Digital Climate Podcast with Scius’s Helen Goodland
Who are the Key Influencers of Mass Timber Construction?
July 30, 2020
How Cost Competitive are BC’s Mass Timber Projects?
September 17, 2021
The UK’s BIM Academy has launched a Digital Climate podcast series, hosted by their Managing Director, Peter Barker. The theme of this podcast series is to demonstrate the synergy between digital construction and sustainability and, when combined, how they form a powerful connection – in the fight against climate change.
In episode #1 Peter talks to Scius’s very own Helen Goodland about the digital built environment in Canada and what positive steps have been taken within the construction industry for this region to tackle carbon emissions and reduce unnecessary waste. Peter opened the conversation by stating that two of the world’s largest contributors to global warming are construction and the embodied carbon of building materials. He then commented that before we address how to change this statistic, he asked Helen, “how do we send a clear message to the construction industry things need to change?”
Helen said: “Most people in construction recognise we need to change. We are the last great analogue industry and this is no longer fit for purpose. We need to do more and move quickly.
“In Canada a big theme is efficiency and minimising waste, margins are slim (and getting slimmer) as everyone is seeking more for less. Which is why we need to identify new areas of efficiency and tackling them. Many people get the ‘why’ we need to change, but we should be looking at the ‘how’ to change.”
Is digital adoption more accessible to smaller or larger businesses? To which Helen responded: “The majority of construction businesses in British Columbia have less than 10 employees. For them, digital can prove to be the key to being more agile and competitive. We are operating in a fiercely competitive industry which can be unhealthy, but a ‘rising tide floats many boats’, and digital can be a greater leveller and give smaller organisations a competitive edge.”
You can listen to the full interview on the BIM Academy’s podcast page and hear how Peter and Helen discuss what collaborative action is needed across the industry to drive progress in the fight against climate change, and how can we better implement the use of digital tools in the design and build.
