ERA attends construction conference

The European Rental Association (ERA) took part the Construction Conference “Let’s build changes” on 6 July, which was organised by the European Commission.

The construction industry provides 18 million direct jobs and contributes to about 9% of the EU’s GDP. It also creates new jobs, drives economic growth and provides solutions for social, climate and energy challenges.

The goal of the European Commission is to help the sector become more competitive, resource efficient and sustainable.

Like other industries, construction is continuously changing. It is important to keep on top of the latest challenges and potential solutions to ensure the industry’s value chain can meet the demands of the future.

The conference brought together industry leaders, finance professionals and investors, policy makers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups.

Out of the four key areas identified for the break-out sessions, ERA identified two priorities:

Sustainability - resource efficiency and beyond: during the panel discussion, there was agreement on the need for policy intervention on sustainability in construction, including legislation, standards and best practices, the importance of green and innovative public procurement at all levels and the need for sustainable buildings to go beyond niche markets and become mainstream, including in the residential market.

Innovation and digitalisation and their impacts on business models: this session highlighted that ground-breaking changes are taking place right now and that the industry must embrace them, or face significant disruption as has recently happened in the automotive sector. To speed-up digitalisation and the uptake of Building Information Modelling (BIM), governments and local authorities were called upon to be ambitious in their requirements and procurement specifications.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact the ERA Secretariat, at era@erarental.org