Western Sydney University has launched a new centre focused on helping the construction industry deliver smarter, lower-carbon buildings.
Based at the university’s Kingswood campus, the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre in Digital Platforms for Net-Zero Building Ecosystem Lifecycle (ARC ITTC NØBEL) will assemble researchers, industry, peak bodies, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups to collectively address the issue.
The centre will develop digital tools to support advanced manufacturing technologies and sustainable construction to enable mass production of high-performance buildings and support net-zero project delivery.
Its work will span the building life cycle across five themes – industrialisation, resilience, decarbonisation, digitalisation and integration – to improve productivity, reduce carbon emissions and support the adoption of new construction technologies.
It will build on existing research breakthroughs such as CO2 Concrete, a technology that permanently stores carbon dioxide in recycled construction materials, transforming construction waste into high-performance, low-carbon concrete.
The centre will also facilitate collaboration between PhD candidates and higher degree researchers with industry partners on real-world challenges in low-carbon construction, digital building technologies and advanced manufacturing.
“Our vision is to build an ecosystem where net-zero project delivery, platform-based methodologies and sustainable materials become standard practice in construction,” director of ARC ITTC NØBEL, Distinguished Professor Vivian Tam, says.
“By bringing together researchers and industry, we can accelerate the adoption of practical net-zero solutions that improve productivity, reduce emissions and strengthen Australia’s construction sector.”
The centre’s work will be even more significant following the Government’s announcement a few months ago that it had set a national target to reduce emissions by 62 to 70 percent below 2005 levels by 2035 – and the built environment is a major focus area for emissions reduction.
The built environment accounts for around 31 percent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, the construction sector employs more than 1.3 million Australians and the nation generates approximately 26.8 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste each year.
Low-emission building technologies that researchers from this centre will work on are expected to offer significant economic opportunities and a comparative advantage in low-emission materials.
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