Can digital engineering facilitate a faster route to achieving net zero goals?
Gavin Bonner, head of digital engineering at Cundall, discusses the role of BIM and digital technology in decarbonising the built environment and why data is key to unlocking our net zero ambitions
At Cundall, digital engineering focuses on the use of data-driven technologies and processes to improve and further enhance how we deliver projects to our clients. Our primary aim is to collaborate with our clients and industry to deliver energy and the carbon solutions necessary to keep global heating below 1.5C. We believe digital engineering will play a significant role in how we do this.
We are now at a point where new and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are converging with more maturing technologies such as BIM. This, in turn, will generate a new wave of innovation over the next 10 years like we have never seen before. But before we truly benefit from these advances, we need to digitally evolve faster as an industry and the way to achieve this is through use of “intelligent data” to drive transformational decisions in the future buildings we design, thus delivering on the net zero promises we make now.
Is data the key to unlocking our industry’s net zero goals?
For a start, we need to stop saying that “data is the new oil” because it is so much more than that, and the concept is just wrong. Oil is valuable due to its scarcity; data is reusable and arguably becomes more beneficial every time it is analysed. Collecting and analysing data enables teams
to make better informed decisions on how future projects are designed and constructed, but the true benefit may come from how we analyse data during a building’s operational phase regardless of whether it’s a new build or retrofit.
Data-driven design should be our key motivator at all levels for any decisions for net zero outcomes. The more data we collect, the better the ability we must develop for out data-driven design protocols and procedures, which in turn should further develop into even better processes, such as generative design, which will enable us to explore thousands of combinations and iterations to reach the best solution based on the criteria we set for the most optimal building solution. We have only begun to scratch the surface in what we can achieve as an industry when it comes to analysing data and applying data-driven approaches to how we design, construct and operate our low carbon buildings of the future.
Could digital twin technology be the gateway to net zero?
Recent studies have shown that digital twins can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of an existing building by up to 50%, as well as delivering cost savings of up to 35%. The UK government has already begun to invest and has established a National Digital Twin programme through its Centre for Digital Built Britain, a collaboration with the University of Cambridge, to build an eco-system that connects digital twins across enterprises, allowing them to share data more readily. This is all great, but we need to do more.
At Cundall, digital engineering focuses on the use of data-driven technologies and processes to improve and further enhance how we deliver projects to our clients. Our primary aim is to collaborate with our clients and industry to deliver energy and the carbon solutions necessary to keep global heating below 1.5C. We believe digital engineering will play a significant role in how we do this.
We are now at a point where new and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are converging with more maturing technologies such as BIM. This, in turn, will generate a new wave of innovation over the next 10 years like we have never seen before. But before we truly benefit from these advances, we need to digitally evolve faster as an industry and the way to achieve this is through use of “intelligent data” to drive transformational decisions in the future buildings we design, thus delivering on the net zero promises we make now.
Is data the key to unlocking our industry’s net zero goals?
For a start, we need to stop saying that “data is the new oil” because it is so much more than that, and the concept is just wrong. Oil is valuable due to its scarcity; data is reusable and arguably becomes more beneficial every time it is analysed. Collecting and analysing data enables teams
to make better informed decisions on how future projects are designed and constructed, but the true benefit may come from how we analyse data during a building’s operational phase regardless of whether it’s a new build or retrofit.
Data-driven design should be our key motivator at all levels for any decisions for net zero outcomes. The more data we collect, the better the ability we must develop for out data-driven design protocols and procedures, which in turn should further develop into even better processes, such as generative design, which will enable us to explore thousands of combinations and iterations to reach the best solution based on the criteria we set for the most optimal building solution. We have only begun to scratch the surface in what we can achieve as an industry when it comes to analysing data and applying data-driven approaches to how we design, construct and operate our low carbon buildings of the future.
Could digital twin technology be the gateway to net zero?
Recent studies have shown that digital twins can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of an existing building by up to 50%, as well as delivering cost savings of up to 35%. The UK government has already begun to invest and has established a National Digital Twin programme through its Centre for Digital Built Britain, a collaboration with the University of Cambridge, to build an eco-system that connects digital twins across enterprises, allowing them to share data more readily. This is all great, but we need to do more.
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