the greatest share and responsibility for such projects and their adverse consequences, there will likely be many accusations against asset management. Indeed, it cannot be denied that some of these events and negative consequences theoretically and practically fall within the scope of asset management. Accordingly, the profession can play an effective role in preventing or resolving these problems. Asset management is therefore expected to respond appropriately. Paradigm shift In my view, in order to address the key sustainability concern of compromising the ability of future generations... and to respond to the above-mentioned allegations and expectations, a paradigm shift in asset management is required. It is of primary importance to address the following two issues: First, the fundamental principles, concepts and features of asset management including value, leadership, alignment, assurance, risk-based decision-making and focus on the full life-cycle of assets should be rephrased to more clearly reflect the triple bottom line concept and concern for intergenerational rights and responsibilities Second, there should be special emphasis and focus on asset management issues that are more relevant to the requirements and concerns of sustainable development. I think asset management governance and decision-making issues and frameworks are top priorities in this regard. To further illustrate this point, here is an example of one of the key considerations for each of these issues: overnance: resolving the conflict of interest between G corporate, national and global asset management governance frameworks, which is one of the root causes of disruption in the process of sustainable development; (Note: The UK Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) defines governance as the rules for setting priorities, granting approvals, directing, empowering and monitoring management, and ensuring and reviewing performance) Decision-making: sufficient attention to the management perspective compared with the engineering/technical perspective of asset management. (Note: The discipline of asset management is inherently a hybrid discipline, encompassing both management and engineering perspectives. The essential and usually overlooked consideration is that the management perspective of asset management carries much more weight than the engineering perspective. In many cases, inadequate consideration of this point has resulted in most strategic decisions related to the development of critical infrastructure and large physical asset systems being made under the pressure and influence of the purely engineering perspective) Dr Hossein Sharifpour won the 2021 Asset Management Excellence McKeown Award for Individual Achievement for his work on standardising asset management approaches and terminology by translating key texts into Farsi, his contributions to the design and development of maturity assessment software deployed in national organisations, and for introducing the IAM to many decision-makers in the energy sector in Iran. I am honoured to have won the award, he said. I am passionate about promoting asset management knowledge and culture, and raising standards across the profession. It is not surprising that we witness many infrastructure projects that seem to be successful from an engineering point of view, but are catastrophic from a sustainable development perspective because they threaten future generations. By considering the three Ps and having regard for project sustainability, asset management can help turn this around.