Innovation is a much-used term, but what really is innovation and how can it be used to transform our thinking, our output and our results?
We caught up with our iLAB Global Principal, Maria Aiolova to learn more about Innovation – what it is and perhaps more importantly, what it isn’t. Maria is an architect, curator, educator, administrator, and entrepreneur based in our New York City office.
You’re renowned as being an innovator in sustainability, environmental design and climate change adaptation, what are some of the trends and innovations you’re seeing in this space?
What we’re seeing today, right around the world, across nearly all sectors and industries is a focus on the net-zero challenge. The recent COP conferences have helped to draw global attention to the need to decarbonize and reduce emissions to meet the 1.5 degree Celsius warming goal set by the Paris Agreement. However, the built environment is still responsible for nearly 40 percent of all global carbon emissions, so it’s about accelerating decarbonization worldwide.
Guided by our Sustainable Legacies ESG strategy, we’re creating an action plan for reducing carbon through design. It’s about identifying and developing new techniques and approaches. We start by quantifying the total carbon impact of a project. Then, we begin a diagnostic process using a question-based system to identify the optimum combination of location, situation, site, logistics, materials, construction methods, and in-use operations to minimize energy use, optimize renewable power sources, and integrate nature-based solutions wherever feasible.
We then use several specially designed tools, such as AECOM zero, to respond to the challenges revealed by our diagnostic process. We’ve created an integrated software platform that is compatible with industry standards, focusing on high-performance building design and optimization of decarbonization strategy.
You focus a lot on innovative thinking. So how do you develop innovative thinking?
I am a firm believer in collaboration. Innovation, after all, doesn't happen in isolation. It needs a charged zone that connects exceptional cross-disciplinary activities, as well as a network of people with a critical understanding of innovation and access to knowledge through sharing.
By using a collaborative approach between disciplines and the available cutting-edge technologies, we can offer high-quality solutions to several of the problems that our industry and our clients are facing.
The challenges that we are facing are enormous. Our old systems, processes, and ways of thinking will not be able to solve them.
Therefore, we must change how we contract, incentivize, manage risk, and use technology. I'm committed to creating a new mindset and knowledge in all aspects of our business, from project design to delivery to management, communications, social awareness, skills, and new technologies and materials. I call this process "radical collaboration."
Tell us a little bit more about how ‘radical collaboration’ can help to drive innovation across the whole design process?
Our vision is to move the needle and ensure we have a broad-reaching impact on our industry by developing a digitally empowered platform for delivering high-performance net-zero carbon solutions.
These solutions will address the necessary increase in speed to market delivery, enhance cost certainty, improve occupant wellbeing, and improve confidence in lifecycle performance.
A great example is design process automation, where we integrate data analytics into the design process using a critical evidence-led approach that enables faster and better decision-making. Another excellent example of how we’re doing this is our development of project delivery models. This is where we develop a high performance net-zero carbon approach that integrates design and construction.
However, we need to ensure that we are constantly innovating. Our recently launched Technical Academy and Innovation Pathway are just two ways we embed radical innovation across our organization. Our Technical Academy, a 9-month curriculum focused on “High Performance Design Path to Net Zero Carbon,” has been developed to support our focus on technical excellence by investing in our people to give them the skills to design and establish the net zero solutions of the future.
You run our iLab, tell us a little bit more about iLab. What are some of the design or process innovations to come out of iLab and how are they supporting some of our clients’ challenges?
iLab is our research, development, and innovation hub, where we leverage our subject matter experts across different disciplines and regions to focus on how we can differentiate our processes to deliver the best solutions to overcome our clients’ challenges. What we deliver is innovation as a service.
We start with running workshops for our internal teams and clients focused on ideation and blue-sky solutions. Then we develop minimum viable prototypes that we can move very quickly into developing and deploying. We create novel tools, workflows, and processes to be tested on real projects for our clients.
A good example of this is a project we’re currently working on which is the size of a city! It has given us a unique opportunity to think about how we can set a new standard for global sustainable development. So, we’ve looked to redefine the development process, using our tools to take our clients through the project lifecycle in an integrated design approach.
Ultimately, innovation is about the impact, and we must measure innovation through the value and the effect it creates, as well as the new ways of thinking that arise through the process. It’s not just limited to novelty – you can sometimes use a 2000-year-old technology, but the way that technology is applied is the key to unlocking innovation.
I believe we cannot start with answers, but we must begin by asking questions.