Materials Innovation Leads to More Sustainable Products

Manmade materials positively impact our world in countless ways. They also determine, to some degree, the sustainability of a given product. Whether or not a material is toxic, is extracted from the earth (as opposed to grown), is energy intensive to produce or, perhaps most important of all, how well it performs its function all determine the type of impact it has on the world.

Spotlight

Kier Group

Kier Group is a leading property, residential, construction and services group which invests in, builds, maintains and renews the places where we work, live and play. We operate across a range of sectors including defence, education, housing, industrials, power, transport and utilities.

OTHER ARTICLES
Engineering Tech

Infrastructure Policy Watch: cost of climate change to UK finances, public views on New Zealand infrastructure

Article | August 24, 2021

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in its latest Fiscal Risks Report has forecast the cost to the UK public finances from climate change (physical risks) and the transition to net-zero (transition risks) across a range of different scenarios. Describing the challenge, the OBR states: There are many other policy challenges to overcome, so the path to net zero can be expected to involve many policy levers on top of carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes, including bans and other regulations, and public subsidies and investment. These will all have economic and fiscal implications of one sort or another – either directly (via taxes and spending) or indirectly (via wider economic outcomes). Taking early action to achieve net zero would add 21% of GDP to public sector net debt by 2050, a smaller amount than that added by the Covid-19 pandemic. This amount comes from increased spending on net-zero investment, the loss of tax revenues (such as fuel duty), revenues from tax on carbon and other costs such as increased debt interest payments.

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Market, Engineering Tech

Futuristic learning modules that need to be part of engineering education

Article | July 11, 2022

Engineering technology is evolving at a rapid pace across the world. Companies are depending on newer technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, and automation. The new-age curriculum has transformed the way engineering education is delivered in the classroom. Here are futuristic modules that engineering education needs to include in the curriculum. The manufacturing facilities available today have formed a fully integrated production system powered by digital technologies.

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Robotics and Automation

Where we are now: reflecting on 5 years of State of the Nation

Article | July 13, 2022

The UK has undergone five years of unprecedented change while facing up to long-term challenges, such as reducing regional inequalities and mitigating the impact of climate change. Over that period, ICE’s annual State of the Nation reports have set out a range of policy interventions aimed at ensuring the UK has the high-performing infrastructure needed to meet those challenges. Each report has focused on major cross-cutting infrastructure issues, including devolution and reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

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Engineering Tech

Infrastructure Policy Watch: measuring India's progress on SDGs, Canada consults on infrastructure priorities

Article | June 15, 2021

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), an Indian government policy commission, has published its SDG India Index and Dashboard 2020-21 report on progress against the UN Sustainable Development Goals at the state level in India, its third annual report. The main theme of this year’s report is ‘partnerships’, with NITI aiming to highlight the pace that can be achieved by working together in pursuit of the goals, as well as shine a light on the quiet but effective partnerships working away in the background. As part of this, the report sets out actions that have been taken across the 11 areas of the collaborative advantage framework to drive forward progress on SDG indicators. In the accompanying index, all Indian states and union territories are scored and ranked on each SDG, alongside progress over the year.

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Spotlight

Kier Group

Kier Group is a leading property, residential, construction and services group which invests in, builds, maintains and renews the places where we work, live and play. We operate across a range of sectors including defence, education, housing, industrials, power, transport and utilities.

