{"id":543282,"date":"2022-10-11T05:17:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&#038;p=543282"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:35:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:35:33","slug":"industry-update-aec-digitization","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/industry-update-aec-digitization","title":{"rendered":"Are AEC Firms Ready to Build Tomorrow&#8217;s Infrastructure?"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[17662,471802,23372,21622,471021],"department":[488812],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-543282","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-3d","tag-aec","tag-bim","tag-digital-twin","tag-net-zero","department-emerging-technologies"],"acf":{"short_description":"Two forces\u2014digitization and sustainability\u2014will transform an industry tasked with building the world's structures. ","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The construction industry\u2014a $10 trillion behemoth that makes up the world's largest economic ecosystem and <a href=\"https:\/\/resources.oxfordeconomics.com\/hubfs\/Future%20of%20Construction_Full%20Report_FINAL.pdf\">13 percent of global GDP<\/a>\u2014is poised for sweeping transformation in how it delivers projects and collaborates with clients."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"<strong>Article snapshot:<\/strong> Many of the structures that facilitate our work and personal lives must be retrofitted or rebuilt to meet stricter safety and environmental standards. The AEC industry faces bold changes if it's going to meet the challenge.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"According to McKinsey, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/capabilities\/operations\/our-insights\/the-next-normal-in-construction-how-disruption-is-reshaping-the-worlds-largest-ecosystem\">80 percent of construction industry executives<\/a> anticipate radical change over the next 15 to 20 years, as new technologies and techniques like machine learning and modular construction grow in prominence. Sixty percent expect major changes to come within the next five years.\r\n\r\nAmidst that upheaval and a recent windfall of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/content\/dam\/esrisites\/en-us\/media\/brochures\/infrastructure-ip-brochure.pdf\">infrastructure investments<\/a>, two primary forces will challenge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/aec\/overview\">architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC)<\/a> leaders: the rise of digitization and the demands of sustainability. Data governance will become as important as drafting prowess. And new energy efficiency regulations promise to obviate traditional design and building approaches. In response, top AEC firms will turn to geographic information system (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/what-is-gis\/overview\">GIS<\/a>) technology for the spatial context they need to compete in this leaner, fast-moving environment.\r\n<h3><strong>AEC Digitization and Its Drivers <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nSeveral trends\u2014including a generational shift in the workforce, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and changing client expectations\u2014are pushing construction planning and management deeper into the digital realm.\r\n\r\nAnd yet, today's AEC industry creates troves of valuable location data that are often ignored. According to one analysis by consulting and investment banking firm FMI, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forconstructionpros.com\/business\/press-release\/21031884\/fmi-corp-study-95-of-all-data-captured-goes-unused-in-the-ec-industry\">95 percent of all data<\/a> captured in the engineering and construction industries goes unused. However, by incorporating project data into dashboards that produce real-time updates, GIS enables business leaders to unlock insights known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/location-intelligence\"><em>location intelligence<\/em><\/a> or<em> spatial insight<\/em>.\r\n\r\nThat means executives who use GIS to organize and analyze location-specific information have a significant advantage. Spatial insight streamlines workflows and lowers costs, improves collaboration and consensus among stakeholders, and promotes awareness of sustainability-related issues throughout the design and construction process.\r\n\r\nVisualizing information on a map or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/3d-and-ar-in-business\/\">in 3D form<\/a> not only is an effective mode of communication\u2014it also can expedite decision-making. One firm used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/5d-the-new-frontier-for-digital-twins\/\">a GIS-powered 5D digital twin<\/a> to monitor scheduling, costs, and the placement of each track tie and bridge pier during a recent rail project.\r\n<h3><strong>The Push toward Net Zero<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe move to digitization comes as AEC firms begin to address another major force roiling the industry: sustainability. Construction is one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/finance-and-economics\/2022\/06\/15\/the-construction-industry-remains-horribly-climate-unfriendly\">the world's least climate-friendly industries<\/a>\u2014buildings generate 40 percent of global energy-related carbon emissions. New energy-efficiency regulations in major cities aim to reverse those trends."