Digital Construction Technology for Whole-Life Value

For decades, the construction industry has kept a narrow focus on capital cost — the one-time, upfront costs of a construction project. While in the short term this seems like a sensible way to optimise expenditure, it is often at the expense of long-term performance and sustainability. As the industry continues to shift towards net-zero targets, the capital cost fixation is no longer fit for purpose. The construction industry must now adopt a more holistic approach that considers the whole-life value of a construction project, not just the initial cost — especially if it wants to make progress on its sustainability commitments. This was a guiding principle of the Transforming Construction Challenge (TCC).

‘Whole-life value’ means the total value that a construction asset delivers over its entire lifespan. It accounts for capital cost, operational cost, refurbishment, embodied and operational carbon, user value and more, to land on a figure that provides a much better representation of a building’s value than just upfront cost. The logic is simple: if a building is cheap to build but expensive to run or retrofit, it’s not truly cost-effective. This was addressed by a key output of the TCC, the Value Toolkit. 

Early Carbon Certainty: Designing with Confidence

The focus on initial costs is not only a limited approach to understanding value, but it endangers the sustainability of a building. Making choices based only on cost, whether that’s around materials, heating systems or energy supply, risks disregarding environmental impact in favour of saving money. With climate change and rising global temperatures becoming more pressing issues, it’s crucial that the construction industry adapts its way of thinking to consider these risks and challenges — even if that means higher capital costs.

It can be difficult to change attitudes around sustainability, but one way to do this is to put a price to carbon in calculations. The term for this is ‘shadow carbon cost’, and it helps you to demonstrate the hypothetical costs associated with carbon emissions — typically £50 to £200 per tonne. Translating carbon into financial terms simulates the financial impact of carbon-intensive decisions, helping to get the message across to stakeholders who tend to be more focused on cost than on sustainability. 

Shadow carbon costs help to quantify the whole-life value assessment of an asset, making it easier to justify sustainable investments. For example, the longer a building exists, the more value you're getting out of the embodied carbon. If taken into consideration, this metric can help future-proof projects. Regulations are likely to change and stricter carbon requirements may roll out, which could require widespread, expensive retrofit projects on assets that prioritised captial cost over sustainability. 

Real-Time Performance Intelligence: Assessing Whole-Life Value

Whole-life value is as much, if not more, about the operation and performance of a building as it is about the design and construction phase. The operation of a building, whether it’s an office block or domestic dwelling, is where the estimates for whole-life value are either realised or invalidated. 

It’s important to remember that building performance is heavily influenced by the behaviour of its inhabitants or operators. A building can be kitted out with the most efficient, environmentally friendly energy systems, but if they’re not used properly, they can’t deliver the benefits they promise. 

Just like a car comes with a handbook, it’s good practice to supply a manual with any new building or retrofit project. This should include information on how to operate the building in an energy-saving way, written in simple language so that it is as accessible as possible. Providing digital and hard copies is also a good idea. 

The Future of Whole-Life Value in Construction

Shifting towards prioritising whole-life value rather than capital costs requires more than just a change in mindset — although that change is a big part of the challenge. It also requires an evolution of skillsets. The industry will need more people able to fit out construction assets with the kinds of technology that will make more sustainable, whole-life value-based projects possible, which could prove difficult in an industry facing skills shortages. 

Still, the environmental benefits of a pivot to whole-life value would be worthwhile not only for the future of the planet but also for the ability to meet today’s and tomorrow’s sustainability regulations and standards. The industry made progress towards upskilling and understanding the value of modern methods of construction during the Transforming Construction Challenge, but there has been a slowdown since then, partly due to the change in government. 

Although there has been a change in the pace of progress, champions of whole-life value and sustainability shouldn’t lose hope. It’s more important than ever that we keep raising awareness around whole-life value, focusing on the difference we can make to our industry and to society by maintaining and sharing these views.

Written by