Sustainable Choices: The Construction Industry Is Going Greener

The construction industry is a gigantic consumer of natural resources and raw materials as it generates 39% of the carbon emission across the globe as per World Green Building Council. Sustainability is just another aspect that the construction industry struggles with due to the increasingly strict health and safety regulations.

The sustainable building design is critical as every construction company needs to find a way to reduce their energy consumption in a completed building. However, the executives are more likely to set sustainability goals than to have taken real action to attain those goals based on the survey with a thousand respondents globally.

Sustainability as a Complex Issue for Every Engineering and Construction Companies

Managing the complexity in every construction project is pretty challenging. It starts with the project's planning, getting the right equipment, supplies, staffing, and materials up to completion; incorporating sustainable practices into all construction areas is an escalating challenge. 

Construction and engineering leaders face several competing pressures. They need to maintain efficient processes and control costs, have multiple subcontractors and suppliers, and minimize carbon footprint and energy costs while using intensive energy for heavy equipment during the construction and maintenance. Also, one of the substantial challenges is a lack of visibility. 

All of this is on top of developing building structures that are taller, scalable, healthier, greener, and technologically advanced than before. 

Every construction industry recognizes the necessity to address these urgent and often competing issues, especially with the supply chain. According to a survey, 47% say that complexity is another obstacle to achieving sustainability goals, while 59% say sustainable chain supply is competitive. 

However, the good news is that the construction industry is gradually becoming more sustainable regardless of many conflicts and challenges. 

In the recent global survey covering multiple sectors, the construction and engineering industries have made the most progress towards sustainability in the design phase. About 47% of the respondents say that the sustainability design is a significant concern or top priority. 

Sustainable Design

Even though the construction industry may be quite behind other sectors in adopting sustainability practices, the construction and engineering companies are more advanced in using new technologies during the design process by using Building Information Modelling (BIM) and digital twins. With the help of these new technologies, engineers and architects are now designing more sustainable buildings and putting increasing pressure on other construction companies to digitize. 

More than 50% of construction and engineering respondents use mobile technology for their design phase, and almost 37% use mobile in maintenance processes. Many respondents said that this results in increased supplier visibility, which is an essential sustainability aspect. About 55% of the respondents also use 3D printing in the manufacturing process, and 51% reported increasing visibility. 

How to Become a More Sustainable Construction Industry 

• Create a long-term strategy process plan that considers sustainability in every aspect of the process from start to finish.
• Ethically source eco-friendly and durable materials such as general-purpose access doors and ensure labor standards, fair humanitarians, and safety practices are in place with all suppliers and subcontractors. 
• Strictly implement sustainable building construction, engineering, and design practices powered by relevant data to measure, reduce, and track the waste and emission throughout the project life cycle.
• Use logistics processes to optimize the materials and equipment deliveries to minimize emissions, carbon footprint, and mileage.
• Operate all the equipment and assets in an energy-efficient manner that is safe for the workforce and the environment. 

As more construction and engineering company executives realize the goodness of sustainability brings into their business, more companies adopt sustainable practices and set sustainability commitments. It is now time to balance the engineering and construction industry with the sustainable green line goals.