Related News

Materials, Construction

Construction Procurement Platform Kojo Expands into Mechanical

PRnewswire | June 07, 2023

Kojo, the construction industry's leading materials and inventory management platform, today announced it has expanded to serve mechanical contractors. "At Kojo, our mission has always been to simplify processes for our customers so that they can have more time back to do what's really important – build," said Maria Davidson, Kojo's founder and CEO. "Our mechanical Beta launch has been our most successful to date. We're thrilled that our mechanical customers are already seeing so much value with Kojo and we're excited to continue to onboard many more all over the country." Since the offering launched in Beta, mechanical contractors have sent over 6,000 field requests to the office and created 17,000 purchase orders worth $50 million in Kojo. "By our calculation that's almost 6,000 times the field and office didn't have to call and email back and forth to figure out what was being ordered," Davidson added. Alex Eldridge at Tharco, a leading mechanical contractor in Maryland, said, "Kojo has been really smart in the way they've customized this build for mechanical contractors. For example, there are many nicknames for parts out there and this can create confusion for communication between the field and office. Kojo has a preset catalog field users can order from that even supports slang terms for easy field-to-office part name translation. It's details like this that convinced us Kojo was for us." The mechanical contracting market in the U.S. is huge and rapidly growing. More than $123 billion of mechanical work is done in the U.S. annually. The sector employs nearly 400,000 workers and that number is expected to grow by 5% through 2031. Kojo's expansion into mechanical follows the launch of its Automated Invoice Matching product, which streamlines the accounting process for commercial trade contractors. This builds on Kojo's purchase order and delivery functionality, making Kojo a true all-in-one platform that allows customers to manage the full end-to-end materials procurement process. Automated Invoice Matching launched in Q2 of 2023 and to date has processed $9.2 million in invoices, catching mistakes on 27% of invoices processed. Kojo announced their Series C in September of 2022. Kojo has now powered more than 10,000 construction projects across 47 states, saving customers 75% of the manual entry they previously had to do and reducing materials waste on jobsites by up to 90%. About Kojo Kojo is the construction industry's leading materials and inventory management platform. Kojo enables trade and self-perform general contractors to streamline every step in the procurement and inventory management process from takeoff to closeout. By connecting field, office, warehouse, accounting, and vendors teams on one software platform, Kojo gives contractors visibility into real-time materials spending and usage, helps them source the best prices and availability across vendors, reduces material waste, and increases labor productivity. To learn more, visit www.usekojo.com.

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Products, Mechanical and Motion Systems, Engineering Tech

Global Engineering Company JGC Holdings Selects Boomi To Modernize Its Business Systems

Businesswire | May 31, 2023

Boomi™, the intelligent connectivity and automation leader, today announced that JGC Holdings Corporation (“JGC”), a global engineering company, has selected the Boomi platform to modernize its IT infrastructure and support the company’s digital transformation goals. Based in Yokohama, Japan, JGC operates businesses across numerous regions worldwide, requiring a hub-and-spoke IT architecture to seamlessly connect its various applications and platforms. Given the complexity of developing a new system, JGC took a phased approach to combine its software as a service (SaaS) platforms, such as Coupa and ServiceNow. The scale of the project, which required connecting numerous interfaces, systems, and platforms, resulted in escalated costs. JGC approached Nomura Research Institute (NRI) to recommend a reputable vendor with a strong track record and experience in connecting multiple platforms and simplifying complex projects. “Boomi was among four vendors in the selection process and has vast experience in solving customers’ challenges across their digital transformation journey,” said Mr. Atsuo Honiden, Group Manager, Procurement DX Group, Digital Project Delivery Department, JGC. “Boomi was the best fit, both in terms of technology and cost effectiveness. In addition, Boomi’s solution matched our vision to gradually integrate a number of systems to achieve a hub-and-spoke architecture.” “Boomi has a proven track record in global deployments and provided a cost-effective solution for JGC Corporation’s procurement project,” said Mr. Akira Matsumoto, Senior Corporate Managing Director, Division Manager, DX Platform Division, Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. “Boomi's various connectors have enabled us to efficiently implement a hub-and-spoke architecture, connecting multiple systems in phases.” “Boomi is the largest cloud-native independent integration company in the world with the largest customer base among integration platform vendors. We connect everyone to everything, and pride ourselves on connecting more than 200,000 unique endpoints, helping our customers, like JGC, to innovate their business quickly and efficiently,” said Kazunori Hori, Director, Japan at Boomi. Boomi touts a growing community of more than 100,000 members and one of the largest arrays of global systems integrators (GSIs) in the iPaaS space. The company boasts a worldwide network of approximately 800 partners, including Accenture, Deloitte, SAP, and Snowflake; and works with the largest hyperscaler cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft, among others. Included on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ and Inc. 5000 lists as one of America’s fastest growing technology companies, Boomi has won three International Stevie® Awards, for Company of the Year (two years in a row) and Product Innovation; the Gold Globee® Award in the Platform as a Service (PaaS) category; the Merit Award for Technology in the Cloud Services category; the Stratus Award as a Global Leader in Cloud Computing 2022, and received the prestigious 5-star rating in the CRN Partner Program Guide for two consecutive years. About Boomi Boomi aims to make the world a better place by connecting everyone to everything, anywhere. The pioneer of cloud-based integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and now a category-leading, global software as a service (SaaS) company, Boomi touts the largest customer base among integration platform vendors and a worldwide network of approximately 800 partners – including Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, SAP, and Snowflake. Global organizations turn to Boomi’s award-winning platform to discover, manage, and orchestrate data, while connecting applications, processes, and people for better, faster outcomes. For more information, visit http://www.boomi.com.

