One of the main functions of modern business is to recognize social movements and leverage that forward momentum, funneling buyers to relevant products and services.

Today’s growing green movement is one of those movements…and not just because it has “movement” in its name! We are at a critical point in history when the ideas of environmental conservation and sustainable living have become the agenda of the masses. Environmentalism is no longer seen as weak, fanciful, and superfluous, but absolutely necessary and a noble cause. This is all due to our growing realization (thanks to advances in science and technology) that our ecosystem really is delicate and that up to this point we have been destroying it. Now humanity as a whole is concerned with the well-being of the environment and the necessity of preserving it.   

Smart, growing businesses are taking advantage of this social movement, which is only adding to the beneficial practices of preserving the environment.

 In a time when the economy is hurting and job growth is stunted, the green industries are flourishing and green tech jobs are growing. This astounding fact is testament to the power of a social movement.

In this uncertain, constantly changing economy, it is good to know there is one driving idea that won’t change for a while: the idea that we need to develop green technologies and conduct business in an environmentally friendly manner.

So to reiterate, successful business that are surviving and growing in today’s economy are either entering into the green technology market or embracing green technology and investing in environmentally friendly processes as they manufacture their products or offer their services. Today’s consumers prefer green companies. The environment is on everyone’s mind, so everyone is going to prefer green products. They are also going to prefer doing business with the companies that can claim to be green friendly.

In the next post, I will talk about the usefulness of branding when it comes to surviving in today’s economy.

In previous posts, I have beaten the notion of the necessity of change into the ground. So in this post, I am going to talk about it some more! However, this time I will relate it to survival in the new economy.

What characterizes our modern economy? Well, we are increasingly doing business on a global scale. The strongest companies in the US are growing and expanding their operations into other regions, such as Asia and Europe. Then, we see strong companies in regions such as Asia and Europe expand into our region and do business here. New competition is arising from different places in the world every day. With new competition, new ideas, and new innovations come changes in the market landscape and the way we do business. The changes we make in response to the changing market affect the market back and our competition as well and so this feedback mechanism continues back and forth.

But what’s the big deal? Hasn’t this always been the nature of competition? And hasn’t global commerce been around for a while?

To an extent, yes, global commerce has been around for quite some time, and we have seen these competitive behaviors since the dawn of competition. But what is different today is the extent of the global market and how fast information travels.

In the past, businesses were confined to the regions they did business in and traded goods worldwide. Now, businesses have a more pervasive presence worldwide, which affects respective economies and even cultures in a new way.

With the rapid information transfer that the internet allows, market activity has become faster and denser. Research can be done quicker and efforts can be coordinated instantly. What all of this results in is a highly volatile, ever-changing market to do business in. New innovations pop up all the time. Advances in technology change the market environment over night.

To survive, today’s businesses have to adapt to all of these changes and leverage the changing market conditions in order to attract more consumers and increase revenue. A changing market calls for changing businesses.

Businesses that are flexible are going to be the businesses that can change when the market takes a sudden turn. Flexible businesses have plans for reorganization. They also encourage employees to innovate and try new things whenever possible. They make change their policy.

I’ve talked about this before, but building with modular construction allows a business to have change-ready facilities. If a business needs a new workspace to begin working on smart phone applications, or a new computer room for social media marketing experts, that business will be able to expand upon their existing facilities without necessitating disruptive construction. New technologies require new workspaces to produce the latest product on the market. A smart business has to be ready for whatever is around the corner so they can be among the first to take advantage of it.

In the next post, I’ll talk about the significance of the green movement in relation to the new economy and how smart businesses are getting on board.

Today’s economy is a fast, rapidly changing, virtually unpredictable landscape to do business in. The market landscape is changing every day. New businesses spring up and old businesses close as market trends take off in new directions, seemingly without warning. New, unexpected sources of competition emerge, forcing competing companies to alter their strategies quickly and effectively.

With the advent of the Internet and continuing on today, substantial research can be done quickly. Companies can check up on their competition with ease and alter their business strategies accordingly. With a rapid exchange of information comes an increased rate of business activity and change. As the global market sees more and more activity and encompasses more and more countries, we see new sources of competition arising all over the globe; as if domestic competition wasn’t enough!

It lends credit to the phrase, “It’s like a jungle out there.” And to an extent, this phrase rings true. Analogous to the diversity of jungle life, we see a diverse assortment of businesses out there, all of them with different services, approaches, and (sometimes strange) personalities. But with diversity and healthy competition comes a brilliance and vibrancy of life. Just take a look at the Amazon. Though this new economy is sometimes unpredictable and at times crazy, I myself am optimistic about the resulting benefits it will provide.  

But the question persists: in the face of this new, global, fast economy, how does a business survive?  Well by adapting of course! A business can adapt by becoming stronger, more intelligent, and craftier in method. This is not easily done, of course.  

Our struggles to understand this strange new fast-track economy have been exacerbated by this seemingly endless recession we have been stuck in. Times are still tough! But they are also getting better. And though this recession has been hard on us all, I think it is also making us stronger: more lean, more efficient, more conscious of the market.

