Climate change is a very real, and very urgent problem that the whole world is facing. The majority of industries are doing all they can to develop the ways of working to decrease their carbon footprint, and become as carbon-free as possible. The construction industry is no different – there has been rapid development within the industry over the past few years.
Here’s a few ways that the construction industry is helping to combat climate change and get to net-zero carbon by 2050 (hopefully sooner).
Utilising existing sustainability practices
The industry has already developed some standard sustainable practices which include life-cycle costing, whole-life carbon modelling and post-occupancy evaluation as part of the basic scope of work. This is to reduce both embodied and operational resource use. Collaboration between developers, designers, engineers, contractors and clients is also common practice to further reduce construction waste.
Developing more sustainable materials and practices
The construction industry is constantly working on researching and developing new ways of incorporating more sustainable materials and practices. Examples of this are:
- Cutting the use of cement as the manufacturing process of this is responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions.
- Increase the use of digital modelling for optimising a building’s performance in operation and sustainability.
- Shifting towards thinking about long-term performance of property, not just the delivery.
New sustainability metrics
Operational metrics are key to ensuring long-term sustainability of new assets and is now the new industry standard. The Better Building Partnership’s Design for Performance initiative has been developed to incorporate and embrace the challenges of long-term sustainability than the UK’s current certification process.
Government’s climate change agreement
Companies are being encouraged to sign up to the climate change agreement to pledge a decrease of their energy usage. These are voluntary agreements made between UK industry and the Environment Agency to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions.
Reducing transportation miles
The construction industry racks up a lot of transportation miles between shipping materials and workers getting to the construction site itself. Here’s a few tips on how you can reduce your overall transportation miles:
- Pre-plan your routes to minimise miles
- Vehicle sharing of workers where possible
- Make sure lorries and other vehicles are as full as possible when making deliveries
- Use local suppliers
Reduce overall waste
No business wants to waste materials – they are both costly to your budget, as well as the environment. To ensure you aren’t wasting anything, thorough planning is needed before you order any materials or products. Only order what you are going to need for the job – unless it is materials you know you can get cheaper if purchased in bulk and will be needing them for another project in the future.
Ensure correct installation
All of your hard work that goes into planning a construction to be as energy efficient as possible can quickly go to waste if they are not fitted, used correctly or maintained. It is important that you ensure all products are fitted correctly and maintained thoroughly. This is especially relevant to doors and windows, as heat can escape through the smallest of gaps.
CQS Solutions provides professional advice and services to contractors and sub-contractors in the construction industry in order to improve cost certainty, margin and productivity and mitigate risks for business owners.
We are always looking for ways to help you reduce your carbon footprint on an upcoming project – it is one of our main goals.