Driving sustainability with data

Everyone, from clients to end users, is concerned about sustainability and damaging carbon emissions. Without robust sustainability goals and performance, it will become harder for companies in the sector to operate, let alone thrive. There is also increasing scrutiny on sustainability claims, placing significant importance on the value of data transparency.

According to the UK Green Building Council, the built environment sector accounts for 25% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions, and from the forensic analysis of our carbon emissions, the majority is associated with the materials on our projects.

While this is no surprise, to see this quantified highlights that no one organisation can achieve targets such as net zero carbon alone. The industry will have to come together to address the sustainability challenges we face.

The competitive nature of the industry does present real challenges in achieving this. Clients have different sustainability demands on their contractors. Contractors then also have their own demands, meaning they often require their supply chains to provide similar data but in different ways. There can also be a risk that data is reported and used for a single purpose yet remains a largely untapped resource.

Data analytics is core to our development and innovation, so we participate in activities that foster collaboration in construction and beyond. Our involvement in the project data analytics community and in establishing the first Construction Data Trust demonstrates its value to us. This work has already delivered previously unrealised insights into our operations, but we have only just begun to scratch the surface.

If more organisations come together and are open about their data successes, greater strides can be made in realising our sustainability goals.

Adam Robinson is senior sustainability manager at Sir Robert McAlpine