Spring 2010 Meeting

Construct IT - buildingSMART - COMIT

A United Construction Information (UCI) Event

in conjunction with the University of Reading
 
Summary (1 of 3)
The Spring 2010 event was held in the spirit of Uniting Construction Information (UCI) in conjunction with the University of Reading, 19th May, University of Reading. The theme of the event was focused on sustainability and the impacts and challenges facing the industry.
 
The day began with a welcome and introduction by Peter Rebbeck (Construct IT chair) which was then followed by Professor Stuart Green (Director of Research, School of Construction Management and Engineering) welcoming delegates to the University of Reading and congratulating Construct IT for the good work of the members over the years and in sustaining its longevity. Professor Farzad Khosrowshahi (Director Construct IT) then provided a brief introduction and overview to the United Construction Information (UCI) initiative and Construct IT, which followed with similar introductions and overviews of COMIT from Neil Pawsey (Director COMIT) and buildingSMART along with CITE (which comes under the buildingSMART banner) from Jeff Stephens (VINCI/buildingSMART).
 
Dr Tom Macago (May Gurney) began the day by focusing on IT supporting the delivery of sustainability. He provided a background to May Gurney which has shifted from a construction organisation to a contractor and now a service provider currently working in 4 different sectors but is looking at moving into FM. Tom then emphasised that people are wrestling with defining what sustainability is but provided his own definition that managing sustainability is about balancing economy (profit), environment (planet) and society (people), while embedding this within the organisation. He discussed that sustainability is seen as a paradigm shift in relation to environment and social capital before describing the story around sustainability in relation to planning the journey of May Gurney. Their journey has entailed understanding stakeholders, balancing people, profit and environmental issues, and the value creation in each of those areas - he stressed that creating value requires defining where you want to go. He explained the need to understand the end user perspective of the stakeholders and translating that into the business. Furthermore, the importance of setting out clear aspirations in relation to addressing the challenges of climate change in order to bring clients along was highlighted which has involved setting high targets of carbon reduction for the organisation. Tom went on to discuss that they are beginning to focus on biodiversity and ecosystems by setting conservative goals and measuring them before then moving on to address the issues. Community investment and the challenge of measuring local procurement and jobs and managing this were outlined. Next, Tom explained that a key focus is on waste minimisation and managing waste across the 4 sectors by better managing the site as this significantly impacts. He explained that the current challenge is focused on cost but the future will be on measuring the volume in terms of recycled, etc. From the perspective of sustainable resources (procurement) Tom highlighted that carbon is only the first issue with water being a future concern. In addition, he added that a current focus is on engaging the supply chain of how they are measuring carbon as being able to inform the client is important. Tom concluded by emphasising that sustainability is about managing the interdependencies of economy, environment, and society and that IT is critical in managing the risk and opportunities associated with these interdependencies in order to make better decision for the future.
 
Brendan Patchell (Rider Levett Bucknall UK Limited) followed by discussing 4D Cost Model Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and SMLCC. He began by outlining the problems associated with the design of buildings being historically based on strict capital cost budgets, while operation and maintenance was not considered as it was a separate budget. He went on to describe the government's response in terms of design, build, maintain and handover approaches, environmental standards, power consumption, and renewable energy production. He stressed that QSs have been guilty of only focusing on capital cost rather than value before posing the question How do we design, measure and deliver sustainable buildings? He emphasised that designing a sustainable building requires considering Capital, Replacement, Operation, Maintenance, Environment, as all these impact on each other, through an holistic 'object' approach that is based on sets such as windows, doors, etc. in order to understand the effect of a design decision. Brendan next outlined the 4D Cost model in which the 4th dimension of time is taken into account. He explained that an asset quality deteriorates over time having been initially maintained in 'perfect' condition but is then run pragmatically and then 'run to fail'. The new international standard ISO 15686 'Service life planning - Part 5: Life cycle costing' which has been developed with other industry organisations was outlined. Next, capital cost 'elemental' breakdown, replacement life cycles, and operation and maintenance cost were described before the SMLCC main headings were outlined. Brendan highlighted that income tends to be forgotten but it is important to consider this in LCC. The approach of how to go about LCC was then described. It was discussed that RLB have tried to separate the data out through a developed SQL database that is centralised and downloaded to individuals (via SharePoint). The database holds generic, sector and client data which is used for benchmarking and the measured information is then fed back into the database. Brendan explained that the challenge is on balancing capital cost, sustainability, operation and maintenance, etc. The feedback cycle of the LCC Analysis was explained whereby capital and running cost are estimated followed by a reconciliation with feedback and feed forward which leads to an analysis chain to refine the information. He then discussed that RLB have defined a naming convention for building elements to enable coding in different countries and they have also purchased Revit in order to interrogate the LCC of Building Information Models from other designers by merging their databases. It was explained that the plan is to link their cost models with the Revit model through model aggregation. Next, Brendan discussed the sustainability enhancements as this is the overall point of the exercise. Capital cost vs running cost with benefits and payback were discussed along with the ranking of the sustainable enhancements. Embodied energy and carbon neutral buildings were explored before a case study of the LCC and environmental impact of a 'typical' 100 m² house was presented. Brendan explained that this used the 4D Cost Model to produce the Life Cycle report which calculates Capital cost, Replacement cycles and cash flow, Operational costs (pa), Maintenance costs (pa), and Environmental (embodied energy, power consumption, CO2 emissions). Brendan summarised by stating that the issues of sustainability cannot be ignored, while at the same time, the construction industry has the tools to solve these problems, and that we must act now!! ... more>