Transportation infrastructure—a broad term that includes networks of fixed facilities that ensure the safe transportation of people and goods—is an important part of thriving modern economies. Examples of transportation systems include roads, public transit systems, airports, train stations, bus terminals, ferry terminals, pipelines, and warehouses. People and businesses depend on transportation networks every day, but what happens when critical assets fail unexpectedly, or worse, pollute our environment to such an extent that it threatens our natural resources?
In the past few years, disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and conditions caused by climate change have hindered economic development and stimulated unprecedented investment in transportation infrastructure. Below are some of the economic growth initiatives launched to build and rebuild critical assets in the United States, Europe and Asia:
In the United States, the federal government passed a bipartisan Infrastructure Act aimed at building and rebuilding critical infrastructure, including the country’s most vital transportation networks. This ambitious bill, largely administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation, would distribute $1 trillion to fund construction, manufacturing, and public works initiatives. In Europe, the European Union has selected 107 transport infrastructure projects to receive more than six billion euros in grant programs in the coming years to help improve connectivity, public transport and alternative modes of transport in both urban and rural areas. In the Asia-Pacific region, the Asian Development Bank announced that US$1.7 trillion annually will be needed for infrastructure development over the next seven years to achieve its goals.
But it will not be enough to simply repair existing infrastructure and rebuild it using the same methods and technologies with which it was built in the first place. If these transportation projects are to be truly transformative in ways that will help the world recover from the next pandemic and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, they must be built more sustainably.
The importance of building a more sustainable transportation infrastructure
The transportation sector’s carbon footprint and subsequent contribution to climate change is undeniable. According to the International Energy Agency, the transportation industry is responsible for 21%, or nearly a quarter, of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) attributes 64% of global oil consumption and 27% of total energy use to transportation services, as well as 23% of the world’s total energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.
Mitigating the effects of climate change will require significant investments in sustainable transport infrastructure, not only in Europe, the United States and China, but also in developing countries where outdated equipment must be replaced or brought up to modern standards to achieve the goals set by the 2015 Paris Climate Conference agreements. But sustainable transportation infrastructure isn’t just about improving our environment, it’s also good business. Below are some of the most common business benefits that sustainable transportation infrastructure brings to organizations that make the investment.
Better compliance with Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) regulations.
As the effects of climate change become more apparent in more and more places around the world, organizations are facing more stringent Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) regulations. By incorporating EHS monitoring into their asset maintenance programs, they can self-regulate, monitor their emissions and ensure they adhere to compliance.
Lower fuel costs
Modern organizations committed to sustainable transportation infrastructure use solutions such as Asset Performance Monitoring (APM) and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), to ensure their assets operate efficiently. Equipped with capabilities such as remote monitoring, EAM and APM help organizations continually measure the fuel their assets are using and ensure they are performing at optimal levels in ways that minimize their environmental impact.
More reliable and efficient maintenance procedures
By shifting from outdated or ineffective maintenance programs, reactive maintenance programs, or maintenance-to-failure programs to fully integrated asset reliability and maintenance programs such as preventive or predictive maintenance, organizations can more effectively monitor, manage, and maintain their assets in ways that facilitate sustainability across the entire asset life cycle.
Increased asset availability, improved asset performance, and longer asset life
Sustainable transportation infrastructure deploys modern preventive or predictive maintenance programs that allow assets to be managed more intelligently, detecting and remediating problems before they lead to costly asset downtime. Both strategies help organizations better plan maintenance and avoid costly shutdowns that can impact the entire business.
Best practices for building more sustainable transportation infrastructure
By leveraging new technologies and industry-wide best practices, organizations are finding ways to build a stronger, more resilient transportation infrastructure. Here are five best practices that help them succeed.
Prioritize what is best for your organization
When planning a sustainable transportation initiative, it is important to prioritize what your organization needs along with what can be achieved with the resources it has available. For example, while converting an entire fleet of delivery vehicles from fossil fuels to electricity may be a good long-term goal, it may require a larger investment than you can make now. Converting a percentage of your fleet to electric power is a more realistic first step. This way, the organization has an opportunity to resolve any issues that may arise before converting the entire fleet.
