Guest post by Daniel Gray

With more and more people paying attention to sustainability, architects and builders have had a renewed focus on the environment in their designs. The result is excellent for consumers, who have the opportunity to live in healthier and more efficient houses, but also for the environment, which sees lower overall impact from the use of sustainable materials and lower energy expenditures.

That said, the process of construction itself is still relatively troubling from an environmental perspective. One United Nations report found that the construction industry accounts for 36% of all energy used globally and 39% of all energy-related carbon emissions. Clearly, we need to continue building to meet the housing needs of a growing global population, but it is also obvious that our current building methods are unsustainable.

One possible remedy is the use of modular construction, an alternative building technique also known as “off-site building,” which offers potential environmental benefits through shorter timelines and more efficient building processes.

Read on to learn more about how modular construction works and how it can help move the construction industry in a more sustainable direction.

What Is Modular Construction?

Normally, a building is constructed on site, which seems intuitive: we should build something where we want it to be. Modular construction, though, disrupts this process entirely, constructing buildings entirely off-site in factories and then assembling them on site. Incredibly, this process can work for projects of nearly any size, from houses the size of shipping containers to huge commercial projects that are many stories tall.

Modular buildings are constructed in an assembly-line process, with factory workers building many smaller parts—called modules—at the same time. Each module is roughly rectangular, though variations allow for modular buildings that do not end up looking boxy. In the factory, modules are built with walls, floors, roofs, insulation, and windows. In many cases, fixtures and finishes are added as well, meaning that a building is nearly complete before it ever arrives at the job site.

Once completed, modules are transported to the job site on truck beds, then lifted into place by cranes. One by one, modules are added to the growing structure while construction workers “lock” modules together, creating a seamless building. Tradespeople, like plumbers and electricians, attach pipes and wires that were already added during the building process in the factory. Within a short period of time, the entire building is assembled.

At first glance, modular construction might seem to simply be a “different” way of building, but a closer investigation reveals a number of environmental benefits.

How Modular Construction Benefits the Environment

Many modular structures are beautiful and represent interesting technical innovation, but the best thing about modular building techniques is the potential environmental benefits.

For example, consider one of the most pressing current problems in construction: massive waste. Every year, the construction industry produces 56 million tons of debris at an enormous cost to the environment. Because modular buildings are constructed in factories, many projects are built simultaneously. As a result, materials that would end up as debris on a traditional building site are easily recycled onto other projects, reducing overall construction waste, which is a huge improvement over current techniques.

 Another advantage of modular building projects is the overall timeline. Modular buildings are completed twice as fast on average, which reduces the energy expenditures related to a project as well as the impact to the environment in the area immediately surrounding a building site. The reason modular buildings can be completed more quickly is quite simple: With a typical building, construction cannot be started until the site is prepared. By contrast, a modular building can be constructed in the factory at the same time the site is being prepared, leading to a more efficient project that reduces environmental impacts.

Additionally, modular construction is able to optimize site deliveries since all of the materials are coming from a single location. Therefore, modular building sites require 90% fewer deliveries overall, which leads to a remarkable drop in carbon emissions from large trucks and other vehicles.

Beyond all of these construction improvements, modular buildings are also loaded with eco-friendly features, like superior insulation and window treatments, low-energy lighting and appliances, recycled materials, and solar panels. Modular buildings are frequently the site of innovation in green building techniques. Take, for example, Wikkelhouse and High Tech High (both pictured above). Wikkelhouse is a structure made entirely of recycled cardboard, expected to last for 50 years. High Tech High is a 600-student high school constructed in 18 months using modular techniques, with 85% of its power supplied by solar panels. 

Although construction will always have environmental impacts, our goal in coming years should be to continually refine construction techniques to minimize environmental damage and promote green design.

Below, view the infographic from BigRentz for a detailed look at the environmental benefits of modular construction.

Daniel Gray is a writer focused on the environment, construction, and mental health.