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"<strong>A Timely Conversation<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe <em>Washington Post<\/em> recently aired an examination of America's infrastructure investment, with a focus on how government and private sector companies will contribute to the nation's telecom buildout. The replay is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/washington-post-live\/2022\/09\/21\/administration-industry-leaders-challenges-meeting-americas-broadband-needs\/\">available on demand<\/a>.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"New York City's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urbangreencouncil.org\/content\/projects\/all-about-local-law-97\">Local Law 97<\/a> places carbon caps on buildings larger than 25,000 square feet in the hope of cutting emissions 80 percent by 2050. Under Los Angeles' Green New Deal, city buildings are expected to be <a href=\"https:\/\/plan.lamayor.org\/targets\/targets_plan.html\">zero-carbon<\/a> by that same year. And new energy standards in England mean that over half the office buildings in central London <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/finance-and-economics\/2022\/06\/15\/the-construction-industry-remains-horribly-climate-unfriendly\">could be considered unusable by 2027<\/a>.\r\n\r\nAs pressure grows from regulators\u2014and firms' own employees\u2014GIS provides the spatial context executives need to understand relationships between buildings, their surroundings, and the environment.\r\n\r\nBy pairing GIS with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/building-second-skins\/\">building information modeling (BIM) software<\/a> and smart building tech, designers gain an accurate visual representation of buildings as well as the ability to quantify and analyze energy efficiency, carbon footprints, and water waste.\r\n\r\nLocation intelligence can show AEC professionals, for instance, how south- or east-facing glass facades might reflect sunlight and heat up neighboring buildings. Building operators with properties throughout cities or sprawling campuses <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/nexttech-tracking-progress-toward-net-zero-emissions\/\">can employ smart maps to visualize and forecast power-consumption trends<\/a> for years to come.\r\n\r\n\"Paper ways are gone,\" says Donna Huey, chief digital officer at the design firm Atkins. In recognition of that fact, her firm's management team has embraced GIS as a key technology for organizing and sharing data, and for its seamless <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/aec\/overview\/gis-and-bim\">integration with design delivery<\/a> on projects.\r\n\r\n\"To be able to have a fully integrated environment, leveraging geospatial and design, is a pretty powerful path to be on,\" she explains.\r\n<h3><strong>Digital Efficiency, Inspired by a Generational Shift <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nOne of the major catalysts for AEC's digitization has come through the HR office. By 2025, millennials\u2014the first digital native generation\u2014could make up as much as <a href=\"https:\/\/dmresourcecenter.com\/unit-1\/digital-natives\/\">75 percent of the workforce<\/a>, bringing a familiarity with technology and a heightened sense of responsibility for the planet. Increasingly, young AEC professionals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/new-business-analyst-skills-gap\/\">are being introduced to GIS in college<\/a> and are driving adoption of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/grooming-spatial-business-transformers\/\">the geographic approach in the workplace<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\"It used to be that someone would come into the workplace, especially in a big design and engineering firm, and feel like they almost took a half step back,\" Huey says. As more firms are embracing digital transformation and advances in fields like GIS, \"we're able to make that connection a little quicker for the new workforce that's coming in.\"\r\n\r\nWorkers in their twenties and thirties have grown up with computer-generated movies and video games that achieve lifelike verisimilitude. That has shaped their expectations and preferences for visual modes of analysis like GIS, which can turn spreadsheet data into interactive smart maps. By incorporating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/nexttech-construction-monitoring\/\">imagery captured by drones<\/a>, location technology allows executives to see buildings in 3D, and even rewind or fast-forward through a construction process.\r\n<h3><strong>How COVID-19 Fueled Digital Advances<\/strong><\/h3>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"<strong>Forced Efficiency<\/strong>\r\n\r\nUntil recently, soaring property values, market fragmentation, and a ready supply of labor meant construction firms could afford to overlook inefficiencies and lagging productivity.\r\n\r\nNo longer. The COVID-19 pandemic left AEC business leaders reeling from both skills and materials shortages. Even before that, investors like Goldman Sachs were pouring billions into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/momentum-builds-for-automation-in-construction-11562073426\">cutting-edge construction startups<\/a> in an effort to shake up the industry's sluggish pace of innovation.\r\n\r\nThe result: A flight by AEC firms toward efficiency and innovation, supported by digital strategies and technologies.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The AEC sector has always had to connect the work of architects at their drafting tables or computer screens with that of construction teams in the field. But with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, even principals and partners had to find digital workarounds to review projects and monitor progress from remote locations.