These 3 digital trends will impact the construction industry in 2022

TRENDS

2022 will be an important and potentially decisive year in several areas, believes Silje Bareksten, Commercial Director and co-founder of Fremby AS. Here are her three predictions for how the construction industry will be affected by new environmental requirements, technology, and digitalization in the coming period.

1. The construction industry seriously realizes that the green shift is a digital shift

In recent years, we have heard more and more about both digitalization and the importance of the green shift. 2021 brought the world climate goals with greater impact and reach, and "net zero" is well on its way to becoming the new norm. We believe that in 2022, the green shift will seriously be on the agenda for our industry - but that we will now see it in the context of a much-needed digitalization of the entire industry.

"Many aspects of digitalization and sustainability are demanding, and the technologies that digitalization brings will be crucial if we are to achieve both national and international climate and environmental goals. Ever-increasing demands for emission reductions affect the entire value chain, both those who order and follow up on contracts, as well as those who carry out the work. The construction industry must become better at measuring the direct and indirect emissions that result from their activities," says Bareksten.

If the construction industry is to be able to reduce its climate footprint, the introduction of technology-based solutions that facilitate this work is an essential part of the solution. Project owners and developers should be able to demonstrate how their orders contribute to achieving specific environmental goals and to what extent they deliver on emission reduction requirements. More specific goals require more specific data - and not least, collaboration. This is precisely why data-driven and automated reporting is an important part of the solution to enable the follow-up and improvement required.

"We are seeing more and more players discovering the benefits of moving away from manual reporting to digital tools that provide precise, more comparable, and more reliable data," says Bareksten. We observe that an increasing number of machine owners and contractors are choosing to certify their environmental efforts through schemes like the Eco-Lighthouse or ISO certifications, which require continuous measurement and improvement. We believe that 2022 will be the year when the construction industry truly begins systematic efforts to reduce emissions using data-driven solutions.

2. Smaller companies will leverage the connection between data, environmental responsibility, and value creation

Society and the workplace are becoming digitalized, and data is becoming one of the most valuable resources a business can harness. This trend affects both large and small players, and even the smallest must take responsibility for the digitalization of their operations. We believe that throughout 2022, many small businesses will take steps to reduce emissions and actively utilize their own data sources to create added value, simplify operations, and automate routine tasks. This will be crucial not only for their competitiveness but also for making their daily operations easier in the long run.

There is no future where a business can remain profitable without becoming data-driven, and it will only be a matter of time before action is necessary. As society evolves, continuing with manual processes like paper reporting will be a disadvantage compared to others leveraging digital opportunities. Many smaller players have already realized this, even if it seems challenging.

"It's clear that the changes happening now present a digital threshold that may seem high for some, but that's where we come in to show that becoming a data-driven business can be simpler and more affordable than many think," says Bareksten. Take machine contractors, for example: for them, time spent in the machine is profitable and productive. The fact is that reporting requirements are increasing for them too, but with fewer resources to perform the reporting. For such players, implementing digital reporting and letting the machines handle it themselves is directly profitable. We believe that 2022 will be the year when many of the country's small construction businesses will start with data-driven reporting and climate initiatives.

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3. Clients and public developers elevate their digital leadership in the green shift

To reap the benefits and capitalize on the upsides of undergoing digitalization processes, large players have much to gain from organizing themselves even better and elevating digitalization efforts on construction sites. Internationally, the EU is undoubtedly doing the most on its home turf for a green transition. In 2021, the EU enshrined climate neutrality by 2050 into law and tightened its 2030 climate targets. In Norway, the new government has set new and strengthened climate ambitions. The goal now is to reduce emissions by 55 percent across the entire economy by 2030. A high CO2 price, which there is now broad agreement on in the Norwegian Parliament, could do part of the job. However, policies must be tightened in many more areas if the 2030 target is to be achieved. This calls for clearer leadership from the industry itself.

With strengthened international and local requirements, municipal and public developers, in particular, are at the forefront of leading the green transition - and this involves enhanced digital leadership. Going forward, the construction industry will experience more indirect requirements as project financing increasingly emphasizes the environment when classifying and evaluating investments. The value of having control over data from construction activities will therefore be enormous, as the requirements set by large developers will have consequences for the entire value chain. Players in the value chain who rely on meeting these insight requirements through manual processes for data collection and reporting may, in the long run, lose competitiveness and fall behind in the transition. Large project owners and clients will therefore play a crucial role in enabling the shift towards emission-free and data-driven construction sites.

Do you want a non-binding offer from Fremby on data-driven insights for your construction machinery or your construction project?

Contact us at hello@fremby.no, and you will hear from us.