National Construction Goals
The construction industry is made up of many entities ideally working together. Practitioners in design, construction, facility management, along with facility owners, suppliers of products and software must be involved in accomplishing change. There are currently, over 250 associations, organizations, and agencies coordinating the various facets of the US's facilities and infrastructure industry. Each of these is working towards the good of their community, but with a diversity that makes continuity on any subject a challenge. With no higher-level focus, few measurable improvements to the infrastructure life cycle outcomes will become a reality.
Each of the 250 entities identified must have some common goals. They will all continue to strive to support their constituents and environment, increase profits, lower risk, and improve quality. However, focused goals will result in a lower total cost of ownership, greater environmental stewardship, and sustainability for the nation and the planet.
2030 is a reasonable timeframe for accomplishing these goals, but we must have a baseline in place today by which to measure them or any deadline will continue to be an elusive deadline. A video provided by the B1M in 2020 gives an excellent overview of the benefits of most of the national goals identified below.
Reduced Delivery Time
Time is money, and delivering products, facilities, and infrastructure faster means that owners can begin to achieve a return on their investment sooner. The goal is to save up to 50% of the time to deliver by streamlining and integrating the supply chain and other business processes.
Reduced Total Cost of Ownership
While the first cost remains essential, the cost impact of a product decision over the life of the product, facility, or infrastructure project is far more significant. Reducing the total cost of ownership is a far more critical goal. There is currently at least 40% waste in the current approach, which could be eliminated.
Increased Recycling and Reduced Landfill
There is far too much waste in the industry today. Waste is typically co-mingled and carted off to landfills, and off-site fabrication is under implemented. These combine to be a scourge on the environment in multiple ways. We can increase recycling and off-site fabrication to reduce landfills by 30%, making construction a far more sustainable endeavor.
Reduced Carbon Footprint
Awareness of the carbon footprint associated with fabrication is not well understood or considered. An awareness and focusing efforts to reduce the associated carbon footprint throughout the supply chain will not only save money but save the environment. A reduction of 50% of the carbon footprint is attainable.
Increased Net Zero Energy Focus
Energy usage in the built environment is staggering, yet only cursory efforts are in place to improve. A focus on net-zero energy usage in structures is imperative and achievable. It is believed that we can quickly increase the number of net-zero energy facilities by 20% in five years.
To align our industry to these national goals will enable us to affect the change required to improve our industry and affect genuine and positive change for our environment.
For these to be applied, a baseline must be established for each, and then those organizations of the 250 identified who are involved should sign up for helping to achieve the stated goals by the specified dates.
It must also be noted that our ultimate goal is to affect the entire built environment. Taking on new projects is a small piece of this, programs to retrofit existing facilities and infrastructure must also be initiated to be truly successful.