Automated Collection of Carbon Emission Data

Buildings and construction accounts for 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Firms in the construction industry, including Obayashi, are increasingly committed to work towards carbon neutrality. As part of Obayashi Sustainability Vision 2050, measures introduced to reduce carbon emissions include:

• Reducing the fuel used by promoting new technologies and labour-saving construction; and
• Developing and practically using energy-saving construction methods and low-fuel consumption and electric construction machinery.

In order to determine the effectiveness of such measures, it is important for Obayashi to first track the current carbon emissions of their sites. Currently, there are no established practices of collecting site-level data related to carbon emissions. If Obayashi were to implement new practices that involve manual data collection, it would be too time-consuming and also produce data that is unreliable due to human factors.

Obayashi wants to reduce both direct and indirect carbon emissions. Indirect carbon emissions are contributed by other companies operating on their sites, such as subcontractors and suppliers

We are interested in solutions that can automatically collect site-level data related to carbon emissions. The data of interest include:

• Carbon emissions produced by logistics vehicles, for example, dump trucks and lorries. This can be estimated by determining the number of vehicles operating onsite and their fuel consumption. 
• Carbon emissions produced by construction machines, for example, tower cranes and excavators. This can be estimated by determining the number of machines operating onsite, the type of operation, and their energy consumption.

The solution can adopt AI-based visual analytics methods on existing site surveillance systems to collect the data mentioned above for all companies involved without requiring site-wide modifications of vehicles and machines. We are open to adopting new surveillance systems that can support effective and accurate collection of data. 

In order to better plan measures and promote collective action by all stakeholders, it is useful if the data collected can generate the following insights:

• Breakdown of the carbon emissions based on company
• Breakdown of the carbon emissions based vehicle or machinery type and model
• Identification of operation abnormalities that could lead to higher emissions, for example, smoke generated from a faulty machine. 

The solution can be integrated with project management or logistics management platforms to produce more accurate carbon emissions data on the project sites. It would include a dashboard to visualise the data collected and produce useful breakdown of carbon emissions.

A carbon emission tracking system collects and analyses the emissions data of every vehicle and machine on the whole site regardless of its owner. The data would support decarbonisation measures. 

The solution would be part of Obayashi’s effort to develop a carbon emission tracking system that can consolidate and track all their direct and indirect carbon emissions.

Obayashi’s Environmental Initiatives