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Pre-construction manager Christopher Dittrich joins me to talk about sustainability and what it looks like in our industry. We discuss how to implement sustainable practices into projects and why sustainability should be a priority across our industry.

Transcript

Richie: Hello, Chris. Thank you for joining me today. Do you want to explain what your role is here at C.E. Floyd and just introduce yourself?

Christopher: My name is Christopher Dittrich, I'm the pre-construction manager in our Connecticut office. I've been with C.E. Floyd for just over two years now, helping our clients and design teams in the early coordination and planning of their projects.

Richie: What I want to talk to you about today is sustainability in the construction industry and your background with it, your perspective on it, and how relates to the pre-construction process. So let's start with your background in sustainability with C.E. Floyd. Recently you were the moderator of a panel with AIA CT, which I attended. It was very good, nice job. You did the pre-construction for our Food Bank of Western Mass project, which is a net zero project. And you're also working on starting a recycling program for our company, tracking all of our recycled waste and stuff, which I think is great that we are keeping tabs on that sort of thing.

Christopher: Yeah. So like you said, the moderator event was really exciting to be a part of. We had, you know, a great cast of professionals on the call with me. The primary focus was early input from the teams and from the clients in their early gathering process and pulling this all together, that really makes an impact when you have those discussions at a really early point. That was probably one of the biggest things that we got out of that. You mentioned the Food Bank project too, which is again, it's just another great process. We were involved from day one when we were starting the design of the project, so we were able to, you know, really be impactful in that process and help guide them along the way. Coming up with a net zero project was really exciting. Awesome for the community and obviously for the environment. The recycling program, too is just, you know, it's almost like low-hanging fruit. When I project managed and managed work, it was everything just going into one dumpster, and it went away. It was so wasteful and disheartening to see. Now we finally can make a change. Being part of an organization that wants to make a change gives us the ability to do these things and put these programs together. You know, when my daughters started bringing stuff home from school, they're both in fourth and first grade, and they talk about recycling. It's all the same content that we learned as kids. You know, the importance of recycling. My parents, that generation was like, okay, great, you know, and then start to throw the milk carton out right? But now, when my daughters come home and then share with me their perspective, it's like, okay, now I'm in a position in my career and my generation is at that point in our career that we can actually be impactful and, you know, put these policies into place. The kids can learn it in school, but they can't implement it in the real world. They're not old enough yet to do that. Our generation is now in that position to take that leadership role and do those things. And that was the driving force behind the recycling program. It's also something that obviously C.E. Floyd had a mission to do. I was just fortunate enough to kind of, you know, take the bull by the horns and be able to get it implemented in rolling and tracking it on a monthly basis. It's great for, you know, for all of our clients and for all of our staff here, too, that they see these results on a monthly basis, that it's not just, hey, we're doing recycling. There are stats, they're published every month, and we're monitoring those things. It's really exciting to see.

Richie: From a marketing standpoint, we're very grateful that you've started this, but I'm sure every facet of our company finds it very helpful. I'm thrilled about it. You kind of started touching upon this, but what's your personal background in sustainability? Why? Why is it something that you are focusing on?

Christopher: It's because I'm at a point in my career where we could actually make a change, right? And really do it and see it come together and actually be done. And it's real. There are businesses out there that offer these opportunities for recycling. You just need to be able to find who they are. We have some strategic alliances with the right trade partners that are like-minded, like us, that want to be impactful. We work with them and partner with them and bring it to our clients.

Richie: When we talk about sustainability, it's kind of like a broad umbrella term. But what does this actually look like in our projects? What are the choices that we can make that are sustainable for the environment?

Christopher: A lot of things. Sustainability is always on the agenda. It could be just the recycling program, and then that's enough, right?
But there are mechanical systems that can be implemented to provide sustainable options. There are building materials that have sustainable options. There's prefabrication that can lead to fewer people traveling to the job sites. And, you know, we can prefab these things in one central location and then bring them to the jobs. Right. Prefabrication, you know, it's good for the projects in terms of scheduling because it's hard to find the labor forces these days to have all the crews out there working. They can do these things at their facilities and make them and then ship them out. It's got benefits on the scheduling and labor side, but it also has benefits on the environment as well in reducing all the vehicles that are traveling to the job site and all the barges that are coming from all over the world to bring materials to do to the United States, to be built right. Looking at materials that are, you know, made in America, you know, again, the prefab options of it there, it all so many variables and levels that you know, but it really all depends on how deep the client wants to go. The big part of our precon process is to be to is to talk about it early and to have those discussions in the first couple of meetings to establish what the goals are. We want to make sure that, we're all tied to what those goals are. 

