Overseas sustainability, reuse trends heading to US, says AEM

The Milwaukee-based Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has identified five construction industry trends largely centered overseas it says could soon have a larger presence in the U.S.

All the trends would affect the materials construction and demolition (C&D) contractors and C&D recyclers encounter on a daily basis.

The trends AEM has identified are “not just about adopting new techniques, but reimagining how we build for the future," and materials composition, recycled content and reuse figure into several of the trends.

The organization points to green building techniques from Scandinavia and Singapore as one of its five overseas trends. While Singapore has focused on incorporating plants and green spaces into buildings, Scandinavian countries have long been leaders in sustainable building practices, focusing on energy efficiency and the use of sustainable materials, AEM says.

“These practices are now being applied in large U.S. projects, aiming to achieve LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] certifications by incorporating green roofs, energy-efficient systems and materials that reduce carbon footprints," the group says.

The AEM credits the United Kingdom as being the center of “adaptive reuse” activity, which involves repurposing old buildings for new uses, and says such activity is a growing trend in the U.S. as well.

“Projects involving the conversion of historic factories into residential lofts or old warehouses into commercial spaces are examples where this trend is merging sustainability with heritage conservation,” AEM says. Often tied into such projects is the salvage and restoration of fixtures as well as the recycling of materials that cannot be reused.

AEM also cites modular construction from Europe as another trend, saying the method drastically reduces construction time, minimizes environmental disruption and can significantly cut down waste.

A material not often encountered by U.S. contractors and recyclers currently is bamboo. But the AEM says the traditional Asian use of bamboo is finding a new footing in U.S. construction, particularly in large-scale projects seeking sustainable and resilient materials.

“Bamboo’s tensile strength and flexibility make it a suitable alternative to both concrete and traditional steel in certain applications," the group says. "This emerging trend is seen in both temporary structures like scaffolding and in permanent features like bamboo-reinforced concrete.”

Finally, the AEM points to advanced technology and automation from Japan and Germany as increasingly present in the U.S.

“These technologies include automated paving machines, robotic machines and sophisticated building information modeling (BIM) systems that allow for precise pre-construction simulations,” AEM says.

The full AEM essay on the topic can be found here.