How Technology is Driving Sustainability in Construction

Today it isn’t hard to see the effects of unsustainable practices and the fact that our resources are limited. Its this limitation that drives innovation and today’s construction leaders have the ability to increase their productivity and at the same time increase their sustainability. In fact, there is a real opportunity to lead from a position of strength if taken now.

On this episode, our Host Mike Merrill sits down with Doreen Bartoldus President of NAWIC National and Manager of Water Projects at Jacobs to talk about sustainability and its role in the future of construction, the role technology has in sustainability and best sustainability practices that all contractors can use.

Key Takeaways

1. Sustainability goes beyond materials. It is easy to see how using supplies that are built with recycled materials and/or renewable sources is a big part of sustainability, but the reality is that is only half of the picture. Sustainable practices like using local supplies, maintaining local erosion control and fish and animal habitat maintenance goes a long way to minimize the impact new constriction has on the environment.
2. Technology tightens the amount of risk on job sites, reducing unseen environmental impacts. Using digital doubles is a great example of how preparation and digital practice can make sure that each step of the project is safe, secure, and free of unseen failure or issues. Removing the unknown decreases risk and being able to walk through each major movement eliminates productivity, environmental and financial surprises.
3. Going paperless and live tracking removes waste by removing paper products and exposes unproductive activity and lost materials. Digital forms remove the need for bills and reports to be printed in triplicate. It keeps everyone up to speed on any changes immediately removing confusion and out of date information. And it also catches the errors that paper based tracking would never be able to catch in time.