Overview
In order to achieve Switzerland's climate targets by 2050, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced. The building sector accounts for 25%, of which construction machinery and transport vehicles are estimated to account for 2% over the lifetime of a building (Kellenberger et al. 2022). Switching from diesel-powered machines, equipment and vehicles to electric construction machinery and transport vehicles means that no direct greenhouse gases and air pollutants are emitted and noise emissions are reduced. In Switzerland, only one pilot project involving a construction site with reduced emissions has been documented. This means that the electrification of construction sites is less developed in this country than in other European countries. In Scandinavia, for example, cities are playing a pioneering role in the transformation to e-construction sites (Stokke et al. 2022a). This is because, as major building owners, they set new standards through regulations and drive innovation forward. As the total revision of the Federal Act on Public Procurement (BöB) means that the contract is no longer awarded to the most economically advantageous tender, but to the most advantageous tender (Art. 41 BöB / IVöB 2019) and sustainability is explicitly mentioned in the purpose article (Art. 2 BöB / IVöB 2019), Swiss cities can also take on this pioneering role in the future.
According to the results of the preliminary study for the planned project, the transformation from diesel to e-construction sites can only be driven forward by steering instruments that bring together the players in the construction ecosystem and their resources. There are currently hen-and-egg problems in three areas:
1) Communication: public developers cannot develop and communicate to construction companies their strategic roadmaps for inviting electrified bids on construction tenders until they have knowledge of their electrification expertise and inventory and acquisition plans. For their part, construction companies wait for signals from clients before investing.
2) Finances: With the exception of initial funding programs, there are no innovative financial instruments that demonstrate partnership-based financing models to cover the additional costs in the acquisition of e-construction vehicles, so that here too, reluctance on the part of building owners and construction companies prevails.
3) Machines: The stock of available e-BMTFs is small and not very transparent, and access has so far been reserved for financially strong large construction companies, which make the purchases. Small and medium-sized construction companies, which make up the majority of the industry at over 90%, only have access to E-BMTFs via professional rental companies if they do not invest in purchasing.
