New construction technologies can make infrastructure more environmentally-friendly

Infrastructure is not necessarily sustainable, but FTSE Russell, a British investment management company and a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group, thinks it can be changed.

“Companies can rely on new construction technologies that reduce the consumption of materials, and make processes more energy-efficient,” said Sergiy Lesyk, Director of Research & Analytics at FTSE Russell during the National Infrastructure conference organized by Calcalist, BlackRock, and FTSE Russell.

“It’s very challenging to be environmentally-friendly. Airports or roads require a lot of construction, and materials such as cement and steel require a lot of manpower and CO2 emissions. But infrastructure is also directly connected to moving goods, people, or data from one point to another, which consumes energy and also causes greenhouse emissions. We can’t avoid doing these things, they are like the blood vessels of the economy. However, we can mitigate this damage and make it more environmentally-friendly through using new construction technologies that reduce the consumption of materials, use pieces of infrastructure more efficiently or reduce idleness, or reduce the use of heating or air-conditioning,” he said.

Furthermore, infrastructure also spans across several industries, such as telecommunications, energy, transportation, and more. “Infrastructure requires a lot of capital,” he added, saying that machinery is very expensive. He also relayed that while governments historically funded infrastructure projects because of their expense, today private companies are opening the door as well.

You can watch the full interview in the video above.