• Home
  • Career Management
    • Planning your career
      • Career Planning
        • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 1
        • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 2
        • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 3
      • Freelancing
      • Expert Career Tips
      • Generic BIM Career Map
    • Job hunting advice
      • CV tips
      • Interview tips
        • 3 rules to make sure you get that interview
        • How to prepare for a remote interview
        • 10 tips to impress during a remote interview
        • Good interview questions
    • BIM Competencies
      • Assessing competency
        • Assessment Tool
          • The Assessment
          • The Manual
          • The Definitions
        • BIM Competency Self Assessments
      • BIM Competency Table
        • The BIM Competency Table
        • Development of the BIM Competency Table
      • The BIM Competency Framework
  • Employer Resources
    • Finding Talent
    • Keeping Talent
    • 5 Steps to attracting BIM talent
      • Attracting BIM talent: Step 1: Attention
      • Attracting BIM talent: Step 2: Interest
      • Attracting BIM talent: Step 3: Desire
      • Attracting BIM Talent: Step 4: Conviction
      • Attracting BIM talent: Step 5: Action
    • Post your jobs
  • BIM Salary Guide
    • LATEST DATA
    • TRENDS
    • PREDICTIONS
  • BIM Updates
    • News
    • Events
  • BIM Expert Directory
  • Opportunities
  • Home
  • Career Management
    • Planning your career
      • Career Planning
        • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 1
        • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 2
        • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 3
      • Freelancing
      • Expert Career Tips
      • Generic BIM Career Map
    • Job hunting advice
      • CV tips
      • Interview tips
        • 3 rules to make sure you get that interview
        • How to prepare for a remote interview
        • 10 tips to impress during a remote interview
        • Good interview questions
    • BIM Competencies
      • Assessing competency
        • Assessment Tool
          • The Assessment
          • The Manual
          • The Definitions
        • BIM Competency Self Assessments
      • BIM Competency Table
        • The BIM Competency Table
        • Development of the BIM Competency Table
      • The BIM Competency Framework
  • Employer Resources
    • Finding Talent
    • Keeping Talent
    • 5 Steps to attracting BIM talent
      • Attracting BIM talent: Step 1: Attention
      • Attracting BIM talent: Step 2: Interest
      • Attracting BIM talent: Step 3: Desire
      • Attracting BIM Talent: Step 4: Conviction
      • Attracting BIM talent: Step 5: Action
    • Post your jobs
  • BIM Salary Guide
    • LATEST DATA
    • TRENDS
    • PREDICTIONS
  • BIM Updates
    • News
    • Events
  • BIM Expert Directory
  • Opportunities
Home » BIMBeing

BIMBeing: The Journey #5

Mr. SmithMr. Smith Posted On 21st October 2019
0


0
Shares
  • Share On Facebook
  • Tweet It

#5 – We must all take part…

Photo by David Riano Cortes from Pexels
Unless you’ve been hiding in a distant cave for the past few weeks it would be almost impossible for you not to have noticed the ongoing protests happening simultaneously around the globe. If nothing else they deserve a nod for their ability to coordinate – a few consultants I’ve worked with could take note here…

When I say we must all take part I am not for a single second suggesting that anybody reading this suddenly grabs a tent and sets up camp in Trafalgar Square. I’m an avid believer of protecting our wonderful natural world but I in no way support the madness that has gripped many of our cities over the past fortnight. The cause is undeniable but the methods, in my opinion, are questionable.

What I mean by taking part is everybody doing their bit; we all must take some responsibility. Whether you’re reducing plastic waste or using ‘greener’ transport, we can all do something and we can probably all do more. Alone we will not reverse the damage we’ve caused, but together we can prevent further impact.

I was prompted to write this post a few days ago when I received one of the industry magazines that pass through my door on a monthly basis. Now, setting aside the fact that I’ve tried to unsubscribe twice from the physical mailing list because it’s entirely wasteful (we’re all digital now, right?), I was still impressed with this months offering.
I pick the magazine up from the doormat and immediately notice something different. The usual shiny plastic bag is now a soft, matt finish wrap. Printed on the top corner is this: This bag is made from potato starch. It is fully biodegradable and compostable. I’d previously read about the potato starch substitute for single use plastics but it was my first time actually holding a piece; I’m still amazed by it now, what a truly brilliant creation.

Now, this alone will not save the environment, but the magazine in question is clearly trying to do their bit, they’re taking part. Say they post 5000 copies of this magazine each month (wild guess) – that’s 5000 less plastic bags to landfill, 5000 less plastic bags to potentially end up in our oceans or choking some unsuspecting wildlife. There’s also no doubt in my mind that this will have been an additional financial burden to the company in question as well, but they’ve done it anyway; they’ve put environmental responsibility over profit, and that is a really huge step.

However, could they do even more? They’ve taken a step already, but they’re still not at ‘net 0’ for environmental impact. One step forward is good, five steps forward is better still. Could they push the digital platform further and as a result reduce the use of paper/printing/transport of distributing a magazine? Could they omit physical publishing altogether?

