Volvo Construction Equipment has a long history of supporting community projects that spread social good. Now, in what has been a challenging year for people worldwide, the company is putting a renewed focus on this work with The Building Tomorrow Project.

From building schools for children in Beijing to building homes in hurricane-devastated Panama City, Florida — The Building Tomorrow Project seeks to create real change throughout the globe.

Putting real action behind the project’s purpose, one such example is the company’s commitment to tackle a key issue in the United States: disaster relief efforts.

In February, Volvo CE turned its attention to hurricane-affected Panama City, Florida, where some families have been displaced for nearly two years since Hurricane Michael destroyed 10,000 homes in the county in October 2018. Twenty volunteers from Volvo CE and local dealer Cowin Equipment assisted in Habitat for Humanity rebuilding efforts there before the nonprofit organization’s planned builds were temporarily put on pause due to COVID-19 concerns.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, Volvo CE has committed to supporting Habitat for Humanity in North America: including in disaster relief areas such as Panama City and in communities served by local Volvo CE dealers.

While building efforts were temporarily paused during the health crisis, the building is beginning to resume across the United States. While those efforts ramp up, the organization is encouraging virtual volunteerism to help raise funds in support of future build sites. In addition to the company’s commitment to supporting home builds as projects resume, Volvo CE North America recently donated $116,000 to Habitat for Humanity — a result of the company’s partnership with Discovery’s Gold Rush TV show and the sales proceeds of a custom Gold Rush excavator announced earlier this spring. The same sale also resulted in a $174,000 donation to Building Homes for Heroes — an organization that builds custom homes for U.S. veterans in need.

“Through our partnership with Volvo CE, Habitat is better poised to address the recovery work in areas affected by natural disasters and the affordable housing crisis that exists in communities around the world,”

says Colleen Finn Ridenhour, Chief Development Officer for Habitat for Humanity International.

The work in Panama City is just one of many projects to be highlighted as part of The Building Tomorrow Project. In addition to helping families build adequate housing in North America, Volvo and its employees are helping to empower underprivileged youth in India by providing them with machine operating skills and contributing to the construction of hospitals and schools in Zambia, China, and Latin America. While these are just a few examples, similar community projects are happening all over the world.

But none of this is new. Volvo CE has always been driven by the idea that through the passion, hard work, and collaboration of its people, it can make a meaningful contribution to thriving and sustainable societies.

Bill Law, Volvo CE Head of Brand, Marketing and Communication, says:

“The Building Tomorrow Project is not a campaign. It’s a commitment that we have lived and breathed from the very start of our business. It is an ongoing pledge from our Volvo CE family to millions around the world that we’re working to change lives for the better and provide communities with what they need to rise above societal challenges.”

Source: Volvo CE

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Futurists forecast the coming trends in science, technology and business. They help companies understand how the innovations of today will impact the industries of the future. Volvo CE recently engaged David Zach and Glen Hiemstra — known for their work with dozens of innovative fortune 500 companies — to provide expert forecasts on where the industrial industries may be headed.

Stephen Roy, senior vice president for the Americas, Volvo CE, said:

“In order to build tomorrow, that means having a good sense of what tomorrow may look like. While no one can be 100% certain about what the future has in store, these professional futurists can give us an educated guess based on the research, science and economic trends we see today. We asked students from the Columbia College of Hollywood to animate some of these forecasts so that we have a vision of the possible future from those young persons who will soon inhabit it.”

Presented below are a sample of the forecasts for each industry. Each one includes a link to view a more in-depth report on each industry that includes many more forecasts presented in richer detail. Scroll down to view the Columbia College of Hollywood’s animations.

Road Infrastructure

• Nanotechnology will enable roadways to be built from more resilient glass-like materials.
• Photogenic cells along roadways will capture solar energy for transporting to local power grids.
• Self-healing epoxies will enable bridges and other metal structures to “heal” themselves from damage.
• Roadways will have embedded censors that provide road, weather and traffic conditions.
• Autonomous equipment that is fully electric and emissions free will handle duty-cycle work.
• Sensors in construction equipment will provide data for predictive analytics and increase uptime.

Construction

• Buildings of all sizes will be increasingly modular, utilizing more prefabricated elements.
• Entire rooms and their furnishings will be built in a specialized location, then installed at the job.
• Flying drones will monitor construction on job sites, reporting critical data and visualizations.
• Rolling drones will travel up and down building shafts and behind walls to take readings.
• New paint polymers will improve air quality while wall sensors monitor for chemicals, smoke and fire.
• Entire neighborhoods will be 3D printed, then completed with prefabricated elements.

Waste Management and recycling

• Companies will have more responsibility over the entire lifecycles of their products and the materials used to make them, creating a more “circular economy.”
• Vehicles that collect waste and recycling will be fully electric, reducing emissions and noise.
• Waste and recycling bins will become autonomous, driving themselves to collection points.
• Robots will use artificial intelligence to separate materials, “eating” some of them for energy.
• The gamification of the industry will lead the work to become more scientific and videogame like.
• Machines that accept recyclables will show what those materials will be used for in the future.

Agriculture

• Vertical skyfarms near cities will boost the amount of food that can be grown on a single piece of land.
• These indoor farms with multiple stories give the ability to control weather, irrigation and pests.
• Plants on all farms will be tagged with RFID and sensors to control nutrient and water intake.
• Autonomous electric construction equipment will help prepare lands and transport harvests.
• Robots that use artificial intelligence will pick crops and sort them for either human use or composting.
• Halophytes, crops grown in saltwater, will help tackle freshwater shortages around the globe.

Mining

• Autonomous and remote-controlled equipment will remove humans from dangerous situations.
• Humans will control mining equipment from remote locations via simulators that give tactile feedback.
• Automated, fully electric machines will handle repetitive duty-cycle work with no emissions.
• With programmed, autonomous machines, mining operations will work around the clock.
• Robots will move in to pick materials from mine shafts and use artificial intelligence to sort them.
• We will increasingly extract materials from the ocean, asteroids and other planets.

Source: Volvo CE

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‘‘We’re proud to break ground today and excited about getting our new Pickering facility to build underway with a new 50-acre, 565,000 square-foot campus. This is going to enable us to serve our Canadian customers well into the future.’’ – said Bob Hickey, President of KCL.

KCL expects construction to be completed by the fall of 2020 and will relocate its 200 employees to its new head office. Located in Pickering’s new Innovation Corridor, the new building will offer an exceptional new training facility and consolidated warehouse to support their growing dealers servicing the Canadian market.

About Kubota Canada

Kubota Canada Ltd. (KCL) is a subsidiary of Kubota Corporation, a tractor and heavy equipment manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan. KCL markets and distributes Kubota-engineered and manufactured equipment, which includes a complete line of tractors (up to 171 HP), performance-matched implements, compact and utility tractors, compact construction, landscaping and public work equipment, residential lawn and garden equipment, commercial turf products and utility vehicles.

Source: http://kubota.ca

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