I was the invited speaker at the International Sustainable Buildings Symposium in Dallas, Texas, USA. The following is my speech content.
INTRODUCTION
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 4th International Sustainable Buildings Symposium. I want to thank the organizers for making the extra effort to arrange for my virtual attendance to share my thoughts with everyone. Even though we have become used to living in a connected world, it still amazes me that I can virtually participate in a conference from Istanbul, Turkey. I want to thank JFORCE Information Technologies, Turkey's leading IBM partner and research organization on AI, Industry 4.0, and its components, for opening its facilities to me so I can deliver my speech in a technologically advanced and comfortable environment.
I hope this conference inspires us all and spawns new ideas to enable us to live in a better world.
My speech is entitled "Industry 4.0 could revolutionize Sustainable Buildings." I have been studying Industry 4.0 for a long time, and my focus areas are primarily its effects on individuals, organizations, and communities. Toward those ends, I have participated in seminars as a speaker and offered awareness talks at universities and schools, primarily targeting youth.
My speech is divided into three sections: (1) the meaning of sustainability and the circular economy, (2) what Industry 4.0 means and what its components are, and (3) an attempt at a holistic approach to the dynamic sustainability model in Industry 4.0.
SUSTAINABILITY
An integrated approach toward sustainability requires rationally realizing the potential of its principle dimensions — environmental, social, and financial — and managing the conflicts, trade-offs, and harmony among the dimensions. This also reminds us that "sustainability" refers to a state, while "sustainable development" refers to the process of achieving this state.
The notion of sustainability first emerged in The Ecologist magazine with the headline "A Blueprint for Survival" in January 1972, a special issue outlining the need for an earnest economic and environmental overhaul to help address our endangered natural habitat.
The Ecologist's initiative inspired efforts by the UN: sustainability was a hot topic at the Stockholm Conference in 1972. Hence, in 1987, the Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as "development which meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
"Circular economy" and "linear economy" are two different economic terms. In a linear economy, the product life cycle stages are raw material, production, consumption, and disposal. Once a product has come to the end of its life, it becomes waste and is thrown away.
However, in a circular economic model, manufactured products exist in a circular loop; here, the recycle-reuse-reduce approach aims to reduce the environmental impact of production methods. Sustainable development is one of the fundamental pillars of the circular economic model.
INDUSTRY 4.0
At one point, elevators without operators were the self-driving cars of the era. People hated them and were afraid to ride alone in an elevator. Today, self-driving vehicles are imminent. Do you think people will be comfortable riding in one of these cars? Would you consider putting your child in a car without a driver?
As seen with self-driving cars, the fourth industrial revolution is taking digitization to a new level by introducing smart factories that operate independently or cooperate with the Internet of People, or IoP, in creating customer-oriented production. As a result, manufacturers can communicate with machines rather than operate them.
ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS and SOCIAL NETWORK CONCEPT OF OBJECTS
Digitization has blurred the boundaries between virtual reality and the real world by creating a social network of objects through the Internet of Things, IoT, and People, or IoP. The entire system is called a cyber-physical production system, or CPPS. These factors help industries integrate the real world with a virtual one and enable autonomous machines to collect and analyze live data and make decisions based on that data. As such, the essential components of Industry 4.0 are as follows:
Cyber-physical systems, or CPS
A CPS is a system in which physical objects and software (or AI) are combined; it connects physical systems with a cyber layer in a cloud-based system, helps exchange data, triggers actions, and facilitates interdependent connectivity among humans, machines, and products.
The Internet of Things, or IoT
The IoT can be envisioned as a connector that builds a network where a CPS communicates and cooperates through a unique addressing schema. It enables objects and machines to communicate, exchange data, and monitor environmental changes. Integrating such technology allows things to work autonomously and solve problems in real-time.
The Internet of Services, or IoS
The IoS aims to create an envelope around the complex network of objects that simplifies all connected devices and makes the most out of them by facilitating the manufacturing processes. The IoS is the customer's gateway to the manufacturer, and it pressures manufacturers and suppliers to rethink their business models to include holistic product design and life cycle management. In this way, they can discover that these services support a long-term revenue stream once they become service-oriented product manufacturers.
The digital twin concepts
A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical system that simultaneously exists as a separate entity. Fundamentally, it is an evolving digital profile of physical objects' historical and current behavior or manufacturing processes that help optimize business performance. Indeed, the real power of a digital twin is that it can provide a nearly real-time linkage between the physical and digital worlds.
Big data
Another essential aspect of a manufacturing system is handling massive amounts of data. Data is collected, and extensive analytics methods are applied to transform it into useful information. Accordingly, the action supports an adaptive and continuously self-optimizing industrial production process.
Smart factories and the integrity of the system work
Smart factories deal with the physical and virtual worlds, including a digital twin, additive and 3D manufacturing, and autonomous robots. Thus, CPS, IoT, IoP, big data, and all other parts in a smart factory work harmoniously and communicate with and assist people and machines in executing their tasks.
An intelligent factory can collect and exchange data in real time to identify, locate, monitor, feed, and optimize processes and production.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
Additive manufacturing, or AM and 3D printing
Among the other technologies of Industry 4.0, additive manufacturing or AM and 3D printing offer new opportunities in buildings, building components, and supply chains and minimize requirements for carrying extensive inventories.
Contour crafting
Contour crafting is another promising 3D printing technique that could soon revolutionize the construction industry. Its advantages include cost reduction, reduced time to completion, minimizing environmental effects, and a positive influence on health and safety issues on construction sites.
