The global construction industry is expected to reach an estimated $10.5 trillion by 2023, and it is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2018 to 2023. With global warming increasingly threatening people’s living conditions, governments and industry leaders around the globe keep carrying out long-term strategic actions in green construction to tackle this issue.
The same pledge serves as Graham’s inspiration, as the CEO and the President of Graham, Andy Trewick says:
“We have a very well-defined strategy in order to take our business forward, and sustainability touches every aspect of it.”
Innovative Approaches to Embark on Environmental Challenges
As a lifeblood industry for the economy, construction is facing a rapid growth stage and will continue to develop in the future due to the increasing needs and requirements of the people.
Ian Dickinson, the Executive Vice President of the Water Division at Graham, addresses the challenges this industry is facing now so as to attain the environment:
“People are talking about the environments of the cities where people are going to live and it’s putting an enormous amount of stress on the infrastructure in those cities. And the level of sophistication that's required in the solutions has amped up massively. That challenge is becoming increasingly complex.”
Not backing down from the dilemma, Graham devotes itself to infrastructure development with a great amount of progressive and innovative approaches.
For instance, Graham presents multiple outstanding projects, one namely Bonnybrook, the largest wastewater treatment facility located in the City of Calgary, Canada. Graham supports Bonnybrook’s expansion project by increasing its wastewater treatment capacity by more than 30%, reaching a peak capacity of 1,096 ML/d, which indicates that it can process about 12,685 liters of wastewater every single second. Moreover, Graham also integrated different innovative construction disciplines into Bonnybrook:
“The co-generation we created for them takes the biogas, which is produced in the wastewater treatment process, to generate steam and electricity” elaborates Ian Dickinson.
Delivering Social Impact Via Communities Building
Graham lays its caring for communities’ development through all aspects of its business. It firmly advocates and pursues the reconciliation of the indigenous community in 3 ways:
- Understanding The 94 Calls to Action
- Following the United Nations Declaration
- Being engaged in cultural events
Vice President of Indigenous Relations at Graham, Terry Mitchell believes that in order for the industry to collaborate with indigenous people and develop a community that respects diversity, equity, and inclusion, a bridge connecting the industry and the cultural components must be built upon trust:
“It is the respectful thing to do - to work with indigenous communities, to be able to know and understand that we're going to work together - based on the level of trust.”
Moreover, Graham develops solid partnerships with other international companies across the sectors that share the same visions in environmental and social sustainability, to generate more efficient solutions refining the world into a more resilient and vibrant place.
It is putting enormous effort into collaborating and engaging with others, as Andy Trewick says, “to become sustainable, we recognized that we didn't have all the answers ourselves, and we wanted to understand best practices across the world.”
