By Nathan Patton, Product Marketing Manager, Trimble
Nathan Patton
Construction Technology 2024 Outlook
While uncertainty around labor, supply chains and economic conditions persist, the global construction industry continues to work its way through economic instability – and the outlook for 2024 remains mostly optimistic. Spending should improve, in large part due to the realization of federal programs such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). In a recent press release, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) noted that profit margins and staffing levels remain high, factors that suggest growth over the next six months.
As we look ahead to 2024, we have identified six key areas that we think will help shape the construction industry, both for the coming year and into the future.
1) Expanded Focus on Sustainability
According to Deloitte’s 2024 Engineering and Construction Industry Outlook, sustainability continues to be a business imperative for the construction industry. We expect this to remain the case both in 2024 and well into the future.
Engineering and construction companies face a multidimensional challenge on this front as they adapt to evolving market trends, environmental regulations and meeting customer demands for greener buildings, while also preventing construction costs from accelerating too rapidly.
For years, sustainable construction focused primarily on reducing energy consumption during the operations phase of assets, with less emphasis on the construction process itself. While operational carbon emissions are of primary focus, the importance of more sustainable design methodologies and material considerations. As we look at the next year, we expect to see more manufacturers, producers and construction firms putting these principles to work, through advancements in concrete, cement and carbon capture, as an example.
Sustainable actions are making the way onto jobsites as well. This year, Saunders Construction, working closely with Trimble, demonstrated and dramatically improved its concrete cast-in-place practices while delivering sustainable outcomes for its One River North project in Denver, Colorado. With a progressive virtual design and construction approach, the Saunders team realized enhanced project predictability and operating margins, reduced rework and material waste and delivered better environmental outcomes for an ROI that is as eye-opening as the exterior walls of this impressive structure. The ROI of the entire virtual design and construction process was estimated at 1,164% for this project, with a total project cost savings of $505,000 and a total CO2 savings of 144,221 kg.
We expect sustainability to remain a top priority for the entire industry – from materials producers to subcontractors – throughout 2024 and for decades to come.
