Aggreko’s latest whitepaper, A Perfect Storm for European Construction? The challenges shaping the sector’s future and how to combat them, draws upon the findings to unpack the various factors driving construction’s ‘perfect storm’.

The third-party survey questioned construction managers in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Benelux and the Nordic region on topics including sustainability, knowledge of legislation and the high costs of equipment and materials.

In each country, most respondents said sustainability in business is more important than it was three years ago, ranging from 50% in Sweden to 94% in the Netherlands. Overall, 76% agreed that sustainability is now more important than it was three years ago.

However, while there was strong agreement across the continent that sustainability is continuing to increase in importance, the results show that emissions are not consistently being monitored – something that is critical to complying with requirements to report scope 3 emissions. The problem is most acute in the UK, Italy and Sweden, where between 16% and 18% of construction managers said they do not currently measure the environmental impact of their projects.

The survey found that construction managers are grappling with the challenges of recording and reducing emissions, while also facing issues around the availability of equipment and skills shortages.

Tom Adlington, UK&I building services and construction manager at Aggreko, said: “This report serves as a reminder of the wide-ranging challenges facing Europe’s construction managers. Strategic supplier partnerships are going to become increasingly important over the coming months and years as sustainability challenges increase but need to be navigated in the context of ever more complex technical and economic circumstances, as well as tightening environmental reporting requirements.”

Aggreko is encouraging Europe’s construction managers to draw upon the expertise of third-party suppliers.

Mr Adlington added: “Delivering on stringent decarbonisation goals demands ever more advanced technical solutions and sourcing these on a hired basis overcomes significant CAPEX obstacles. Hired solutions also bring substantial third-party expertise, allowing for equipment to be used in an optimal configuration even where the necessarily skills are not available immediately on site.”

Aggreko’s support for the decarbonisation of construction is reflected in the $140m it has earmarked over the last two years to expand its Greener Upgrade fleet, including Stage V generators, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), steam boilers and lower refrigerant chillers.