Dr Marzia Bolpagni; Head of Building Information Modelling International at Mace, David Philp; Chief Value Office at Cohesive Group and Prof. Angelo Ciribini; Full Professor in Construction Management at the University of Brescia, Italy partner up on this article discussing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) for a better built environment.

Here, they discuss the benefits of data driven value based decisions for project lifecycle and investment decision making.

The built environment and its various sectors are witnessing an evolution from a traditional triple bottom line methodology to a more holistic ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) approach. This shift is playing out in the backdrop of a climate emergency where the built environment collectively is responsible globally for almost 40% of all carbon decisions.

Unsurprisingly society and investors are demanding better insight and transparency on the impact of our new and existing built infrastructure. These requirements are especially coming from the investment and insurance markets who are increasingly aligned with sustainable development opportunities. Geospatial data is pivotal to informing such ESG related decisions which are often complex and multidimensional in nature.

If we recognise the built environment as a system of systems, we need to gain better insight on existing built infrastructure and the communities they serve. Geospatial ESG approaches can support the development of data libraries and insights across various scales and asset types.

Figure 1: Built environment as system of systems supporting ESG (Vision report by UK industry experts, 2021)

The use of digital representations of the built environment can help to monitor the planned scenario with the actual one. It is also possible to perform several analyses to understand the current situation as well to predict future ones by comparing datasets and studying trends and behaviours patterns. This is a very powerful way to make value-based decisions that support ESG criteria.

For example, the National Digital Twin programme’s Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) has been a pioneering climate change adaptation digital twin project that provided a practical example of how connected data can improve climate adaptation and resilience across a system of systems.

CReDo aims to have a better and more cost-effective climate resilience planning for infrastructure assets at the systems level using a connected digital twin approach. Providing a systems level approach to understanding asset vulnerabilities, criticality and service failure when exposed to climatic hazards is a tool that allows different asset owner organisations to plan for resilience in a more dynamic way. CReDo developed an anthology with knowledge graphs that help users to visualise the complexity of relationships and the implications of events.

Figure 2: CReDo demonstrator

Let’s think of recent geospatial images of snow mapping that show very clearly the impact of climate change and have a pivotal role in helping decision makers in making value-based decisions. Tools such as CReDo are also essential to manage emergency situations that might happening also in summer such as lack of water: geospatial data can help to visualise available sources of water and how to be transported efficiently to different communities.

However, this approach is requiring maturity in ESG data collection and modelling across industry and improvements regards interoperability. The amount of data to be collected is not always immediately usable as it is because it has been structured to support different purposes using different formats and structures. Therefore, combining data sets from separate organisations (such as Anglian Water, BT and UK Power Networks) into one system model is not straightforward. Principled information management techniques, such as using the appropriate ontologies and striving for semantic precision, are essential to bringing the data together to present the clearest picture of the built environment without inaccuracies.

Therefore, to solve this multidimensional problem, it is key to understand the interdependences and to converge several aspects of Industry 4.0 such as Building Information Modelling, Digital twins, 5G, Carbon analyses, Artificial intelligence (AI), Lean approaches, ontologies and linked data etc to solve interoperability barriers. If trusted geospatial data will not flow across systems and it will not be analysed and compared, we will not be able to support ESG evaluations effectively. Thus, more interoperability activities should be developed and implemented. It is time to converge!

In short Geospatial especially when coupled with analytic engines and growing AI capabilities provides a strong foundation and opportunity to drive sustainable economic growth. This will be the foundation for the future we hope making a real difference in the way we put value at the centre of our decisions.

David Philp MSc BSc FICE FRICS FCIOB FCInstES FGBC, Chief Value Office – Cohesive Group

With over 28 years in the industry, David is a Chartered Construction Manager by background. He has previously worked with Balfour Beatty, Mace and AECOM.

David has been involved in delivering innovative projects, digital change strategies and digital asset management strategies across the globe from UK, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Australia and the Baltics.

He was seconded in the UK Cabinet Office in 2011 as Head of BIM Implementation and has been a key contributor to the UK public sector BIM mandate (GCS 2011-2016)

David is Co-Vice Chair of BE-ST (formerly the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre.)

A Fellow of the ICE, RICS and CIOB he has completed the Virtual Design and Construct at Stanford University, CA. and is an honorary professor at Heriot-Watt University and visiting professor at Middlesex University.

 

Dr. Marzia Bolpagni

Marzia Bolpagni works to innovate the built environment with focus on ESG criteria. She is Head of Building Information Modelling International at Mace where she develops and implements Digital Construction Strategies for international clients.

She is project group leader of CEN/TC442 and ISO/TC59/SC13 on Level of Information Need, Honorary Lecturer at UCL, member of BIM Excellence Initiative, Associate Editor of the BIMdictionary, Ambassador of Nima, Founder of Italians in Digital Transformation UK and Visiting Professor at Northumbria University. She is also co-editor of the recent book Industry 4.0 for the Built Environment.

 

Prof. Angelo Ciribini

Angelo Ciribini acts as a Full Professor in Construction Management at the University of Brescia, Italy. He is the convenor of the European Standardization group CEN TC 442 WG8 on BIM Competence.

He has been member of the Steering Committee of the EU BIM Task Group and has been involved in numerous national and international research programmes. He is involved into the UNI & ISO standardization activities, too. He is the author of a large number of papers and books.