So, what are we all doing? Most of us probably recycle at home and have a stack of reusable shopping bags in the boot of our car, but that’s really not enough. We’re in a strong position to do more, especially those of us in the construction industry. For us, particularly the digital wizards, we have huge potential; we also have responsibility.

As an industry we are still incredibly wasteful. Collectively we produce monumental amounts of CO2, we consume energy like it’s going out of fashion and we still waste almost unquantifiable amounts of material. It has been gradually improving, but there’s a long way to go. We, the digital wizards, can help. We must help. We are all responsible.

Digitisation of the construction process is often ‘sold’ as bringing efficiencies: efficiency in time, in improved quality, in energy consumption and in waste reduction. But are we really pushing those boundaries? Are we taking one step when we could really take five?

Are designers using the digital tools to reduce waste, or to omit waste? Are we designing spaces that require less cutting of material when we could design to cut no material at all? Are we using models to plan more efficient methods of assembling buildings, or the most efficient methods of assembly? Are we specifying materials with less embodied energy or with the least embodied energy? Are we using digital tools to simply look at assets or to effectively manage assets? You get the idea. We’re at an unfortunate point in time where doing it better than before is not enough, we need to be going further. We can no longer pat ourselves on the back for doing a bit when we need to be doing a lot.

Can we truly put environmental responsibility above profit?

Profit – that’s the big one. The issue is that profit keeps us all employed and everything we ever do has a bottom line. Money is finite in every aspect of our world and that will never change. So how do we make the large scale improvements necessary without increasing costs so much that we’re all made redundant? Come in, digital.
Digital and efficiency are hand in hand. We can already do more digitally than ever before, but we must push it further still. We must find our potato starch solutions and much, much more.

I’m not here to answer how we do this, not in this post anyway. Great solutions come from asking the right questions. So here I am, with the easy bit, asking the right questions.

How do we really take 5 steps forward with digital to protect and enhance our environment?

Comments are now enabled on all posts, so comment away! Share your thoughts, ideas, criticisms and anything else that you’d like to contribute. Lets start a discussion right here, it’s a truly important one. Just try not to glue your hand to anything in the process because I really, really can’t see how that helps…

Mr. Smith

smith@dbe.careers

Facebook0Tweet0LinkedIn0

BIMBIMBeingbiodegradableCO2DigitalEnvironmentFutureInnovateMagazineMaterialsMrSmithPotato StarchProtestsRecyclesmithwasteXR


Mr. Smith
Author

Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith is currently training to be a BIM Manager

You may also like
Why DIGITAL CONSTRUCTION is attracting the best talent
14th November 2020
WEEKLY REPORT
31st July 2020
WEEKLY REPORT
24th July 2020
BIMBeing: The Journey #6
Read Next

BIMBeing: The Journey #6

Leave A Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Current Opportunities

    previous arrow
    next arrow
    Slider
  • previous arrow
    next arrow
    Slider
  • STAY UPDATED

    SUBSCRIBE HERE


    •  
       

      CONTACT US:

      03333 580 442

       

    • You can subscribe if you want to keep up to date with the latest salary guide updates, trends and predictions

      SUBSCRIBE HERE

    • Home
    • Career Management
      • Planning your career
        • Career Planning
          • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 1
          • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 2
          • Perfecting your digital construction career: Step 3
        • Freelancing
        • Expert Career Tips
        • Generic BIM Career Map
      • Job hunting advice
        • CV tips
        • Interview tips
          • 3 rules to make sure you get that interview
          • How to prepare for a remote interview
          • 10 tips to impress during a remote interview
          • Good interview questions
      • BIM Competencies
        • Assessing competency
          • Assessment Tool
            • The Assessment
            • The Manual
            • The Definitions
          • BIM Competency Self Assessments
        • BIM Competency Table
          • The BIM Competency Table
          • Development of the BIM Competency Table
        • The BIM Competency Framework
    • Employer Resources
      • Finding Talent
      • Keeping Talent
      • 5 Steps to attracting BIM talent
        • Attracting BIM talent: Step 1: Attention
        • Attracting BIM talent: Step 2: Interest
        • Attracting BIM talent: Step 3: Desire
        • Attracting BIM Talent: Step 4: Conviction
        • Attracting BIM talent: Step 5: Action
      • Post your jobs
    • BIM Salary Guide
      • LATEST DATA
      • TRENDS
      • PREDICTIONS
    • BIM Updates
      • News
      • Events
    • BIM Expert Directory
    • Opportunities
    © Copyright DBE.Careers
    Press enter/return to begin your search
    We take cookies seriously
    This website uses cookies to improve your experience.
    We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.
    We use necessary cookies to make your experience better. We'd also like to set analytics cookies to help us improve how we work for you. However, we only do this with your express permission
    For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookies page below
    Cookie settingsAcceptCookies Policy
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorised as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.

    We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser - but only with your consent. You have the option to opt-out of these cookies although opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled

    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

    Non-necessary

    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

    SAVE & ACCEPT