AN ATTEMPT AT A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY IN INDUSTRY 4.0
Designing and developing sustainable buildings has become a significant challenge that faces industry players today due to increasing complexities on the readiness for adopting construction 4.0 concepts. Construction 4.0 involves embracing the technologies, ideas, and principles of Industry 4.0 and a move towards greater digitization. Accordingly, the notion of sustainable building in construction 4.0 requires holistic thinking in terms of (1) the characteristics and design principles of Industry 4.0, (2) the triple bottom line, or TBL, and (3) global trends. Now, let's talk about all three of these.
THE CHARACTERISTICS AND DESIGN PRINCIPLES of INDUSTRY 4.0
Technological advances in scale, scope, and complexity characterize Industry 4.0. It also relies on design principles. Grasping both allows manufacturers to investigate the potential adoption of the Industry 4.0 concept. The following are the design principles of Industry 4.0 to be considered from a sustainability perspective:
Interoperability
Interoperability is defined as objects, machines, and people communicating through the Internet of Things, the Internet of People, and machine-to-machine technologies to connect flexibly.
Virtualization
Digital twins can simulate and create a virtual copy of the real world and monitor objects in the surrounding environment.
Decentralization
Each cyber-physical system can work independently to provide a flexible production environment for customized products, problem-solving, and handling failures or conflicting goals.
Real-Time Capability
According to new findings, a smart factory needs to collect, store, and analyze data and make real-time decisions.
Service Orientation
Service orientation involves using the Internet of Services to efficiently connect to the Internet of People and smart objects or devices and supplying products and services based on the customer's specifications.
Modularity
A smart factory can adapt to a new market quickly and smoothly in a dynamic market and according to seasonal changes and market trends.
THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE, or TBL
The TBL uses the power of the three dimensions of the social, environmental, and economic perspective to measure Industry 4.0's health and quality impact.
Figure 1: the dimensions of the triple bottom line (TBL) — ecological, social, and economic
The environmental dimension of the TBL concerns the consumption of natural resources and emissions released without causing adverse environmental impacts. Furthermore, it aims to adopt the circular economy concept.
The social dimension of the TBL refers to social sustainability, which encompasses reduced human factors in production, job satisfaction, quality of life, social integration, solidarity, equity, and justice in the distribution of wealth and providing equal educational opportunities.
Lastly, the economic dimension of the TBL refers to the sustainability of organizations through their economic and financial performance.
GLOBAL TRENDS
Here are the consumer trends — demand-side trends — that are creating demand for new forms of housing, and the construction industry trends — supply-side trends — that influence how organizations are structured and operated in terms of what they can offer.
DEMAND-SIDE TRENDS
On the demand side, the following consumer trends influence how the future human habitats will be defined.
Urbanization
Urban populations and the need for compact living quarters are increasing. According to the UN, by 2030, the number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents will jump from 3.1 billion to 3.8 billion, or a rise of 22%.
Demographic Changes
The world's population is aging, causing an increasing interest in living spaces that are either smaller or larger than they typically are today.
Affordability
The increasing costs of living and rent continue to outstrip wages, which, along with other factors, impacts the need for affordable housing worldwide.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation evolves, which drives an increase in the number of digital elements in everyday life; the economy is becoming digitalized, thus influencing peoples' vision of what a house means to them. Such trends include the increasing interest in remote work, home offices, smart homes, and shared living, among other things.
Connectivity
We are living in a connected world. It's about connecting objects, appliances, and instruments over the Internet, letting them talk to us, applications, and each other.
SUPPLY-SIDE TRENDS
Industry trends on the supply side also affect what types of homes are built and how they are constructed.
Construction 4.0 and Digital Transformation
A newly adopted Construction 4.0 concept is gaining popularity. Construction 4.0 involves embracing the technologies, ideas, and principles of Industry 4.0 in the engineering and construction sectors and the industry's move towards greater digitization.
Building Technology
Current technologies are incorporating elements that help the industry create intelligent, AI-based, and agile systems to make buildings "smart" and energy-efficient.
Construction Technology
The industry is beginning to integrate such innovations as robotics, on-site drones, and building information modeling into routine construction practices.
Construction Methods
More residential home builders are using prefabrication and on-site assembly or manufacturing (printed with 3D printers) at the time of actual demand to improve productivity, eliminate the need for carrying extensive inventories, and decrease costs.
Connectivity
Gartner forecasts that 20.8 billion connected things will be used worldwide by 2020. The new sustainable building business models in a connected world and new technologies, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive technologies, interconnected networks, and the Internet of Services, can improve the user experience and support a long-term revenue stream for manufacturers.
Cybersecurity
Jeremy Bentham's panopticon legacy may emerge as a model once more, as the French philosopher Michel Foucault revived its interest with his book Discipline and Punish. The growing interconnectivity among objects in our homes, offices, cars, cities, and factories substantially changes the meaning of digital surveillance and increases the demand for cybersecurity measures.
IN CLOSING
Industry 4.0, with its extensive digitization and all other technological advances, requires a system-thinking approach. As Charlie Gere explains in his book Digital Culture, "system thinking refers to a holistic approach to analysis, and anything could be analyzed as a component within a more powerful system as manifested in Cybernetics-influenced techniques and theories of systems analysis. Such techniques could be applied equally to machinery, industrial organization, business planning, urban planning, military strategy, and the government."
The supporters of new sustainable building business models of the future must harness the promising synergies of Industry 4.0 through a system thinking approach. The very concept of system thinking will lead all attempts to transition to a greener economy with the significant opportunities and innovation it promises.
Even so, we have much to lose if we are not more careful about the technologies we are crafting right now. As Harari suggests, we should not merely invest in artificial intelligence and technologies alone; we must also dedicate our attention equally to understanding and nurturing the unique qualities that make us human: we are also creative, compassionate, and spiritual beings seeking to define the spaces in which we will live in the future.
Thank you.
Turgut A.
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