Why are green skills are needed in construction?

Circular skills Ellis Fox Blog

Construction has long had the unfortunate accolade of producing some of the highest levels of carbon emissions and waste. While there have been good improvements in the volumes of construction waste that’s recycled, the process is often outsourced so that construction companies can continue to focus on building.

Outsourcing in itself is not bad, many construction companies lack the infrastructure and skills to effectively deal with their waste. The problem is that margins remain thin and the volumes of waste keep growing. Perhaps it’s time for construction to look at alternative opportunities to improve the bottom line. Could investing in skills that can help construction become more effective in their waste management, be a solution?

There’s no debate that better use of materials can save costs and therefore improve margins. Yet this way of thinking is usually only applied to raw materials, especially as they become scarce. What if better resource management was applied to the entire product or material lifecycle? From where it’s sourced to how it’s disposed of, with the objective of improving efficiency beyond the construction site and only raw materials.

All of this starts with skills, having the knowledge and understanding of what contributes most to carbon emissions. Including where opportunities exist to generate more value from materials -even what’s considered to be waste materials. It may require changing policies and processes, but none of this can be done without a solid understanding how the circular economy works. This includes being aware of some of the common pitfalls and obstacles that could trip up the transition.

In theory, a circular economy is simple – reusing materials already in circulation, but implementation can get very complex when one starts to discovers how interdependent various processes are. It’s not just about changing one thing, anything related also needs to change and that has a knock-on effect.

Which comes back to how vital green skills are. If the construction industry is to transition to a circular economy, it needs skilled professionals who can lead the way. That is what will help companies identify opportunities that can help them become more efficient with resources.

For companies that aren’t ready to move in that direction, consider this: with changing regulations, circular economy principles will soon become the norm. The companies that start developing and hiring green skills now with have an advantage over competitors, perhaps even start to gain ground on improving those ever-elusive margins.