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Products,Mechanical and Motion Systems,Construction

Komatsu announces plans to acquire German-based manufacturer GHH Group GmbH

Komatsu | December 21, 2022

Komatsu today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire GHH Group GmbH (GHH), a manufacturer of underground mining, tunnelling and special civil engineering equipment headquartered in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Founded in the 1960s and currently part of the German-owned Schmidt Kranz Group, GHH offers a wide range of equipment focused on loaders (LHDs) and articulated dump trucks in the mid-seam mass mining, narrow vein and low-profile market segments The company also supports customers with aftermarket parts and service support through the entire life of each machine. With this acquisition, Komatsu will add GHH’s factories and rebuild facilities in key markets, in addition to its robust product offerings and talented staff. “We are very excited about this acquisition as it represents a great opportunity for Komatsu to expand its offerings for underground mining equipment and accelerate new product development through synergies with Komatsu’s existing team and product offerings, By adding GHH’s factories and rebuild facilities in key markets in Europe, South Africa, India and Chile, we also aim to strengthen production and service capabilities for our customers.” Peter Salditt, president and CEO, Komatsu Mining Corp Komatsu intends to continue the excellent service GHH provides and plans to support business as usual post-acquisition. The combined team will then work together to expand Komatsu’s offering for underground mining equipment and increase customer access to products in new territories. “GHH is excited to be able to start a new journey with a strong player in the mining world. This opens huge doors for our people and our products to develop further and grow beyond what we could have hoped for, This is the next logical step in becoming a true global player and we look forward to becoming part of the Komatsu family.” Dr. Jan Petzold, CEO GHH Group Per the company’s ongoing mid-term management plan “DANTOTSU Value - Together, to ‘The Next’ for sustainable growth,” Komatsu is working to expand offerings for underground hard rock mining, creating new value for customers with the development of new equipment, processes and technologies that will help operations step forward to the next stage for the workplace of the future and provide a more sustainable environment for the next generation. About Komatsu Komatsu develops and supplies technologies, equipment and services for the construction, mining, forklift, industrial and forestry markets. For a century, the company has been creating value for its customers through manufacturing and technology innovation, partnering with others to empower a sustainable future where people, business and the planet thrive together. Front-line industries worldwide use Komatsu solutions to develop modern infrastructure, extract fundamental minerals, maintain forests and create consumer products. The company's global service and distributor networks support customer operations to enhance safety and productivity while optimizing performance.

