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Pan-United and Surbana Jurong Team Up to Decarbonise Heavy Vehicle Trucking Fleet

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Pan-United Concrete, a subsidiary of Singapore’s largest concrete and cement provider Pan-United Corporation Ltd and Surbana Jurong Pte Ltd, one of the largest Asia-based global urban, infrastructure, and managed services consulting firms, have entered into a Project Development Partnership Agreement (“Partnership”) to study the feasibility of using electric and hydrogen fuel cells to power a fleet of more than 1,000 trucks moving its concrete business in Singapore.

The partnership is in line with Pan-United’s sustainability targets to firstly, offer only low-carbon concrete1 by 2030, secondly, offer carbon-neutral concrete products by 2040 and lastly, become a carbon-neutral ready-mix concrete (“RMC”) company by 2050. As part of the Partnership, Surbana Jurong will study and evaluate the potential of decarbonising Pan-United’s fleet of concrete mixer trucks and tipper trucks that currently operate on diesel.

The partnership aims to achieve several outcomes, chief of which is to develop a technology roadmap based on Pan-United’s strategy and vision towards carbon abatement of its trucking fleets, as well as shortlist high-potential technologies. Surbana Jurong will also help to develop a business plan that takes into consideration the techno-economic feasibility and potential carbon dioxide (“CO2”) savings. In addition, Surbana Jurong will make carbon footprint calculations to determine the extent of carbon emissions reduced in Pan-United’s future trucking fleet while setting the pace of transition towards net-zero emissions.

By using cleaner energy options, Pan-United has the potential to significantly improve the sustainability performance of its delivery fleet. The conversion from diesel engines to electric and hydrogen-powered ones in its fleet can also mitigate against potential rises in oil prices, and reflects the company’s efforts to support climate change action through the use of greener transportation services. As a vertically integrated concrete producer, Pan-United understands the importance of minimising its supply chain contribution to energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and waste. A key component of its supply chain is its fleet of concrete mixer and delivery tipper trucks which can make up to 7,000 trips a day across Singapore.

This is the second partnership between Surbana Jurong and Pan-United. In 2020, both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two other industry leaders, Keppel Data Centres and Chevron, supported by the National Research Foundation. This alliance was aimed at jointly exploring, identifying and developing carbon capture technologies, including novel CO2 mitigation technologies that convert captured CO2 into useful construction materials.

Surbana Jurong Is First In Singapore To Attain New International Building Standard

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Surbana Jurong, one of the largest infrastructure and urban design consultancies based in Asia, has become the first company in Singapore to be awarded the new ISO 19650 accreditation for the digitisation of design and engineering data for buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM). Surbana Jurong is also the first consultancy in Asia to attain the new certification.

The accreditation, approved by the International Standards Organisation (ISO), demonstrates the group’s compliance with the highest BIM modelling standards in projects. Building authorities around the world, including Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA), have identified BIM as a key technology for improving productivity and integration across disciplines in the built environment value chain.

BIM is a process for creating and managing design and engineering information for building and infrastructure projects across the project lifecycle. One of the key outputs is the digital modelling and description of every aspect of the building or infrastructure asset, drawing on information assembled collaboratively and updated regularly. A digital BIM model enables every team involved to optimise their inputs and create greater whole life cycle value for the project.

Surbana Jurong Group Chief Executive Officer Wong Heang Fine said: “Greater adoption of BIM will rapidly transform the built environment industry in the coming years. BIM creates value from the combined efforts of people, process and technology. For Surbana Jurong, BIM has become a way of working. It enables our teams to make informed decisions at every stage of a project and work collaboratively and seamlessly to drive the best outcomes for our clients.”

Mr Wong added: “With our inhouse multidisciplinary skill sets, we are in a unique position to provide end-to-end BIM throughout the life cycle of the project from design to operations and extract every bit of value that BIM can bring. That is why it is paramount that we comply with international standards to set the bar for our BIM quality.”

ISO 19650 accreditation provides an assurance to clients that Surbana Jurong is able to provide effective and compliant BIM services of the highest standards to clients in every part of the world. Lloyd’s Register, an ISO accrediting body, is supporting a number of government bodies, architecture firms and other building consultants in Asia in their efforts to attain the certification.

Mr Fotis Kampouris, Business Director, Lloyd’s Register said: “Surbana Jurong is one of the world’s leading urban design consultancies and has always been ahead of the curve in its use of technology, so it comes as no surprise that it is the first organisation in Singapore to be awarded ISO 19650 certification. The accreditation, supported by the group’s strong talent policies and risk management practices, should give its clients the greatest confidence in its building quality and standards.”