Richie: Well, one of the takeaways I had from that AIA panel is having a champion at every stage. So like even down to like the interior design, making sure that it's a priority for everyone down the line. So for not just the construction industry, but AEC in general, what do you think that the industry as a whole could be doing better in terms of our general attitudes and maybe some specific examples?

Christopher: The recycling thing is just something that everybody should be doing. Everybody always thinks sustainability costs more money, and that's not always the case. There could be premiums, and there are great programs out there. There are professionals out there that you just need to sync up with early that can help guide you along that process because the incentives are there. It's just a matter of finding out which ones are there. To make that change, with the rebates that are out there, there's certain equipment that will give you X amount of dollars, right? And being able to select that equipment early on and know that that's going to be the piece of equipment that you're using. That's key, right? Because now you get those incentives and you know that those dollars are real and you can put them towards that project or put those credits back into the project.

Richie: Something we've talked about a little is how construction and demolition waste are a huge part of what makes up the landfills globally. I have a stat here that says construction demolition waste resulting from the construction sector accounts for 30% of total waste globally. You mentioned specific things like ceiling tiles, for example, are things that can't really be broken down. What are these choices that we can make, like having a different dumpster for cardboard, having a different dumpster for something like ceiling tiles, maybe? Are these things that you've seen?

Christopher: Ceiling tiles and carpeting are probably the two worst things that could go to landfill because they really don't break down over time. But partnering with the right manufacturers early is a good thing. The design team needs to select these manufacturers and their products in their product selection lists on the drawings. It's important to partner with them early so that we can continue that recycling effort with them because a lot of the manufacturers will take back the old carpeting. It's a little bit more labor intensive, that's where the premium costs come rather than just throwing them in the dumpster, you're stockpiling things and saving them to be picked up later. But again, it makes a big impact on the environment.

Richie: How does involving pre-construction practices and estimating practices really have an effect and help ensure that sustainability gets prioritized throughout the project?

Christopher: The key is to have a champion in the process, and we really hit upon that in our moderator event. That was probably one of the big focal points there. Having the pre-construction person or even someone from the design side who is taking the lead and just being that champion of the whole process is huge. It's helpful to have a document that clearly defines the sustainable goals for that project. And then we're all bound to make sure that they stay in the project. There's always that value engineering work where we're trying to reduce cost because budgets change. It's helpful to tag those specific sustainable items as untouchable. Certain equipment and those sustainable options are just not on the docket for discussion. 

Richie: Making it an untouchable item, making sure that it's at the heart of what we're doing is really powerful. Because these buildings are going to be standing for a long time, hopefully.

Christopher: Another key example with the precon process is having a pure consultant involved with the review of the exterior of the building. Because a lot of these new sustainable products are new. All those details don't always typically jive with what we're doing on-site or aren't necessarily how the trades are used to installing certain pieces of equipment. Take windows, for example. There are new innovative ways of installing the windows and the details on how everything comes together. And there are trades out there that have installed windows for 30 years, and they're doing it the way that they know. So those are some of the challenges that we face in the field. Once we move from the precon process onto construction, it's about educating all the tradespeople on the new ways things are being installed and having that peer review involved or a commissioning agent be involved. Seeing maybe an off-building mock-up get put in place so that everybody learns the new way that it's going to be done. Also educating our superintendents and our field engineers to make sure that they're able to verify a lot of those things. That's really key, having that commissioning agent involved.

Richie: I think having that learning growth mindset is something that applies to every facet of this industry, so I can see totally see how it specifically relates to sustainability.

Christopher: And for the owner's side too, or a lot of our facilities folks. The old mentality was to make the adjustments so they don't get a phone call. Nowadays, we want the facilities engineers at these initial meetings as part of the whole build process. There's a lot more technology that's involved. Those one-hour training sessions that are typically written in the specification are kind of out the window. We need to educate and do a better job of leaving the job so that the building is actually operating the way it was designed. Having somebody involved in the process, maybe even a five-year contract of being able to review the data that's coming in and making sure that it's running the way it was designed to run.

Richie: Those are the questions I had for you. Is there anything else you want to share?

Christopher: No, just thank you for having me and being a part of this discussion.