Read More

Materials, Construction

Construction Procurement Platform Kojo Expands into Mechanical

PRnewswire | June 07, 2023

Kojo, the construction industry's leading materials and inventory management platform, today announced it has expanded to serve mechanical contractors. "At Kojo, our mission has always been to simplify processes for our customers so that they can have more time back to do what's really important – build," said Maria Davidson, Kojo's founder and CEO. "Our mechanical Beta launch has been our most successful to date. We're thrilled that our mechanical customers are already seeing so much value with Kojo and we're excited to continue to onboard many more all over the country." Since the offering launched in Beta, mechanical contractors have sent over 6,000 field requests to the office and created 17,000 purchase orders worth $50 million in Kojo. "By our calculation that's almost 6,000 times the field and office didn't have to call and email back and forth to figure out what was being ordered," Davidson added. Alex Eldridge at Tharco, a leading mechanical contractor in Maryland, said, "Kojo has been really smart in the way they've customized this build for mechanical contractors. For example, there are many nicknames for parts out there and this can create confusion for communication between the field and office. Kojo has a preset catalog field users can order from that even supports slang terms for easy field-to-office part name translation. It's details like this that convinced us Kojo was for us." The mechanical contracting market in the U.S. is huge and rapidly growing. More than $123 billion of mechanical work is done in the U.S. annually. The sector employs nearly 400,000 workers and that number is expected to grow by 5% through 2031. Kojo's expansion into mechanical follows the launch of its Automated Invoice Matching product, which streamlines the accounting process for commercial trade contractors. This builds on Kojo's purchase order and delivery functionality, making Kojo a true all-in-one platform that allows customers to manage the full end-to-end materials procurement process. Automated Invoice Matching launched in Q2 of 2023 and to date has processed $9.2 million in invoices, catching mistakes on 27% of invoices processed. Kojo announced their Series C in September of 2022. Kojo has now powered more than 10,000 construction projects across 47 states, saving customers 75% of the manual entry they previously had to do and reducing materials waste on jobsites by up to 90%. About Kojo Kojo is the construction industry's leading materials and inventory management platform. Kojo enables trade and self-perform general contractors to streamline every step in the procurement and inventory management process from takeoff to closeout. By connecting field, office, warehouse, accounting, and vendors teams on one software platform, Kojo gives contractors visibility into real-time materials spending and usage, helps them source the best prices and availability across vendors, reduces material waste, and increases labor productivity. To learn more, visit www.usekojo.com.

Read More

Products, Mechanical and Motion Systems, Engineering Tech

Global Engineering Company JGC Holdings Selects Boomi To Modernize Its Business Systems

Businesswire | May 31, 2023

Boomi™, the intelligent connectivity and automation leader, today announced that JGC Holdings Corporation (“JGC”), a global engineering company, has selected the Boomi platform to modernize its IT infrastructure and support the company’s digital transformation goals. Based in Yokohama, Japan, JGC operates businesses across numerous regions worldwide, requiring a hub-and-spoke IT architecture to seamlessly connect its various applications and platforms. Given the complexity of developing a new system, JGC took a phased approach to combine its software as a service (SaaS) platforms, such as Coupa and ServiceNow. The scale of the project, which required connecting numerous interfaces, systems, and platforms, resulted in escalated costs. JGC approached Nomura Research Institute (NRI) to recommend a reputable vendor with a strong track record and experience in connecting multiple platforms and simplifying complex projects. “Boomi was among four vendors in the selection process and has vast experience in solving customers’ challenges across their digital transformation journey,” said Mr. Atsuo Honiden, Group Manager, Procurement DX Group, Digital Project Delivery Department, JGC. “Boomi was the best fit, both in terms of technology and cost effectiveness. In addition, Boomi’s solution matched our vision to gradually integrate a number of systems to achieve a hub-and-spoke architecture.” “Boomi has a proven track record in global deployments and provided a cost-effective solution for JGC Corporation’s procurement project,” said Mr. Akira Matsumoto, Senior Corporate Managing Director, Division Manager, DX Platform Division, Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. “Boomi's various connectors have enabled us to efficiently implement a hub-and-spoke architecture, connecting multiple systems in phases.” “Boomi is the largest cloud-native independent integration company in the world with the largest customer base among integration platform vendors. We connect everyone to everything, and pride ourselves on connecting more than 200,000 unique endpoints, helping our customers, like JGC, to innovate their business quickly and efficiently,” said Kazunori Hori, Director, Japan at Boomi. Boomi touts a growing community of more than 100,000 members and one of the largest arrays of global systems integrators (GSIs) in the iPaaS space. The company boasts a worldwide network of approximately 800 partners, including Accenture, Deloitte, SAP, and Snowflake; and works with the largest hyperscaler cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft, among others. Included on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ and Inc. 5000 lists as one of America’s fastest growing technology companies, Boomi has won three International Stevie® Awards, for Company of the Year (two years in a row) and Product Innovation; the Gold Globee® Award in the Platform as a Service (PaaS) category; the Merit Award for Technology in the Cloud Services category; the Stratus Award as a Global Leader in Cloud Computing 2022, and received the prestigious 5-star rating in the CRN Partner Program Guide for two consecutive years. About Boomi Boomi aims to make the world a better place by connecting everyone to everything, anywhere. The pioneer of cloud-based integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and now a category-leading, global software as a service (SaaS) company, Boomi touts the largest customer base among integration platform vendors and a worldwide network of approximately 800 partners – including Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, SAP, and Snowflake. Global organizations turn to Boomi’s award-winning platform to discover, manage, and orchestrate data, while connecting applications, processes, and people for better, faster outcomes. For more information, visit http://www.boomi.com.

