Achieving sustainable building in construction

Challenging times present opportunities to reflect, reimagine and reform. According to the World Bank, in any given year climate change takes more human lives than Covid-19 has. This certainly puts things into perspective and highlights the urgency of reducing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The time to act is now and businesses should aim to overcome the challenges related to securing low-carbon heating. Large decarbonised grid and maximised use of renewable energy are only part of the solution. The other part has to do with ‘retrofitting’ of 29 million homes across the UK.

What is sustainable building

Sustainable construction equates to benefiting from renewable and recyclable materials while using less energy and avoiding wastage during this process.

Usage of sustainable materials is an important step forward. For example, production of concrete is believed to release large amounts of greenhouse gases in the air. Hence, straw bales or bamboo are being adopted as viable alternatives. Introducing heating and lighting controls, better glazing and insulation play a big role too.

How to make buildings more sustainable

The UK government has taken on cutting the Carbon emissions by a half by 2025 (compared to 1990) and by 80% by 2050. A significant percentage of UK green house emissions could be attributed to buildings. While it is expected that new government policies will be put forward to ensure the carbon zero emissions are met, we expect to see a parallel shift to a demand for more sustainable living as well.

Now, if we are to meet these goals, we need to build smarter and more sustainably. Nearly 50% of carbon emissions come from construction sites. Therefore, it is essential that businesses are transparent, openly communicate their emissions and look for ways to reduce them by procuring renewable energy.  A few leading businesses have already taken decisive actions related to:

• No fossil fuel usage on sites
• Site cabin electricity usage to be halved. (switched off at night and during the weekends)
• Significant mileage reduction
• Offices to produce renewable energy and to be zero-carbon
• Employees and visitors should make sustainable travel decisions

One small step…

It does come down to simple things such as going paperless, getting your materials when you need them i.e. minimising wastage and ensuring that you encourage more sustainable travel. A growing number of businesses have adopted the ‘new normal’ trend with remote working and encourage their employees to travel less.

Technology can also offer a helping hand in ensuring that the construction industry can achieve these ambitious but essential goals. By using one integrated software solution you have real-time insight into your business processes. It allows you go paperless while still maintaining audit trail and controlling project costs and margins. What is more, it enables you to tackle problems with planning and ensure that you always send the closest most suitable field engineer/operative with the correct materials to the job (optimising mileage).

Would you like to know more about what other short- and long-term trends are shaping the construction industry? Take a look at the whitepaper ‘The 7 Industry trends that will help construction to build back stronger’.

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