A quieter part of the sustainability story is the evolution in construction techniques and materials acquisition that can reduce waste, energy and various inefficiencies at building sites.
The USGBC works on a point system, and most of those awarded come from a building’s design, location and orientation, and its materials to a smaller degree. All of these contribute to LEED certifications. Lean manufacturing, in contrast, wins no points for contractors but contributes to less energy expended at a site.
For contractors, a strategy for saving time and materials can lead to higher profitability and the good feeling of not creating unnecessary waste. Here’s a look at five techniques that are having the greatest impact on sustainable building construction.
Being able to cut materials precisely decreases waste and creates buildings that are strong enough to allow contractors to use wood framing as high as five stories, he says.
Mechanical contractors use Building Information Management (BIM) systems to cut sheet metal for duct work in a controlled environment instead of outside to avoid the shape-changing problems caused by cold or hot weather.