Manage your assets with modern and sustainable solutions
Today, in the transportation industry, organizations are increasingly relying on EAM and APM methods to help them achieve their sustainable transportation infrastructure goals. EAM and APM solutions help improve work management processes, maintenance programs, planning, scheduling, supply chain management, and EHS conditions.
Upgrade maintenance programs to a preventative or predictive approach
As with asset management, asset maintenance is also a critical area to address when it comes to building sustainability into your transportation infrastructure initiatives. Preventive maintenance is an approach that describes regular maintenance activities to prevent unexpected equipment failures that can lead to costly and unsustainable breakdowns. Predictive maintenance takes these activities one step further by using historical and failure data about the asset to predict when it may encounter a problem. Both approaches help create an infrastructure that is more sustainable than its predecessor—continuous failure maintenance—because they proactively anticipate and help resolve maintenance issues before they cause equipment failure.
Enhance asset monitoring with Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities.
With everything from valves and vehicles connected by sensors and systems via the Internet of Things (IoT), organizations can integrate advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) into their EAM and APM strategies. Instruments on complex assets such as fuel tanks, speedometers and engines collect and analyze data using artificial intelligence. This helps ensure assets perform optimally with minimal environmental impact.
Leverage digital twin technologies to assist with planning
A digital twin is a virtual representation of an asset that allows stakeholders to conduct tests using simulations that demonstrate how the asset will perform under a set of conditions or in the environment in which it will operate. Engineers working on transportation infrastructure projects frequently use digital twins to evaluate how a variety of assets such as buildings, bridges, jet turbines, cars, and aircraft will react when exposed to certain conditions, such as storms, floods, or high temperatures.
Sustainable infrastructure use cases
Transportation infrastructure supports a wide range of industries and needs. From the bus and train stations where passengers park each morning, to the busy airports, freight stations and freight networks that support global trade – it’s hard to imagine the world we live in without them. Sustainable transportation infrastructure helps structures and networks operate at optimal levels so that everyone and everything gets where they are going with minimal impact on the environment.
Below are two examples of sustainable transportation infrastructure in two industries.
airline
Airports are bustling hives of activity with millions of people relying on them every day for fast, safe transportation. Airport maintenance systems ensure critical assets such as security equipment, taxiways, elevators, air conditioning, water and sanitation are operating properly. But many airports were built decades ago, and their maintenance teams still rely on outdated and inefficient technologies and workflows to keep them running. To make airports more modern, resilient and sustainable, stakeholders are adding new technologies and capabilities.
AI and IoT tools allow maintenance managers to monitor the health and performance of their assets in real time. They also help ensure compliance with stringent safety requirements that keep passengers safe and improve inefficient maintenance operations. By replacing email and other outdated forms of communication with quick and easy mobile applications, workers can better communicate with each other in the field, prioritize work orders, and manage resources in a complex and demanding environment.
Transport of goods
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the transportation and storage of goods accounts for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce this number, stakeholders are looking for ways to build more sustainability into the industry’s infrastructure.
First, they must improve fuel efficiency and maintenance programs for vehicles used to transport goods. Every asset owned by a shipping company has a specific life cycle that includes its installation, maintenance and replacement. These activities contribute to the carbon footprint of the asset, so the more they can be reduced, the lower the overall carbon footprint of the asset. For example, if a delivery truck or ship transporting goods breaks down midway through its journey, technicians sent to repair it will use fuel to get there and back — increasing the ship’s carbon footprint.
By deploying EAM and APM strategies to extend asset life cycles and perform preventive and predictive maintenance, freight carriers are making their businesses more sustainable and fuel efficient, ensuring they comply with environmental, health and safety regulations in the countries in which they operate.
Sustainable transportation infrastructure solutions
Organizations seeking to improve transportation infrastructure asset management practices have many solutions to choose from. When determining which platform is right for their needs, they should prioritize platforms that combine a strong combination of technology offerings and historical best practices.
IBM Maximo Application Suite is an integrated asset management and reliability solution that specifically helps organizations monitor, manage and maintain their transportation infrastructure assets, including improving their productivity and deploying preventive and predictive maintenance capabilities.
Learn more about IBM Maximo Application Suite
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