Many factors impact the bottom line of your commercial projects. One of those factors likely includes whether or not to use locally sourced construction materials. Depending on your project’s stylistic requirements, going local is a no-brainer. But for some, serious uncertainty exists regarding the financial implications of purchasing local materials.
Explore an in-depth overview of using locally sourced construction materials and why it matters for your timeline, budget, and project goals.
Interested in working with a trusted design partner? Contact Wade Architectural Systems.
4 Ways Locally Sourced Construction Materials Benefit Your Projects
The materials you choose for a construction project can affect your overall spending, quality of work, and beyond.
1. Green Construction For Enhanced Sustainability
Green construction. It’s a term you may be familiar with if you’ve been in the construction industry long enough. The truth is that green construction isn’t a new concept, by any means, but is growing in popularity.
Companies everywhere are trying to make more sustainable decisions in their day-to-day operations. This includes making changes to large commercial projects. Doing so is not just a smart PR move – it’s a way to decrease their carbon footprint and diminish their overall impact on the environment.
Shopping for locally sourced materials tackles environment-related issues in a few ways.
Recycling Or Repurposing Materials
It’s possible to use recycled materials that carry the same level of quality as their newly manufactured counterparts. In fact, more than 15 million tons of steel are recycled each year from cars sold for scrap. Metal materials, in particular, are important to use and reuse as their iron ore-created form is highly valuable and requires much more time and energy to make.
Cost-Efficient Savings
Shipping costs, insurance coverage, and paying the tariffs or duties required to import foreign materials heavily impact your budget. Importing materials means knowing they have a much longer way to travel and should be covered just in case. However, even having the right insurance coverage in the event of an incident won’t bring those materials to you and time sooner if lost in transit. Buying locally sourced construction materials will likely cost you much less fuel, mileage, and hours spent dealing with international shipping.
Less Equipment Required
Relying on more recyclable and/or locally sourced construction materials allows organizations to reduce the equipment needed to access these materials. Less equipment equals fewer fuel and labor costs needed to pick up and manage these materials.
2. Ensuring Adequate Availability
Buying imported construction materials for much less than expected sounds like a plus. However, there’s always a catch when it comes to buying non-American products. One of those catches includes ensuring a product’s exact availability and delivery time – both of which are key to meeting strict deadlines. Unexpected changes can happen quickly overseas. A material you need may be wiped out or held up at shipping and depending on the time difference, you may not know about it for many hours after the fact.
Suppliers offering locally sourced construction materials should be more transparent about availability and delivery or pick-up times. They may even want to tell you about their own green construction initiatives regarding their products. Need special equipment for your project? Think about renting locally-owned equipment instead of shipping entire units overseas.
3. Maintaining Quality
Choosing locally sourced recycled materials helps maximize a project’s budget without diminishing the quality of work. Simply because a material like metal is recycled doesn’t mean it holds any less value than its newly refined equivalent. As an example, over 90% of a steel building or fixture is capable of being recycled without losing its strength, value, or weight capacity.
4. Reputation
Does ‘Made in America’ matter to your clients?
About 70% of U.S. consumers spanning several generations favor American made products. But why does this matter for businesses?
Adding green construction to your business’s list of causes has the potential to go a long way for the sake of your reputation and future ventures. If you think your clients would prefer a team that uses American made materials, it’s important to do it right and showcase your support when appropriate. Integrating this information into your brand can help you stand out among your competitors and remain memorable to potential clients down the road.
What To Look For When Sourcing Construction Materials
We’ve talked about why where a product is sourced matters to your bottom line. But how do you know what to look for to ensure you’re receiving a legitimate product?
Look for the following when shopping for locally sourced construction materials:
Leadership In Energy And Environmental Design (LEED) Certification
Established by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED Certification uses a point system for Materials and Resources to determine its rating. Focusing on the big picture, an LEED Certification takes into account storage and collection of recyclables, waste management planning, and even specific parts of a build such as its envelope and structure.
Don’t know where to look for LEED Certified metal materials? Give us a call today to get started.
Manufacturing Location
Find out exactly where the material is manufactured to get a better idea of how it’s handled before reaching your site. When in doubt, ask the supplier! Businesses aligned with eco-friendly manufacturing methods must have documentation proving the ecological and social impacts of their sourcing practices.
Company Initiative
Suppliers already embracing sustainability don’t need to play catch up to compete. Instead, you can focus on the selection in front of you knowing that those suppliers already work with more sustainable solutions in mind. In turn, those suppliers can direct their attention to you and your project’s needs while keeping their most environmentally conscious materials at the forefront.
Corporate Responsibility For Quality And Environmentally Sound Construction
Wade Architectural Systems only works with the best manufacturers in the industry, fortifying your build every step of the way. Whether you’re looking for metal panel brands with the right certification, go-green incentives, and resources for local materials, we’re the ones to rely on!
We hold more than 30 years of experience and over 5,000 completed projects under our belt. And we make it our mission to give our clients a top-notch selection of metal construction materials from household brands like BEMO and Centria.
Want to make your next project focus on green construction initiatives? Work with Wade Architectural Systems today.