This article is part of a series in which we talk about circular economy in Construction, meaning to keep materials in use, minimize waste, and regenerate natural systems to build sustainable constructions that last long, are adaptable, and consider the deconstruction phase.
Global data center power demand according to Gartner will grow from 448 TWh in 2025 to 980 TWh by 2030 due to an increase in the use of AI.
The U.S. and China will account for about two-thirds of global data center electricity demand; China uses more power-efficient servers and superior infrastructure planning, with moderate growth. The US will represent 7.8% of the total electricity by 2030, and Europe will grow from 2.7% to 5%.
According to the Ellen Maccarthur foundation:
Geothermal is a low-carbon solution for data centers in Iceland and the American West.
No one will be inclined to stop using AI or their phones to save electricity in data centers, so this will have real consequences for data center consumption and water use for cooling. As a result, Boston Consulting Group projects that by 2030, supply constraints in the U.S. could result in a power shortfall of up to 80 GW.
Tech companies are envisaging solutions for private power sources to ease this issue.
Here are some examples:
Tech companies have historically claimed to seek green energy to meet power demands. This has somewhat slipped down the agenda, however, as securing sufficient power to enable AI acceleration has become the overriding priority.
McKinsey Centre for Business and Environment in 2015 identified a potential boost of €1.8 trillion to the EU economy by 2030.
Disruptive innovators are applying circular economy principles to transform established markets very rapidly.
In the Construction industry we need a systemic approach, including the entire building lifecycle and the value chain, to develop the circular economic models.
The world has a population of 7.5 billion people, all aspiring to have a great quality of life. If we add climate change, we need creating sustainable lifestyles for everyone, in which case we have to use recycle materials, Steel is a good example the industry continuously invents new forms of steels io improve the quality of life. In the UK the Construction industry they use 400 million tones of materials, of which 60 millions end into landfill, due to bad processes in ordering too much or the wrong materials. In Europe they reuse or recycle as little as 40 % of materials so constrction waste represents approximately a quarter of the total waste.
By adopting circular economy business models, you can change your focus to sourcing sustainably to reduce through the life cycle of a project waste of materials to deliver financial, social and environmental benefits. The circular economy helps you to reduce raw material cost, waste management costs. Decreasing the volume of waste going to landfill represents a great financial benefit for your business. The environmental benefits will reintroduce biological nutrients into the biosphere through composting and bio-digesters. The use of technical components and the enhancement of sustainable renewable materials reduce the impact on the climate. Introducing changes in processes across the board will help creating more jobs by 2030 in the Construction industry worldwide saving in Europe only up to €23 billion in the following processes: - design, - deconstruction - reassembly
Your future flexibility will help you increase your information, reduce cost, improve your productivity, speed up your life cycle data an dtranparency.
Your enhanced collaboration will improve your innovation enabling factors to improve your project expected outcomes
To optimize the value from a circular economy viewpoint several factors are needed in three categories - design, information and collaboration. So, you can add value to your operation, your asset, and your waste production as outlined below.
Inefficiencies in creating business models, increase costs at all stages of a project cycle:
Circular economy principles have the greatest influence on:
The transition to the circular economy business is crucial. Circular business models (CBMs) allow you to retain your highest asset value on the long term and improve your return on investment.
Different CBMs are necessary at different stages of a lifecycle of an asset independently or collaboratively.
To implement CBMs you need the collaboration of designers, suppliers, service providers, contractors, facility mangers and end-of-life companies to disucss materials, systems, energy, information and services.
New business models require:
You provide planning and design for components, systems and the asset usage to: - improve the asset service life including manufacturing, Construction maintenance, repair, upgrade, refurbishment. - Enhance your strategic plan for the value chain to increase the reuse potential and recyclability of products, by-products and waste.
You focus on the development of new materials to improve the use of renewable energy to be less resource-intensive or fully recyclable materials.
You aim to find new services to help you to facilitate materials tracking, components, and parts of a system to be ready to use in secondhand materials markets.
You can utilize alternative materials, components and parts of a system instead of virgin or recycled materials. For example, cement replacement in concrete.
You transform waste into raw materials to generate additional revenue through pioneering work in recycling technologies.
You can support consumables, spare parts and add-ons through the lifecycle of long-lasting products.
The above CBMs deliver performance rather than products to retain ownership The revenue stream is based on performance delivered. It can include all parts of a building and infrastructure.
There are multiple CBMs which can be grouped into three categories: design, use and recovery - these relate to the stage of the building lifecycle when they are needed
Products, systems and the structures are designed to last longer with a higher residual value.
Assets are easier to maintain, repair, upgrade, refurbish, remanufacture or recycle compared to traditional ones.
Driving Vision's BIM expertise diagnostic looks at how you can eliminate waste (time and material) and improve your margins and the quality of the information provided during the design and construction phases.
A Driving Vision expert will conduct the interviews online, issue a report, and discuss our findings with you. Together we can decide the best way to implement the solutions at your pace and according to your budget.
Implementing BIM can be daunting, but Driving Vision is here to help you at the pace you are comfortable with. Get started by getting in touch now
You minimise the level of investment required to implement BIM as we share the Research and Development costs with other client
You increase your revenue by staying ahead of the competition as BIM best practices allows you to win bigger and more rewarding projects.
You reduce your costs, more than our fees cost you, by decreasing potential litigations, rework, and errors and omissions
