The construction industry has some of the greatest opportunities to employ more environmentally friendly practices in material use. Concrete, for example, uses many physical materials as resources, but its production also requires a great deal of energy.

Construction, like many other industries, continuously seeks new materials and construction methods that add to sustainability. The most efficient use of materials is good for the planet and construction costs.

Construction trends

There are numerous ways to achieve more sustainable construction practices, including using materials that may re-enter the circular economy as recycled materials at the end of their life. Other practices rely on using such materials upfront in building construction or using recycled materials from previous demolitions when possible.

In its 2021 article “Call for Action: Seizing the decarbonization opportunity in construction,” global management firm McKinsey & Co. states that there is a sharpened push toward sustainability in the wake of the global pandemic.

“When we asked 100 senior construction executives what trends they expected to accelerate due to the COVID-19 crisis, 53% cited sustainability. Reasons could include increased corporate awareness and understanding, as well as growing pressure from investors and financiers. Additionally, 10% said they had already increased investments in sustainability measures since the start of the crisis. Moreover, sustainability has rapidly become one of the most frequent topics that clients ask us about,” according to the report.

Research in sustainable engineering

Numerous research projects focus on creating more materials and practices with a lower environmental impact that may be useful to the construction industry.

At the University of British Columbia, Feng Jiang, assistant professor of forestry and Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Functional Biomaterials, is in the process of developing a biofoam material that can be created from wood waste and the aftermath of forest fires. Styrofoam, which can take more than 500 years to break down, fills 30% of global landfills. This biofoam can break down in a matter of weeks, according to Jiang, and it requires little heat and only a few chemicals to make. Some uses include packing peanuts and foams and thermal insulation boards.

Getting a grip on e-waste

A subset of all sustainable practices for any type of electronic and electrical fabrication is e-waste. Each year, numerous electronic devices, components and other related materials are disposed of without a discernible plan or incorporation into any sustainable best practices. This is worth discussing, as electrical contractors often have a stake in e-waste, and in the future, they may have to be even more savvy in their treatment of it.

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has been studying worldwide trends in waste generated from electronics and electrical equipment. According to its findings, “electronic waste in 13 Latin American countries rose by 49% between 2010 and 2019, roughly the world average, but just 3% was collected and safely managed, a fraction of the 17.4% global average, according to the UN’s first assessment of Latin America’s e-waste volume, legislation, and management infrastructure.”

According to UNITAR’S findings, e-waste generated in 2019 by 206 million citizens in the 13 countries studied totaled 1.3 million tons (1.3 megatons), of which almost 30% was plastic. This was equal to the weight of a 670-km line of fully loaded 40-ton trucks. In 2010, the figure was 900,000 tons, generated by about 185 million citizens. They found that 97% of e-waste is mismanaged, which accounts for its high prevalence in Latin America.

Electronic waste in the United States similarly has many shortcomings and could be much better managed in the frame of sustainability. According to Arman Shehabi, energy/environmental policy staff scientist and engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the problem of e-waste in the United States is significant and lies with the greater number of devices being discarded. 

Electronic devices are so prevalent and many of them have short lifespans. In a December 2022 interview, Shehabi said: “In our estimate, we saw that just in the U.S. alone projections were showing that there is a ballpark of a billion devices that will be discarded every year in the U.S. by the end of the decade. One of the big issues is we don’t really have a system in place or the infrastructure in place to properly take these electronics apart and reuse the different components that are in them, so they are just being landfilled or shipped off to another country to recycle.“

Greener industrial practices is a topic worth editorializing. The bottom line is that sustainability is a watchword for many, including electrical contractors. As projects and contracts move forward, sustainability is already a great concern and likely to be significant in the future.

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