Spring 2010 Meeting

Construct IT - buildingSMART - COMIT

A United Construction Information (UCI) Event

in conjunction with the University of Reading
 
Summary (2 of 3)
Before lunch Dr Jennifer Whyte (School of Construction Management and Engineering, University of Reading) provided an insight into design in the digital economy. She began by providing an overview of research and the exploration group within the school. She then raised the challenges in terms of the environment and industry and in thinking about the IT we use and how we use it. It was emphasised that our cities and industry are changing, and they are both going to need to change to become environmentally friendly. Jennifer then went onto to discuss that organisation and management issues of how we use technologies is their current focus area. She outlined that their research vision is a new mode of design in the digital economy and the focus in the next 5 years is on developing 1. international repository of best-practice, 2. novel engineering solutions for shared design inquiry, and 3. exploration research group as a research centre. Jennifer then provided highlights of where they have been active in the first few months including taking visualisation technologies out to industry and undertaking an analysis of what is happening in the areas of BIM and visualisation before explaining that the research centre is considering these in setting up focused themes around Science of Design, Playful Engineering and Design Innovation, and Open Network. A number of examples were given to provide a flavour of their work, namely Infrastructure through Life that is aiming to develop practical understanding of how digital modelling and collaboration technology can support the delivery of global projects and Building Safely by Design focused on appraising safety hazards virtually before construction. Another area of work not directly related to the centre on the use of digital technologies on Bart's and London was also briefly presented. Next, Jennifer discussed that the centre is also focused on the implications for being sustainable in terms of environmental, economic, social and BIM. She concluded by proposing a number of areas for collaboration including the handover of digital data from design into operations, building safely by design, immersive and augmented reality, and EngD/PhD research on sustainability and design along with potential mechanisms where it was emphasised that various conversations are taking place amongst industry panels and these are being lost by academia.
 
Following lunch Oliver Riley (Scott Wilson) discussed sustainable building and integrating the process. Oliver began by giving an overview to Scott Wilson before outlining why we are focusing on sustainability in terms of the effects of climate change, resources, etc. The CO2 emissions commitment of the UK government to reduce by 80% by 2050 based on 1990 levels along with buildings accounting for 45% of UK emissions were highlighted. Oliver further highlighted the variety of sustainability drivers that have emerged to address the issues associated with sustainability including regulatory, incentives, Corporate Social Responsibility, market forces, client pressures, the environment, etc. He then poised the question what are we trying to improve? before emphasising that sustainability is more than CO2 and also includes health & well being, energy, transport, water, materials, waste, land use & ecology, pollution, management. The response he stated is in delivering sustainable buildings. Oliver then outlined how Scott Wilson is delivering sustainable buildings in terms of the tools and methods. He emphasised that design, sustainability and energy processes are interrelated and that there is a need to consider sustainability at the forefront of the project along with considering the whole building life cycle. Oliver emphasised that the planning stage offers the greatest opportunity in ensuring sustainability is built into the design by planning effective infrastructure, utilising renewable energy resources, considering building orientation, exploiting links with neighbouring sites, access, etc. At the conceptual design stage Oliver discussed the energy hierarchy of focusing initially on energy efficiency, followed by carbon efficiency and finally looking to low carbon and renewable energy technologies, in addition to the use of building physics tools to facilitate the process. The use of 'Approved' Part L software was also highlighted in assessing the building performance once it has been built. At the detailed design and construction stages BIM and other related technologies were highlighted as facilitating the stages. At handover and occupation Oliver discussed energy performance being generated by approved software as the building is performing 'as-built' and raised the question of why this is being carried out once the building has been completed. He emphasised that it is about managing the sustainability of the building by implementing monitoring and control within new buildings in order to identify and correct errors and thereby develop continuous improvement along with analysing the impact of occupancy characteristics. Oliver summarised that the process is complex and involves many discrete pieces of analysis which is hard to control and manage, in which information can get lost in translation, and opportunities for sustainability can also be lost. It was then poised ... How can this be improved? The use of BIM to improve sustainability was discussed as a process of generating and managing building information during its life cycle by facilitating spatial design coordination, off-site manufacturing, drawing generation, scheduling, 4D construction sequencing, 5D costs, data analysis and simulation, facilities, energy & asset management. This was followed with how BIM can enhance sustainability along with the hurdles and limits. Oliver concluded that sustainability is important, it applies to a broad spectrum of technology, construction and operational methods, is relevant throughout the whole building lifecycle, it involves many discrete considerations, and BIM is important in facilitating!
 
John Parker (Corporate IT Forum) followed by sharing IT sustainability challenges in relation to the members of the Corporate IT Forum. John began by providing a background to the forum which includes public and private sector organisations who are all corporate IT users and provide corporate IT to their organisations. John explained that the forum facilitates the free and frank sharing of best practice with no vendor bias, covering every aspect of corporate IT and every level within the organisation. He then stated that the basis of his presentation was to provide a synopsis of the discussions and surveys carried out over the last four years around sustainability. John began by highlighting that since 2008 the priority of sustainability had risen from 8% to 23%. Furthermore, it appeared from discussions in 2006 that people had got to grips with organisational sustainability although they were less clear on infrastructure sustainability. John went on to state that in 2007 concerns were focused around "reduce, reuse, recycle", on how to best manage green IT policies, and making company decision-makers more aware of their green impact. In 2008, he highlighted that there was a shift from talking to taking action such as appreciating that benchmarking and metrics were important although they were conservative, which compared to 2009 saw a lot of activity around IT being an enabler rather than the problem such as monitoring energy wastage, and IT as an Innovator, e.g. "the Santa Claus Test", along with award-winning sustainability projects. In 2010, he outlined that a shift has been witnessed from 'Green' to 'Sustainable' in that sustainability goes beyond being green in the transformation of working practices. Next, John highlighted the activities that are being undertaken to promote sustainably such as traditional cost cutting exercises although collaborative tools/IT are identified as coming on board fast compared to the more sustainable aspects. In relation to drivers, it was discussed that cost effectiveness was recognised as standing out and this is being overwhelmingly driven by the pressure from the business and corporate IT user. He outlined that initiatives are currently focused around data centres, desktop/networks, whole infrastructure, and 'reduce, reuse, recycle'. John then went on to emphasise that the two most significant challenges currently being faced are building the business case and budgetary constraints. He then discussed that measurement (of the effects) has improved from 2008 (32%) to 2010 (48%) although the metrics used are still up for debate on which no consensus has been reached but this is being worked towards. He also emphasised the issue of being unable to prove performance affects credibility. John concluded that going green and becoming sustainable involves the transformation of business practices. ... more>