Read More

Products,Mechanical and Motion Systems,Construction

Komatsu announces plans to acquire German-based manufacturer GHH Group GmbH

Komatsu | December 21, 2022

Komatsu today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire GHH Group GmbH (GHH), a manufacturer of underground mining, tunnelling and special civil engineering equipment headquartered in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Founded in the 1960s and currently part of the German-owned Schmidt Kranz Group, GHH offers a wide range of equipment focused on loaders (LHDs) and articulated dump trucks in the mid-seam mass mining, narrow vein and low-profile market segments The company also supports customers with aftermarket parts and service support through the entire life of each machine. With this acquisition, Komatsu will add GHH’s factories and rebuild facilities in key markets, in addition to its robust product offerings and talented staff. “We are very excited about this acquisition as it represents a great opportunity for Komatsu to expand its offerings for underground mining equipment and accelerate new product development through synergies with Komatsu’s existing team and product offerings, By adding GHH’s factories and rebuild facilities in key markets in Europe, South Africa, India and Chile, we also aim to strengthen production and service capabilities for our customers.” Peter Salditt, president and CEO, Komatsu Mining Corp Komatsu intends to continue the excellent service GHH provides and plans to support business as usual post-acquisition. The combined team will then work together to expand Komatsu’s offering for underground mining equipment and increase customer access to products in new territories. “GHH is excited to be able to start a new journey with a strong player in the mining world. This opens huge doors for our people and our products to develop further and grow beyond what we could have hoped for, This is the next logical step in becoming a true global player and we look forward to becoming part of the Komatsu family.” Dr. Jan Petzold, CEO GHH Group Per the company’s ongoing mid-term management plan “DANTOTSU Value - Together, to ‘The Next’ for sustainable growth,” Komatsu is working to expand offerings for underground hard rock mining, creating new value for customers with the development of new equipment, processes and technologies that will help operations step forward to the next stage for the workplace of the future and provide a more sustainable environment for the next generation. About Komatsu Komatsu develops and supplies technologies, equipment and services for the construction, mining, forklift, industrial and forestry markets. For a century, the company has been creating value for its customers through manufacturing and technology innovation, partnering with others to empower a sustainable future where people, business and the planet thrive together. Front-line industries worldwide use Komatsu solutions to develop modern infrastructure, extract fundamental minerals, maintain forests and create consumer products. The company's global service and distributor networks support customer operations to enhance safety and productivity while optimizing performance.

Read More

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