Industrial Automation Magazine India

New WBCSD report shows how the construction sector can benefit from digital technology

Published on : Monday 15-02-2021

New report on digitalisation of the built environment highlights sustainable business opportunities and offers key recommendations.

Geneva, February 2021 – The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released a report demonstrating the critical role of digitalisation in establishing sustainable practices in the buildings and construction sector. Digitalisation can improve sustainability performance and help develop new processes, services and markets, but despite the promising benefits, the sector has been slow to fully adopt emerging digital technologies. The report, Digitalisation of the built environment: Towards a more sustainable construction sector, offers a set of recommendations at company and sector levels for accelerating the deployment of digitalisation.

As a major contributor to societies’ carbon footprints, the built environment needs to shift toward sustainability to prevent an exacerbation of the climate crisis. In the coming decades, global population growth and urbanisation will instigate a massive growth in urban infrastructure. Sustainable practices are key prerequisites to ensure business continuity.

Developed by WBCSD in collaboration with Arcadis – with the participation of 14 other companies and one foundation – the report shows that digitalisation can help ensure a future-proof sector by supporting actors across the value chain to increase productivity and transparency while reducing emissions, resource consumption and costs. Digitalisation can unlock great value by enabling collection, processing, analysis and disclosure of large and complex sets of data within and between companies. In the UK alone, it is estimated that an increased exchange of data could deliver an additional GBP £7 billion per year in the infrastructure sector.

Based on interviews with companies who have already embarked on a digital transformation, the report offers insights into challenges associated with digitalisation that the buildings and construction sector faces, as well as solutions and best practices. The report presents steps that companies and sector organisations can take to trigger the integration of digitally enabled sustainable practices. Initially, the transition requires a cultural shift, where value rather than cost is emphasised and long-term improvements are prioritised over short-term objectives. The report also suggests adoption of data-driven approaches, integrated strategies, harmonisation and reformed procurement regulations to further encourage innovation, collaboration and sustainable outcomes in the built environment.

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