In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for green and sustainable products and practices across most industries, and the construction industry is no exception. Construction companies that are leading the charge in green building have long been implementing practices such as recycling waste and using recycled materials, sourcing materials locally, utilizing solar energy, and using more sustainable and nontoxic building materials.

As businesses consider adopting more sustainable building practices, they could begin by turning to common technologies, including building information modeling (BIM), prefabrication, and the cloud, which provide time and cost savings and are more ecofriendly as well.

BIM

BIM technology has been increasing in use, and it serves as a digital representation that communicates the physical and functional characteristics of a project. Its top benefits include better visualization, faster and more accurate takeoffs, and increased project collaboration.

While these benefits can produce a host of business advantages — including producing solid estimates, winning more work, and saving time and money — they can also have a positive environmental impact. BIM projects produce less waste, especially when used throughout an entire project lifecycle — from the initial bid all the way to facilities management once a project is completed. Because BIM increases accuracy, it results in less rework, helping businesses avoid often costly and wasteful mistakes. Plus, since plans are updated throughout the project, everyone knows exactly where each building component is located. This helps streamline building service and maintenance, which can save unnecessary trips to a facility and, in turn, helps reduce emissions.

Prefabrication

The use of prefabrication continues to increase in the construction industry. Prefabrication technology makes it possible to manufacture building components off-site, ranging from smaller elements to entire rooms, and then install them on-site. Units are assembled in factory-like settings using machines and automated technologies. This enables greater quality control, delivers faster production and cost savings for both on-site labor and building materials. It also creates new employment opportunities.

Prefabrication can also help offset a project’s environmental impact by reducing waste. When creating units in bulk, manufacturers can utilize more of the building materials with less scraps left over. All units are also inspected before being shipped, minimizing the waste that can come from defects and mistakes. Additionally, many facilities have implemented recycling programs to further minimize waste. Prefabrication can also help lower carbon emissions by streamlining transportation and reducing pollution.

The Cloud

Cloud-based solutions are being used across the construction industry in everything from accounting to project management to field operations to payments and document management. Cloud-based solutions deliver an array of advantages as they provide anytime, anywhere access to real-time data, encourage greater collaboration, and keep projects moving more efficiently. An increasing number of businesses have turned to the cloud as remote work capabilities and business continuity have become greater priorities for many during the pandemic.

In addition to its speed and flexibility, moving software solutions from servers to the cloud could decrease energy usage, as large cloud data centers generally run more efficiently than private servers.¹ Enabling employees to work remotely further reduces emissions as less people need to commute.

The cloud can also significantly reduce a construction company’s paper trail Contractors have historically generated a lot of paper as they relied on physical copies of all documents, including building plans, change orders, contracts, and checks. Moving technology solutions to the cloud eliminates the need for paper records while providing a secure and efficient document management solution.

Conclusion

The industry will continue to see a shift toward more sustainable (and efficient) practices. While all businesses may not be ready to make sweeping changes or commit to becoming carbon neutral, these three technologies are great ways to start taking small steps now.

¹Sverdlick, Yevgeniy. “Study: Data Centers Responsible for 1 Percent of All Electricity Consumed Worldwide.” Data Center Knowledge. February 27, 2020. www.datacenterknowledge.com/energy/study-data-centers-responsible-1-percent-all-electricity-consumed-worldwide.