ConZerW - Construction site Zero Waste

The main objective of ConZerW is to achieve waste-free construction sites by developing process tools that support collaboration between partners in planning, procurement and logistics activities related to construction site. The project will be based on qualitative and quantitative research strategy to solve practical problems by using existing industry knowledge while contributing to new research. The project is expected to provide a competitive advantage when stricter waste reduction requirements are introduced in the near future, as well as helping to strengthen the partners' environmental profile in the customer market. The project will answer three main research questions to address key R&D challenges 1) What is the level of waste-free construction site ambitions for the actors, and what new solutions and working methods can help realising this ambition? 2) How can optimization systems that reduce waste by means of tracking resource flows and efficient information exchange in the value chain be developed? 3) How to quantify and evaluate whether waste-free solutions contribute to real waste reduction, increased profitability and emission reductions in the value chain? In addition, the feasibility of the project results will be demonstrated in a full-scale pilot, and the findings will be communicated to builders, contractors, suppliers, politicians and the media. The project is based on an interdisciplinary research approach, in order to deal with the complexity of waste free construction site barriers, involving many fields of expertise and partners from various stakeholder groups. The partners in the project are Skanska, the project owner, Skanska's own supplier of prefabricated house modules, Skanska Husfabrikken, the construction product chain Optimera and the waste contractor Norsk Gjenvinning. SINTEF, with expertise in optimization, economic analysis, construction process and climate and environmental analysis, is the project leader and research partner. The project started in April 2020 with digital project kick-off with presentation of the project and expectations and contribution of project partners. The first workshop was held in May to discuss and create common understanding of waste free construction site definition, ambition levels, system boundaries for activities included in the definition and KPIs for waste, GHG emission and cost categories. A first draft guideline report was developed (for internal use) based on inputs from workshop 1 and state-of-the-art study performed in the project. The second workshop was held in November as a follow up of the definition work. 11 Skanska's projects completed with the last 5 years were selected to identify source of waste, potential waste reduction measures and data availability. Basic data and lessons learnt from the projects were collected by interviewing different experts involved in the project. The data has been collected to perform screening life cycle assessment and economic analysis. Furthermore, identification of potential optimization problem, possible solutions for tracking system and testing the first version of tracking system has been performed. In 2021, three on-going projects, Ullevål, Nidarvol and NPK, were selected to get data which enable to develop optimisation, environmental impact, and economic analysis methods. The projects has ambitions for waste reduction, with involvement of most of ConZerW project partners. A series of workshop has been conducted with each project team to get an overview of the projects, identify needs, expectations and data availability. Evaluation of possibilities for tracking of waste flow within prefabrication process has been conducted though Ullevål project. Actual material and waste data from Ullevål project module production was collected for evaluating the waste and GHG emission reduction potential from module production in comparison with on-site construction. Preliminary GHG emission calculation method, including background data, has been developed. Potential optimisation solutions which enable waste reduction from plates has been developed and tested in Nidarvol project. Possibilities for waste reduction measures, technologies for tracking of waste flow at construction site, warehouse and distribution has been evaluated through a series of discussions with each partner, NPK project, site visits and desktop search. The definition report is revised through several discussions within the project partners and with NADA project partners. Testing of the definition report in pilot projects, developing process tool, economic and environmental analysis models are some of the activities planned for 2022.

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Byggenæringen er i dag verdens største forbruker av naturressurser, og står for ca. 40 % av energibruken og klimagassutslippene i verden. Nasjonale tall fra SSB viser at avfallsandelen fra nybyggsprosjekter stadig øker. Skanska opplever allikevel flere store utfordringer med å oppnå slike avfallsreduksjoner. Det kreves mer tid og ressurser til planlegging, og sees på som kostnadskrevende. Dagens praksis preges av fragmentert informasjon, hvor produsenter og leverandører ikke får tilgang til informasjon og ikke får detaljerte eller automatiserte bestillinger. I tillegg er det mangelfullt datagrunnlag, og det er komplisert å finne tall og fakta om hvor store miljøgevinster og kostnadsbesparelser som kan oppnås ved valg av ulike tiltak og avfallsreduksjonsløsninger. Avfallsfrie byggeplasser er i stor grad et utforsket emne i forskningen. Kritisk forskning trengs for å sikre en bærekraftig utvikling av det som i dag er et stort, pågående bransjeinitiativ for avfallsfrie byggeplasser. For å ta dagens avfallsnivåer til et betydelig lavere nivå, og samtidig oppnå økt produktivitet, ser Skanska behov for nye samarbeidsmåter med partnerne sine i verdikjeden (Skanska Husfabrikken, Norsk Gjenvinning og Optimera i tillegg til SINTEF som forskningspartner). Det skal derfor utvikles: 1) nye forskningsbaserte løsninger med sporingsystemer som gir system- og verdikjedeforståelse, og et datagrunnlag for utvikling av optimaliserings- og evalueringsmetoder, 2) ny matematisk optimalisert metode for innkjøp, håndtering og lagring av materialer gjennom byggeprosessen, og 3) digitale prosessverktøy som viser brukerne potensialet for kostnads-, utslipps- og avfallsreduksjoner ved å velge smartere løsninger. ConZerW gir videre mulighet for utvikling av nye typer returordninger, nye konsepter og tilleggstjenester. Gjennom prosjektet utvikles nye tjenester som i større grad trekker leverandørleddet inn i planleggingen og utvikler løsninger og tjenester.