Building a sustainable future: how prefabrication is advancing ESG goals

Modular buildings and prefabrication, once labelled as low-quality solutions, are now helping combat construction industry challenges, such as talent shortages, more demanding ESG standards and the need for affordable, eco-friendly housing. State-of-the-art digital tools foster efficiency, enhance workplace safety and shape greener building practices.

Eva Carranza Head of Sustainability at Hexagon

The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector has a significant role to play when it comes to ensuring the well-being of communities and mitigating climate change. Its large environmental footprint stems in part from its waste-heavy and energy-intensive supply chains. Furthermore, frequent cost increases and delays due to highly complex workflows continue to plague the industry and affect housing affordability.

Modular construction — manufacturing building parts in a factory off-site and assembling them on site — is one approach to addressing the sector’s ESG challenges. Prefabricated modular units may range from flat-pack components, such as walls, to complex three-dimensional building sections, such as fully built bathrooms.

The practice of off-site construction has been around since the early 1900s but has, until recently, remained a niche approach. This is changing as advances in digital technology have eroded some of the traditional shortcomings of off-site construction. State-of-the-art digital tools, including Hexagon solutions, enable complex planning and accurate manufacturing, and help optimise module design, workflows and delivery logistics. Off-site construction now offers solutions to a range of pressing social and environmental challenges associated with traditional on-site methods.

PREFABRICATION REDUCES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Currently, an estimated 25% of construction material ends up in landfills. Prefabrication helps reduce waste by optimising material usage and enabling offcut reuse or recycling. Because prefabricated components are manufactured in a controlled, moisture-free environment, it is easier to use sustainable materials for some of the components. Constructing large parts of a building off-site means construction managers need to transport less material to the site, which results in fewer emissions.

In addition, the controlled factory environment optimises workflows and reduces the potential for human error. Weather delays do not derail in-factory construction, and on-site foundation work can take place while the modular units are assembled.

"Modular construction – manufacturing building parts in a factory and assembling them on site – is one approach to addressing the construction sector’s ESG challenges"

From an environmental perspective, these optimisations bring several advantages: Efficient construction inevitably translates into fewer carbon emissions from materials and vehicles, and less heating or cooling requirements at construction sites. In addition, bringing in preassembled building units minimises noise and dust pollution at the site.

Given that 80% of the buildings needed by 2050 already exist today, we will need to decarbonise the operational emissions from these existing buildings. Prefabrication of elements for refurbishment and retrofitting, such as isolation panels can address the growing demand for more efficient, less carbon-intensive buildings.

At the end of their life cycle, prefabricated building units can be disassembled without demolishing them. Thanks to standard sizing, deconstructed modular units are more likely to be reused at other sites. The circular economy will play an important role in reducing the impact of the built environment in nature. Developers should not only improve the efficiency of the operating time but also prioritise the re-use and retention of existing building structures within urban development sites wherever possible.

IMPROVED WORKING CONDITIONS

The construction industry has notoriously struggled with poor safety records. By shifting part of the construction process to a controlled factory environment and minimising time spent on the construction site, prefabrication reduces the potential for many common workplace accidents. Thus, factory-based construction offers safer and more comfortable working conditions for construction workers. Meanwhile, the factories can be set up where the labour is — a crucial advantage in an industry plagued by talent shortages.

COST SAVINGS AND SOCIAL BENEFITS

Besides improved worker well-being, prefabrication offers additional social benefits. The construction industry is facing a growing and urgent need for affordable housing, and prefabrication can help to meet this demand. Because prefabricated components can be manufactured quickly and efficiently, it is possible to construct high-quality, affordable housing units in less time and at a lower cost than with traditional methods. The same holds true for community-serving infrastructure that can be built at scale, such as schools and hospitals. During the COVID emergency, for example, modular construction allowed China to set up new hospitals within a matter of weeks. And off-site construction still has an enormous cost- and time-saving potential — which rapidly evolving digital technology is poised to address.

“Modular construction and digitalisation will go hand-in-hand in making the AEC sector cleaner, leaner and greener.”

HOW DIGITAL SOLUTIONS ARE ENABLING THE CHANGE

McKinsey & Company expects digitalisation and automation to rapidly transform the construction industry, whereby prefabrication will play a major part. Today’s project-based approach is set to shift to a more people-centric one, with construction sites increasingly turning into places of assembly of pre-engineered parts according to society’s evolving needs.

The need to keep all project participants up-to-date increases demand for Building Information Modelling (BIM) and modern data-sharing solutions. Hexagon solutions connect previously siloed players by making data accessible to disparate stakeholders across all phases of the construction project.

Modular construction and digitalisation will go hand-in-hand in making the AEC sector cleaner, leaner and greener. What may look like an almost impossible challenge — to meet skyrocketing building needs in the face of dwindling resources and labour shortages — can turn into promising opportunities for reimagining construction practices poised to benefit the environment, society and the bottom line.