ABC Collaborative
Rebuilding America:
Faster, Better, and Cheaper
Industrialization of new technologies cannot mature without standardization - and standardization can not happen without cooperation.
As such, advanced building construction in the US will not thrive in the absence of a collaborative ecosystem of government, incumbents, and technology innovators.
Rocky Mountain Institute and ADL Ventures, with the support of the US Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission, and MassCEC, are bringing their best practices and next-generation technologies for the building industry together to form a first-of-kind national collaborative which links major building owners with qualified sources of fabrication and supply.
We will curate advanced construction practices and technologies into a standardized national program that establishes a gold standard for design, products, and services. The Collaborative will harness its collective insight to identify and resolve critical gaps and set standards for deployment by any building owner or developer.
ABC Collaborative Partners
Founding Team Organizations
Report: Market Opportunities and Challenges for Decarbonizing US Buildings
Market context and the case for ABC and ABC Collaborative
Major ABC technologies and approaches, including industry case studies
Initial analysis to quantify and assess geographies and market segments
Findings of 65 industry interviews across 4 stakeholder categories
Summary of the researchers’ findings and recommendations
How ADL’s Vision for Buildings Drives ABC
Demand Aggregation / Supply Coordination
We aggregate demand from building owners and developers interested in advanced construction techniques and match them with highly qualified sources of fabrication and material supply.
Put US Manufacturers Back to Work
The US Midwest and Southeast have under-utilized and rapidly-deprecating manufacturing assets (both human and infrastructure). America is ready to get back to work, as outlined in the Marshall Plan for Middle America. What’s the alternative? If we were to start importing 50% of our buildings, the US could lose 7M jobs.
Create Smart Cities
The controlled, high-throughput manufacturing of off-site prefab is required to consistently install advanced hardware that will make Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs) possible.
Improve Energy Efficiency
Construction in advanced facilities allows for thorough and replicable weatherproofing at a fraction of the cost.
Improve Housing Affordability
Industrialized construction has the potential to dramatically reduce cost and construction time, which is critical to increasing both availability and affordability for low-income households.
Key Stakeholders of Interest
Owners and Developers
Slash construction time and cost by integrating advanced construction, particularly cutting-edge off-site / pre-fab techniques, into both new construction and retrofits
Building Materials and Finishing Manufacturers
Get closer to customers, reduce distribution costs, and get support for product development efforts
Fabricators
Deepen partner networks to provide turnkey solutions to building owners
Government, Foundations, and Philanthropists
Support mission-driven work to improve housing affordability, drive economic development, and create good-paying manufacturing jobs
Regulators
Make housing affordable and hit your energy efficiency and carbon reduction targets
Thought leadership
LBNL’s Guide for High Performance Buildings Released
Singh, Ravache and Sartor author groundbreaking guide for energy efficient buildings in India as part of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory intellectual contribution to the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership.
Lead author Reshma Singh is Program Director of the Department of Energy’s Center for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
Meeting the Needs of Building Materials with Emerging Technology
Nothing changes in building construction…until it changes. Incumbents are looking for competitive advantage and startups are looking to disrupt the status quo. Despite a fear of disruption, most legacy sector companies are not adept at working with startups at the bleeding edge of innovation. ProblemSpace connects legacy sector companies with the innovation ecosystem to help solve vexing technical challenges.
The Secret City that Paved the Way for Modern Prefabrication
The construction industry has been contending with an aging workforce, extended labor shortages, lack of innovation, and narrow profit margins for decades. Since 1947, it has been outpaced in labor productivity by a factor of 16. It’s no surprise then that, on average, large construction projects tend to be 80% over budget…