Forum discussion

Jobsite Trailers - Net Zero / Passive House / EV Ready

Hi SCL,

I realize that there are already a couple of threads on this topic, but I didn't see anything from the past year.  We have been trying (unsuccessfully) to work with large rental companies to request jobsite trailers that are at a minimum energy efficient, and ideally solar/battery ready and/or built to passive house or similar standards.  

We haven't been getting much traction as most of these companies are either not in the jobsite trailer market in the US, or are not interested in upgrading their fleet to meet anything beyond the minimum energy code (or renovating their older stock beyond the bare minimum).  We've also gotten quotes for one-off net-sero trailers that are far beyond what our projects are willing to pay for without a specific project or client requirement for an off-grid or net-zero trailer. I'm interested if anyone has made any progress with other suppliers or has been able to work with manufacturers to procure a more sustainable jobsite trailer. 

I've seen the amazing example of the Pepper Construction trailer, and read about the Hathaway Dinwiddie off-grid trailer - both are great examples! However, I'm curious if those one-offs have been repeated.  If not, I'm happy to work with folks on expressing collective demand for better trailers and compiling a "good, better, best" list to help the suppliers and manufacturers prioritize future upgrades.

Thanks!

Joan Gibbons, Lendlease

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Fri, 05/26/2023 - 17:41

Hi Joan - Webcor had looked into this sometime back too but the initiative never really gained a foothold. I like your idea of collectively expressing interest in net zero trailers. With a lot of companies reporting their Scope 1 emissions, this will become more important and I think contractors would be interested. Happy to work with you and other interested SCL members on this. Best, Kavita

Tue, 05/30/2023 - 12:05

This is one of those things that really annoys me that we don't have better solutions at a commercially available scale. We have people in the SCL from Pepper and Hathaway Dinwiddie in the SCL so I would defer to them as the experts, but the company where I am has looked into this quite a bit. It's also been a circulating topic in our local AGC Massachusetts sustainability committee, where the Boston Turner team has done a good bit of research also. In my opinion, there are a couple major issues, and anyone please correct any of these they see differently or that I misstate: 1. Although prototypes have proved this is a technologically feasible idea, proof that it is commercially scalable has not materialized 2. Cost and lack of sufficient demand seem to be the major roadblocks for item #1 3. These designs are more challenging in a cold climate. In a cold climate the amount of solar you would need power through the winter without being grid connected might make the design cost prohibitive * If you circumvent the generation issue with becoming grid connected then you lose the early mobilization benefit (I guess unless you have a summertime mobilization), and have to deal with an interconnection process with a utility, which in our area can take a long time * In the case of having sufficient cold weather solar generation capacity, you also way overproduce in the summer, and unless you are grid connected (interconnection issue) to get a net metering benefit you are going to end up losing a lot of the cost benefit of solar. i. You can mitigate that with batteries but then you're adding another system and another cost 1. I would also imagine that transporting and protecting the solar, especially if the system would need to be larger than the top of the trailer, would be another consideration 2. Add to all this that these structures are seen as more or less disposable and take a large amount of abuse, and it further compounds the question of trying to make it a scalable offering That said, it doesn't mean we shouldn't ask for it or try to find solutions to the roadblocks. Conor McGuire has helped lead our AGC MA group to produce a letter asking trailer manufacturers for EV charging, which we just published, which anyone can sign or we could create our own letter as SCL: https://www.agcmass.org/sustainability_pledge/ As a final thought someone from our Turner AGC MA group was speaking with a local trailer manufacturer about this recently and the most recent quote was $400k for a double-wide, which is ridiculous. Steven Burke. LEED & WELL Faculty Director Of Sustainability m: 774.462.2044 consigli.com

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