MILAN, July 24, 2021 – “The pandemic has highlighted the need for a new concept of the city and infrastructure in general. And there are three drivers that will lead the construction industry and shape the way we build for the next 10 years: sustainability, digitalization and data platforms,” said Webuild Chairman Donato Iacovone during a conference entitled “Quale Città” (What Kind of City) dedicated to the sustainable future of cities and the changing needs of their inhabitants.

 “Today, the idea of sustainability is not just about the contribution that one can make in achieving a development goal set by the United Nations. It has come to concern those who produce and those who work in the sector. In Europe, the construction industry is responsible for 36% of emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 50% of raw materials consumption and 21% of water consumption. If we are to avoid this impact on the environment, we need to change the way we build.”

“Digitalization can be an instrument to redesign cities and reprogramme services, just like construction sites today that can actually become virtual. With the data that is already available, we can reprogramme consumption in real time, adapting it to actual work flows. Working on data platforms which means having all the available data fed into the network, can help reduce costs, make the system more efficient and reduce the impact on the environment.”

“Everything that we will build in the future will have to take into account how people’s needs have changed and how they will continue to change at a faster pace. And since these needs change so quickly, we can no longer consider to be sustainable a system that takes decades to see a project move from design stage to execution,” he concluded.

Webuild, a global player in the construction industry, thanks also to the success of Progetto Italia, is among those that are most committed to sustainable mobility and construction, as shown in its recently launched ESG Plan 2021-2023. Taking into account all the projects under construction worldwide the Group has calculated that it will improve the lives of 87 million people and remove 21 million tonnes of CO2. The  projects in the sustainable mobility sector will have a positive impact on the lives of 32 million people, whilst those in the green buildings sector will have a positive impact on 13.7 million people.