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Nemetschek Group: The solutions that are building a greener future

 The construction industry is notorious for inefficiency and mismanaging resources. That must change – and it is all possible when using digital solutions

One major step along the road to a sustainable future involves ensuring that the materials we use are not wasted and that we get the most out of them. As an industry, building and construction are lagging behind many others in terms of productivity and efficiency. In order to achieve ambitious climate goals, this state of affairs must change. 

‘Efficiency in the construction industry has only improved by one percent annually over the last 20 years,’ says Dr Axel Kaufmann, spokesman of the Executive Board and CFOO at Nemetschek Group. The company’s solution? Digital software solutions, which the company has pioneered for over 50 years, enabling their customers to achieve more streamlined business practices. 

Building information modelling (BIM) enables all professions along the building lifecycle to work together and avoid data loss. 

Dr Kaufmann, citing the Gotthard railway tunnel in Switzerland, says that the BIM approach was an essential component of the construction project’s 20-year lifespan. One of Europe’s biggest and most prestigious builds, Dr Kaufmann notes: ‘With many parties and disciplines involved and with that kind of complexity, you would estimate that 30 percent of the time within such a project is used for communication and coordination among the different parties.’ Digital solutions that enable such coordination add up to huge savings throughout the lifecycle of the project. 

Hieronimus Nickl, CEO at architect firm Nickl and Partner, says that architects need to also consider the entire building lifecycle: ‘An integrated design approach is very important… we are looking at the deconstruction circle, making sure we use a material mix that can be separated again and ideally return to its raw form so we can reuse it in the long term.’ 

In other words, Nickl is proposing taking the concept of recycling and applying it to an entire building.

Thinking in innovative and disruptive ways is attractive to a new generation of builders: Frank Geets, CEO at Het Facilitair Bedrijf, says that smart buildings are leading the way in making sustainability part of the built environment and the infrastructure of a city. With pressure on his industry to achieve ambitious sustainability goals by 2050, Geets says his company is well ahead of the curve: ‘We already now have reached the 2030 goals in 2020, because we have a vision and, in everything we do and in every contract we make, we take that with us. And that proves if you really want it, that you can do it.’

Dr Kaufmann says that software is the answer to achieving greater sustainability; using tools to avoid losing data and reducing delays means that customers can gain efficiency and productivity, avoiding cost and time overruns and waste of resources, making the planet’s finite resources stretch further.