The development and operation of the businesses worldwide are being increasingly shaped by the Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) metrics. Industries have been challenged more-and-more by regulatory, reporting, and customer demands towards the impact of their operations in multiple dimensions. The construction industry is no exemption to this. ESG refers to the method of evaluating companies on the basis of their commitment to sustainability, which includes factors such as a company’s contribution towards combating global warming, reducing carbon emission, protecting human rights, adhering to the health and safety of the workers and the like.
Being criticized since ages for having a massive impact on the environment, it becomes pertinent for the construction industry to ensure and enhance its ESG compliances so as to remove the age old stigma against the industry and drive towards making it an eco-friendly one.
This blog is an attempt to showcase how viAct’s AI-powered Construction Management System enables the construction industry to ensure and enhance ESG compliances.
Why adhering to ESG criteria important for the Construction Industry?
The construction industry has always been criticized as non-eco-friendly industry!
Global Data's ESG survey revealed that ‘health and safety’ is the top ESG issue of concern in construction industry
Statistics show that 35% of world’s industrial waste is solely generated by the construction industry
According to studies, 32% of world’s natural resources are used by the construction industry uses
Studies also reveal that, the built environment generates 30% of the total greenhouse gas emission and 40% of energy use
According to International Energy Agency, 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions are attributed to buildings
Studies have revealed that construction of buildings can be responsible for release of toxic dusts like hardwood or silica having carcinogenic properties.
How does viAct help the construction industry to enhance the ESG criterion?
viAct has designed 30+ AI and computer vision enabled modules that helps in ensuring the safety, productivity and environmental compliances in the jobsite, in turn helping the governments and construction companies to achieve higher ESG preposition by transforming the traditional non-eco-friendly construction industry into an environmentally sustainable, socially accountable and digitally smarter one.
The table below depicts how construction companies can enhance their ESG criterion with viAct.
| E (Environmental) | S (Social) | G (Governance) |
Definition | The Environmental criterion measures a firm’s energy consumption, waste generation, use of natural resources and the consequences of its operations on the ecosystem and the habitats. One of the overarching environmental factors these days includes a company’s role towards mitigating climate change. | The Social criterion assesses the engagement of a firm with its workers, customers, suppliers and the local community at large. It covers wide range of factors such as human rights, diversity and inclusion, health & safety and community impact. | The Governance criterion assesses the ways in which a firm uses policies and controls its business decisions, complies with the law of the land and meets obligations to the stakeholders. |
What we deal with? | · Dump Truck Management · Water Pollution Detection · Illegal Dumping Detection · C&D Waste Management · Construction Material Classification · Urban Flood Prevention · Energy Saving Control · Air Quality Detection | · PPE Detection · Danger Zone Intrusion · Danger Behavior Detection · Non-Compliance Behavior · People/Object Falling · Smoke/Fire Detection · High-level Work Monitoring Mobile Crane Monitoring | · Auto-Record Keeping & Documentation · Instant, Automatic & Real-time Alerts · Integrated Dashboard |
How it works? | These tailor-made modules are well-trained and tested to detect any instance of environmental non-compliance like uncovered dump truck, untreated wastewater and the like and instantly alert the stakeholders so as to prevent any damage to the environment before it is too late. | These Safety modules powered by AI & computer vision not only ensure the physical safety of the workers but also their psychological safety. These modules act as an ‘extra eye’ in the jobsite and the workers, their families and other stakeholders can be assured that they are under constant surveillance and any incident harming them would be instantly detected and avoided and thus, they are in a safe working environment. | With viAct’s integrated dashboard all the levels of the workflow can come together in a single platform to interact and comment on project(s), thus, ensuring greater transparency in the workflow. Also the real-time and instant alerts helps all the stakeholders – remote as well as on-site – to stay aware of the jobsite happenings; thus providing better governance and management of construction projects. |
Who can be benefitted from viAct’s Environmental & Safety Modules?
Generally, achieving ESG standards is the concern of top echelons of the construction industry, thus, the following construction stakeholders will be directly benefitted from viAct’s Environmental & Safety Modules:
Owners
Contractors & Sub-Contractors
Builders
Apart from these, the other stakeholders who can be indirectly benefitted include the Safety Officers and the workers in the construction industry.
What are the benefits of using viAct’s AI Modules to enhance ESG?
Better ESG Compliances | With viAct’s AI and computer vision enabled Modules, construction companies can better comply with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria that too with minimal human interference. |
Zero Errors | Being powered by AI & Computer vision, viAct’s Modules are free from errors that are generally involved with manual monitoring methods. |
Reduced Staff Workload | viAct’s construction management system automates construction monitoring as a result of which the staff workloads get reduced and the staff members can be oriented towards other tasks having higher ROI. |
Auto Record-Keeping & Documentation | The tailor-made modules designed by viAct are well-trained and tested to detect minutest of non-compliance in the jobsites. Further, these smart insights captured by the AI camera are recorded in viAct’s integrated dashboard that can be viewed anytime later from any date range. Thus, with viAct the stakeholder can automate record-keeping and documentation of their jobsite. |
Automatic & Instant Alerts | As soon as any safety or environmental non-compliance is detected by the AI cameras, instant and real-time alerts are sent out so that stakeholders can undertake the needy steps to prevent any incident from taking place before it is too late. Simultaneously, alerts are also sent to remote stakeholders via SMS or email. |
Legal Benefits | The audio-visual insights captured by the AI cameras and recorded in viAct’s integrated dashboard act as visual evidences against non-compliances and incidents in the jobsite. These smart insights can also be used by the stakeholders for dealing with legal suits. |