Surbana Jurong is leveraging its BIM capabilities in all its projects around the world, at every stage of the project lifecycle. This includes Singapore Changi Airport Terminals 1, 4 and 5; SunTec’s new campus at Technocity, Pallipuram in Kerala, India; a major station in the Sydney Metro, Australia; and Surbana Jurong Campus in Singapore which is under construction.

Surbana Jurong and Glodon to Collaborate on Expanding Digitalisation to Quantity Surveying and Cost Management

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Surbana Jurong, one of the largest Asia-based urban, infrastructure and management services consulting firms, and Glodon, a leading digital technology company in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on developing advanced digital capabilities in the specialised areas of quantity surveying and cost management to support the further development of the construction industry in Singapore and Asia.

This effort is well aligned with one of the key thrusts in the Construction Industry Transformation Map, as part of Singapore’s efforts to transform the construction industry by improving its overall efficiency and effectiveness through leveraging on technology and innovation.

Essentially, Surbana Jurong and Glodon will work together to expand the adoption of a technology known as 5D Building Information Modelling (BIM), which supports the effective quantification of construction materials based on models constructed in the BIM environment. By having better visibility of the quantities and associated costs at the building design stage, designers and architects would be better able to understand how their designs affect costs of the whole project. This in turn helps project owners to have better budget control.

Under the MOU, Surbana Jurong and Glodon will focus on three key areas:

  • Digitalisation of the Quantity Surveying workflow using the concept of 5D BIM and e-Tender Solution
  • Develop a BIM execution plan to deploy 5D BIM effectively
  • Test bedding of a BIM payment feature using a proprietary measurement software

Mr James Liu Qian, Board Director and Senior Vice President, Glodon, said, “To date, the important areas of quantity surveying and cost management in the construction industry have still not tapped the full potential of digitalisation in capturing better connectivity with construction projects using BIM.

Cubicost is an end-to-end 5D BIM technology which combines all solutions in the form of smart automation through one common platform. One of the world-leading digital building platform service providers, Glodon develops professional digital applications and solutions through BIM, cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, mobile Internet and artificial intelligence. In Singapore, Cubicost technology has a market coverage of more than 25% among building contractors and over 43 percent among A-grade contractors.”

Mr Wong Heang Fine, Group Chief Executive Officer, Surbana Jurong, added, “With our focus to develop smart urban cities, we need to be equipped with effective and proven technologies to strengthen our end-to-end service delivery to our clients. Our digitalisation efforts in recent years have yielded promising results, and we are committed to continue to work with like-minded partners such as Glodon in our digitalisation journey. We are moving towards 5D BIM and through this partnership with Glodon, we will be able to fully leverage Cubicost, a 5D BIM-based solution, to deliver cost-effective solutions to our clients.”

Surbana Jurong and Aerolion Technologies to Develop UAV Technology for the Built Environment

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Reading Time: 2 minutesSurbana Jurong and AeroLion Technologies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in April 2019 to further develop unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies for the built and natural environment. The MOU was signed at Unmanned Systems Asia 2019.

Under the MOU, the partners will jointly develop UAV solutions for various project applications, including land reclamation, workplace safety, site progression and fault detection in enclosed areas such as buildings and tunnels. Surbana Jurong aims to integrate these UAV solutions into its current processes to further increase its productivity.

At the same time, combining real-world data from Surbana Jurong’s operations with the UAV’s artificial intelligence platforms will allow Surbana Jurong to offer advance data-driven UAV solutions to its global clients.

The partnership brings together Surbana Jurong’s expertise and experience in planning, design and engineering in the global urban and infrastructure sectors, with AeroLion Technologies’ expertise in UAV technologies that are focused on the building and construction sector.

UAVs are one of several technologies transforming the engineering and construction industry. Its use not only boosts productivity, reduces overall project time and costs, provide more accurate data readings in shorter time and improve worker safety.

Mr Wong Heang Fine, Group CEO of Surbana Jurong said, “Surbana Jurong already uses UAVs as part of our project processes, from conducting inspections and surveillance, high-precision data collection as well as security-led activities by our subsidiary AETOS. Our collaboration with AeroLion Technologies will further ensure our leadership in the area of UAV applications.”

AeroLion Technologies is a leader in the application of UAV in infrastructure inspection and warehouse management. The Company has strong foundations in Artificial Intelligence (AI), UAV automation and advanced flight operations, and is slated to launch novel solutions for the built environment, following the success of its recent autonomous tunnel inspection UAV platforms.