Greenhouse gas emissions - data-driven reporting in projects
There are high targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from infrastructure projects, and this was the topic at the Green Construction Sector meeting on March 10th. It is difficult to estimate and create budgets and accounts for greenhouse gas emissions due to lack of data. Tools are needed for easier sharing of data from construction activities in projects, where increasing requirements lead to a lot of manual reporting work for contractors.
What data is available today and how can it be connected?
This was the topic that Fremby was invited to discuss at the Green Construction Sector meeting at Norconsult half a month ago. The title of the meeting was "Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Budget and Accounting) in Site Activities," where both the current status and future possibilities were highlighted by several actors.
Current status
Greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 40% from construction and 50% from operation and maintenance of infrastructure by 2030
This is the target Bane NOR has for its projects. This results in requirements for projects to document all fuel used. The current status is that there is great uncertainty about the actual fuel consumption in the projects. This is reflected in the differences in the estimated figures for greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. The Ministry of Transport estimates that the sector emits 2.26 - 3.77 million tonnes of CO2 in direct emissions per year, while Asplan Viak reports 0.73 million tonnes. The estimates are affected by the lack of sufficiently good data available.
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
Ramirent highlighted that the lack of facts prevents the measurement and analysis of the impact of implemented measures. This was also supported by the consultants present, who lack access to good data to create effective greenhouse gas budgets and work on setting good assumptions for improvement. Ramirent effectively summarized that the industry needs data to make informed decisions for effective measures that improve greenhouse gas emissions.
Contractors are going gray from reporting
Veidekke, represented by Lars Evensen Paulsrud, presented how increasing requirements for reporting to greenhouse gas accounts affect contractors in projects. Lars told about the fictional person, Pål, who has been responsible for this in a number of projects. It started with a simple project, where Veidekke had most of the machines, and subcontractors filled up from their diesel tanks. Pål reported the total diesel consumption in the project relatively easily by going through invoices for diesel purchases. It became immediately worse when the project got a bit bigger and Veidekke had several contractors under them. Especially when they had to provide diesel for their own machines. Several of the subcontractors even worked on other contracts as well. Here Pål started to go gray, and when the details in the requirements increased, along with the complexity of the projects, Pål also started to lose some hair.
While Pål is losing hair, there is actually a need for more detailed data from the projects to improve collaboratively.
Simpler tools to provide data in projects
When Fremby is ready with the tool they presented, things will get easier for Pål!
Fremby has recognized the need for simpler reporting of fuel consumption in the pilot with the data-driven Energy Management System alongside Feiring Bruk. Feiring used the same method as Pål to collect and report fuel consumption, but this did not provide sufficient detail for effective measures. With our data platform, we upgraded the system to submit diesel consumption per machine, filtered by time, department, and team. Additionally, we now use data on idling and capacity utilization to further optimize this.
"This data already exists, it's in all the machine suppliers' portals"
Fremby retrieves the data already collected from each machine supplier. The problem for Pål is that he still has to log into each "data silo," as these are created for each brand. Therefore, it was easier for him to report fuel consumption from invoices. By integrating over the standardized interface (ISO15143-3) to the supplier's telematics system, we collect data from the machines so that each machine owner can access this for their entire fleet. This provides access to multiple data sources, which Fremby processes and ensures are comparable across suppliers.
Fremby Insight now makes this data available to machine owners so they can easily get an overview of all their machines, and even see greenhouse gas emissions per machine and how to optimize this by improving utilization. In an analysis done with Feiring Bruk, we saw that they could save 13,000 NOK per month by reducing idle time for just 1/10 of the fleet by 10%. Converted to CO2, this saving means 210 kg of CO2 saved simultaneously. That's sustainable.
Fremby is working on making it easier for companies to share this data further in a project. Imagine if each contractor could check off the machines they have in the project and perhaps further specify which data should be shared with the project. This would make Pål's daily life significantly easier, and they could collaborate on making improvements with fact-based continuous enhancements throughout the project.
This is what Fremby is working on developing and is currently seeking support from Innovation Norway. We invite partners who want to be involved in the development and try this out in projects. So, if you recognize yourself in Pål, please get in touch!
Fremby believes that smarter data sharing will create a more sustainable construction industry. Smarter data sharing is also about good collaboration, including between suppliers. We want to be good at making others good, so we are "API first". Feel free to contact us if you are an IT company that wants to collaborate on solving this with us!