\r\n\r\nNow, as firms <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/office-planning-during-and-after-covid\/\">embrace a new form of hybrid work<\/a>, those digital workflows are becoming standard practice and driving rapid innovation.\r\n\r\nWith GIS, site workers can enter data in mobile devices, feeding real-time information into dashboards that executives and clients can review from any location. Decision-makers gain an understanding of on-the-ground conditions, while field teams save time\u2014and decrease carbon emissions\u2014by avoiding trips to the office to input data.\r\n\r\nWhen spatial context is built into the way AEC companies work, COOs and CEOs can find the information they need by zooming to an area of a map, rather than hunting through multitab spreadsheets.\r\n\r\n\"<em>Project data life cycle<\/em>, <em>digital project delivery<\/em> . . . these are terms we hear a lot today, and we think our clients are still struggling with this,\" Huey notes. \"We can use the web technologies afforded by GIS today to unite project team members and collaborate using spatial data.\"\r\n<h3><strong>Digitization Creates Larger Role for Clients<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nPressure to shift to collaborative platforms like GIS has also come from clients and building owners as they move away from siloed project management techniques to <a href=\"https:\/\/dbia.org\/what-is-design-build\/\">design-build<\/a> models and <a href=\"https:\/\/info.aia.org\/SiteObjects\/files\/IPD_Guide_2007.pdf\">integrated project delivery<\/a> approaches.\r\n\r\nClients are no longer content to wait until the end of a project to be briefed. They have less tolerance for delays and cost overruns, especially since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fhwa.dot.gov\/construction\/pubs\/hif13050.pdf\">digital technologies have been shown<\/a> to decrease such inefficiencies. McKinsey found that 98 percent of megaprojects <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/capabilities\/operations\/our-insights\/the-construction-productivity-imperative\">end up overbudget<\/a>, with three-quarters delivered at least 40 percent late. Smaller projects don\u2019t fare much better.\r\n\r\nA web-based dashboard powered by GIS brings owners into the conversation with architects, engineers, and construction professionals. A COO can assess a project's status via colored dials and a simple floor plan accessed through a GIS dashboard. Owners also increasingly want design delivery in a digital format that they can reference throughout a project life cycle.\r\n<h3><strong>A Reckoning for AEC's Record on Climate<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe AEC industry gobbles up materials. According to <em>The Economist<\/em>, it accounts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/finance-and-economics\/2022\/06\/15\/the-construction-industry-remains-horribly-climate-unfriendly\">for almost all the cement made in the world<\/a>, half of steel production, and 25 percent of aluminum and plastic output\u2014all sectors that pour emissions into the atmosphere during the manufacturing process.\r\n\r\nPowering, heating, and cooling homes and office buildings also contribute greatly to energy-related emissions.\r\n\r\nIntegrating GIS and BIM allows designers, engineers, and construction professionals to essentially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/gis-bim-and-3d-in-aec\/\">build a context-aware structure in the digital realm<\/a> before a single yard of concrete is poured. Through location-intelligent 3D models, they can assess how changes in design might raise or lower the green profile of a building.\r\n\r\nBy digitally experimenting with venting, geothermal heat pumps, the placement of solar panels, or the use of recycled materials, AEC professionals can present clients with options for how to reach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/nexttech-tracking-progress-toward-net-zero-emissions\/\">net-zero emissions<\/a> status.\r\n\r\nSpatial insights also give business leaders operational awareness on how their organizations generate waste\u2014a drag on both sustainability goals and the bottom line. Smart use of water is increasingly becoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/water-management-a-rising-business-risk\/\">one of the top environmental concerns for executives<\/a>. With GIS, designers and engineers can incorporate efficiency solutions into design, including systems that reuse or recycle gray water internally. A geographic approach can also raise red flags about areas where water stress could paralyze future operations.\r\n<h3><strong>The Coming Building Boom<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nDemand in the coming years for new infrastructure will be great, with global building floor space <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weforum.org\/agenda\/2021\/09\/how-to-build-zero-carbon-buildings\/\">expected to double by 2060<\/a>. With growing demand for sustainable construction and the increasing digitization of work, the old standards of how AEC firms do business will no longer apply.\r\n\r\nLocation intelligence will enable executives to respond to those trends, in the process attracting the best young talent, satisfying clients, and placing innovative firms at the front line of the industry."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AEC Digitization, Sustainability Push to Color Infrastructure Work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AEC digitization, spurred by a young workforce and hybrid work practices, should please clients while advancing sustainability goals.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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