Let me just come out and say it: last year was a wild and crazy ride. In some ways, good; in others, bad. Writing this, I think of advice given to me by my father. Don’t define events in life as good or bad. Instead, define them as lessons learned and evolutions to make. That was great advice and I’ll try to follow it here.
The construction industry works together to meet the unique difficulties of this time
One of my biggest concerns for the industry remains talent acquisition and retention. It’s no secret that the construction industry has struggled for some time to attract new young talent. We are moving backwards compared to hotter fields such as tech. While headway is being made to reverse this trend, it is a long-term problem and won’t be solved overnight.
Our younger generation is made of knowledge-seeking people who are used to having information at their fingertips 24/7 and keeping them on a need-to-know basis is a great way to lose them. Training will be a key part of any retention strategy, and the Metal Construction Association (MCA) is well-positioned to help our members with ongoing education efforts.
The industry is also going to be challenged by the market to prove it is reducing carbon emissions, and if it fails to do that, our products will be silently deselected without warning. This won’t just happen in the architect’s office. Many states are bringing legislation online that requires justification of carbon embodiment for materials used in public construction projects, and this will certainly make its way into private construction.
Our younger generation is made of knowledge-seeking people who are used to having information at their fingertips 24/7 and keeping them on a need-to-know basis is a great way to lose them.
The code hearings last year included more testimony about sustainability than ever, and I expect more this year. This was not for the high-performance standards like the International Green Construction Code (IgCC); this was for the basic model building codes, which are the documents that drive our industry. Our work with life cycle analyses (LCA) and environmental product declarations (EPD) will become more important to show where we stand relative to competing materials.
Supply chain struggles won’t go away anytime soon, either. We all know our products are highly regulated through codes and third-party certifications, making material substitution difficult. In fact, the construction industry tends to be where other industries look when they need materials. Paint manufacturers, for example, are finding it difficult to secure some ingredients such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) because lithium-ion battery manufacturers are paying higher prices, creating shortages and longer lead times. We need quicker ways to vet these substitutions while maintaining existing certifications. You cannot utilize a three-year aged value when you don’t know what paint formulation you will be using next year.
Those are big challenges and there are others as well. Here is the good news. They all have solutions which have been identified and are being actively implemented by MCA and other industry organizations working together.
I am very proud of our industry and the teamwork we do to help each other out meetings these challenges and being a part of it has truly been an honor. We could not do it without the active participation of our member companies, and I will sign off by simply saying thank you and let’s do this!
Bob Zabcik is the technical director for the Metal Construction Association. He has been a leading resource for technical information in the metal construction industry, especially pertaining to sustainability issues for more than 30 years. He also provides engineering and technical consulting services focused on building energy efficiency, renewable energy solutions, sustainability and building science applications as well as structural design.