White Paper Shaping the Future of Construction

The document outlines a series of proposals to modernize the construction sector, which has seen stagnating productivity for 50 years. It advocates for a shift from traditional, adversarial procurement to collaborative models like project alliancing and integrated project delivery. Key technical recommendations include the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) integrated with Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), the use of nature-based solutions for disaster resilience, and the implementation of 'urban mining' to replace cement with recycled glass. The report also emphasizes the need for a 'Grand Challenge' to reduce life-cycle costs by 50% and proposes new financial tools, such as the Sustainable Asset Value (SAVi) model, to make sustainable infrastructure more bankable for private investors.

• The construction industry has experienced stagnating or decreasing labour productivity over the last 50 years due to fragmentation, poor collaboration, and slow technology adoption.
• Project alliancing, a multi-party contract method where parties assume joint responsibility and risk, can significantly improve outcomes for complex projects. In Finland, the Tampere lakeshore road tunnel project achieved nearly 10% cost savings during its joint development phase.
• Successful megaprojects typically share three characteristics: a clear vision, total alignment of stakeholders, and the ability to adapt to complexity.
• The International Infrastructure Support System (IISS) provides a global software platform to help governments in developing nations prepare 'shovel-ready' projects to attract international investors and lenders.
• To improve capital efficiency and affordability, the industry should adopt an expanded basis of design (BODX) that integrates construction (CBOD) and operations and maintenance (O&MBOD) requirements from the start of the design process.
• The 'urban mining' of recycled glass—specifically container, plate, and E-glass—can provide a sustainable supplementary cementitious material (SCM) for concrete, reducing the carbon intensity of cement production.
• Embodied energy—the carbon emissions from building products and materials—accounts for roughly 30% of a building's lifetime carbon emissions, yet it is often omitted from design-phase energy models.
• In India, the cooling capacity is projected to rise five-fold to 610 million-TR by 2030, necessitating a shift toward sustainable cooling design and natural refrigerant-based air conditioners to reduce GHG emissions.
• Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), such as mangrove forest restoration, can reduce wave energy by 50% and provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional grey infrastructure for disaster resilience.
• The use of 'Human Cities' initiatives, such as the Let's Colour programme in Favela Santa Marta, Brazil, demonstrates that bottom-up urban interventions using colour and education can improve residents' self-esteem and community optimism.
• The Hyperloop vision proposes a transportation system with speeds up to 1,200 km/h, which could theoretically expand the sustainable urban planning radius to 500-600 km.

APA

World Economic Forum (2017). White Paper Shaping the Future of Construction. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Shaping_Future_Construction.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. White Paper Shaping the Future of Construction. 2017. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Shaping_Future_Construction.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=White Paper Shaping the Future of Construction |date=March 2017 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Shaping_Future_Construction.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2017white, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{White Paper Shaping the Future of Construction}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2017}, month = mar, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Shaping_Future_Construction.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }