Embracing Offsite Construction for a More Sustainable Future

This article is part of a series exploring the transformation of RNGD, a contractor with offices in Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama. RNGD evolved from a conventional general contractor to a "true builder" and, as part of that process, established its own manufacturing facility in Metairie, Louisiana. 

Since its founding in 2013, RNGD’s mission has been to change the status quo in construction and “reimagine an industry from the ground up.” This drive led RNGD to launch its own prefabrication facilities, where it manufactures structural steel and cold-form steel elements. By producing these critical elements in-house, RNGD positioned itself to construct and dry-in entire superstructures independently. Standardizing these processes enabled greater control over efficiency, cost and quality across its projects.

At the same time, creating prefab capabilities also helped RNGD take a step toward its commitment to addressing the longstanding inefficiencies and environmental concerns that often go hand-in-hand with traditional construction methods. 

We asked Will Cotten, RNGD’s Innovation Leader and Nick Moldaner, COO, to share how offsite construction promotes sustainable building — and how RNGD is working to set a new standard for sustainable building practices.

Will Cotten, Innovation Leader, RNGD

Nick Moldaner, Chief Operations Officer, RNGD

Manufactured Parts: A Pathway to Sustainability

Will: That’s why prefabrication has been so impactful for us. The industrialized construction model is really something for initiatives associated with reduced waste and, I’d say, aspects of reduced carbon footprints. When we produce a cold-form steel or structural steel component or product, we are maximally reducing to fully eliminating any waste associated with that product. 

For an exterior wall panel, for instance, we precision CNC (Computer Numerical Control) roll and cut every cold-form steel metal stud to where there’s no waste associated with it. It’s coming straight out of the mill in coil format. We’re decoiling it and rolling it, punching it and dimpling it. It’s coming out pre-cut to link, pre-dimpled and ready to be attached as that panel product. 

You compare that to conventional methodology, where the trade partner will get that product from a supplier, who got it from a manufacturer, who is not cutting everything to exact lengths. So not only do you have the added trucking from manufacturer to supplier, from supplier to trade partner, and then maybe the trade partner shipping it to the job site, you also have the added waste of material drops on site. Sheathing, gypsum dust, silica dust getting in the air. If you’re doing a finished system that is a synthetic stucco or anything that requires a continuous insulation membrane, you get a foam that gets cut and rasped and potentially gets into stormwater drainage systems. 

Moving all that into the shop environment means when the product leaves our facility, it’s fully finished and it’s just a matter of putting the panel up, caulking the joint between it and moving to the next one. So we’re reducing equipment, trucking, material waste and environmental hazards all by moving towards an industrialized construction model.

Planning for a Sustainable Future

Will: We knew if we were going to approach a different way of constructing buildings, we had to adopt some structural element, whether it be structural steel or concrete or timber. We elected to move in the direction of structural steel for a few reasons. 

We’re inspired by the carbon sequestering capability of things like mass timber, but in our area of the southeast and Gulf Coast — with the wind zone ratings and what we face from a moisture mitigation standpoint being in coastal areas — you can’t beat steel, which is recyclable, and concrete as a resilient product that is going to create a long-term solution for folks in those areas to not be damaged by termines, mold, mildew, fire, etc.

Will: It’s been exciting to be part of. Over the last six years, RNGD has really become a vertically integrated, what we call, 'true builder.' We do a lot of specialty trade work. We have a heavy civil infrastructure arm of the business. We have a structural steel fabrication and erection side of the business, and then we have an advanced manufacturing and offsite prefab side of the business.

Recently, we just added MEP capability as well. What that vertical integration has allowed us to do is be able to bring structures out of the ground and dry it in under one umbrella and systemize it, so we can take more of the construction value chain in-house, pass that value along to the client. Our theory is, the way to shift the paradigm of construction is to make the job site more like a factory. If you can dry a building in, turn the lights on, and turn the AC on quickly, all of a sudden your finished trades are working just as efficiently as they would in a shop.

Creativity and Innovation

Will: It makes a big difference. When you’re delivering components to the jobsite, there are no modifications that you want to make. You want it to fit perfectly. What that means is we have to use cutting-edge technology and design at a level of detail that is atypical for the current state of the industry. 

We’re designing components down to the screw, rather than just some general massing that gets worked out in shop drawings later and gets a modification in the field. BIM and 4D scheduling are tools to coordinate with trades and help them visualize the way a building is going to come together, while CNC technology converts design files into information that machines can produce components off of with little to no waste. That technology lifecycle is critical and is a big part of the engine of our RNGD delivery model

Staying Competitive While Pursuing Sustainability

Will: We saw research organizations publishing literature about transactional waste and, on a given project, 30 to 40 percent of the project is transactional waste. We’re saying if we can target even 20% of that, that at least is creating a more sustainable industry for construction.

Our RNGD Delivery Model is predicated upon offsite manufacturing. We’re detailing, designing and fabricating down to the millimeter, rather than down to inches. When those components arrive on site, we can’t afford to have rework and modifications being made. We’re not having metal and sheathing and waterproofing and foam drops all over a job site that end up in 30 yard containers that go to landfills. We have an integrated product delivery model, where we’re buying direct-from-manufacturers. We’re not buying from trade partners who are buying from suppliers who are buying from manufacturers and have fees associated with that tier structure. We’re accelerating project schedules, so owners are excited about it. 

Will: That’s something we’re leaning into heavily and growing our “true builder culture” to appreciate the level of precision and the level of accuracy and what that means for layout, offsite manufacturing, the way we set up our shop, the way we truck and deliver, the logistics of just-in-time delivery to ensure that when the product arrives, it’s ready to get installed with zero defects. Precision manufacturing means very little to no waste and there’s nothing more sustainable than that model.

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