Add our current environmental crises to the mix and we can be seen to have a lot on our plate. But even though it has been a struggle, we are now more conscious of the environment than ever. Our hardships and worries have given us a greater awareness of the need to generate sustainable living…both on an ecological level and an economic level as well. Our hardships have proven to be bittersweet. I believe we will come out of this recession stronger than ever and able to build a better society in the future.

This article series will cover how businesses are adapting to the changing economy and how they are continuing to survive in this new, crazy marketplace.

In the next blog post, I will go over how successful businesses are becoming more flexible and change-friendly in order to keep up with changing market conditions.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, modular design is generally a sign of maturation in a respective craft. It is the indication that a designer has mastered the basic principles of functionality in a design and is moving on to universalize the design, making iterations of the design more adaptable, versatile, and efficient.

What do I mean by all of this? Let me give you an example.

The evolution of the building industry actually serves as a convenient example. Not long ago, the building industry worked mainly with rigid, fixed buildings, each building taking on a specific function. A different building had to be built according to each unique function. If the building’s function changed, they had to demolish sections or even the whole building and dispose of the waste. Then they had to start a new section or building to accommodate new functions.

As designers and builders mastered their methods, they started thinking about new, more efficient ways to build. Modularity of design is born. Larger units of construction (such as a building) break down and atomize into individual, self-contained units (such as modular wall panels and frames). These units can then be arranged into larger structures, or buildings, to be fitted with doors, windows, HVAC units, faucets, and whatever other items need to be installed to carry out a specific function. Then, all of these individual units can be broken down again to form something else.

We now see a whole new level of efficiency, adaptability, and versatility in our buildings, benefitting our businesses and the environment simultaneously! This model can be extended to all other aspects of design. Granted, some designs are unique and non-transferrable. We aren’t quite at the point where we can break down a cell phone and rearrange it into a lawn-chair. But will we ever be at that point? Or is it just absurd? I don’t know.

Nevertheless, more and more designs are becoming more modular and versatile. This is what the future will look like.

Interestingly, modular designs are also going hand in hand with nature-imitating designs. Humanity’s peaking interest in the environment is really beginning to show at a time when designs are undergoing modularization.

This is completely appropriate, since modular design is environmentally friendly and cuts down on waste. We can now cut down on multiple design iterations and redundancy by providing universal designs that can be configured to meet a variety of uses. In the near future, you won’t have to go to lengths to build your dream kitchen, only to rip it out and redo it when you want to upgrade it. You’ll be able to install and remove various kitchen modules to carry out your changing needs.

This saves dramatically on unnecessary waste. Our increasing investment in sustainable designs is consistent with the physical appearance with these designs. Designs are appearing more and more organic and are further taking on the appearance of their surroundings. All of these emerging elements in design indicate our understanding that we are a part of our environment and are not separate from it. Further, we wish to sustain that environment and protect. That’s what the future is going to look like.

But what does it mean to be a green building? Besides being recyclable and reusable? And what is all this talk about sustainability that has been going on? I seek to address those issues in this post.

A green building is not only made of recyclable materials, which is always a great feature, but is designed and built with many other aspects of environmental interaction in mind. Everything from water use, energy use, ventilation, to insulation and heating/cooling efficiency is considered when building a green building.

A modular building is made from recyclable materials and is reusable, yes, but there is more to the green benefits of modular construction. Modular walls have a higher insulating capability than drywall, so less energy will be used to heat and cool the building. Used with water-saving faucets and toilets, a modular building goes a long way in ensuring the building is environmentally friendly.

But where do we get the motivation to build green buildings in the first place? They’re a nice idea sure, but are they really necessary? Hopefully we want to answer, “Well of course they are!” But why? This is where the concept of sustainability comes in.

Sustainability pertains to the belief that we have limited resources to work with, but we didn’t always believe this.

Plants and trees grow, animals reproduce, rain replenishes our water supplies…all of these observable phenomena gave earlier generations the illusion that we have infinite resources to work with. Our planet’s natural life cycles replenish all of the resources we need. Nothing is created or destroyed…waste only breaks down to be recycled and used again, etc.

The problem is that this way of thinking is no longer relevant to what reality tells us. What we have learned with modern sciences and technology is that we are quickly depleting our resources.

Have you heard of the term “renewable?” Renewable resources are resources that replenish, so yes, we can draw from stores of renewable resources. The only problem is that these renewable resources require certain environmental conditions to replenish themselves. What we have been doing is using resources to the point of them no longer being renewable at their source. If you put enough of a strain on a self-replenishing system, that system will no longer have the ability to replenish itself. To cite an extreme example, you can cut your finger and your skin will heal and regenerate. Your body has that capacity. But if your hand or even your finger comes off, your body doesn’t have the capabilities of regenerating that hand or finger. That’s just not how it works. The same is the case with certain resources. If you draw water from a reservoir to the point of the reservoir drying up, that reservoir may lose the ability to retain water in the future.

Sustainability is a concept applied to our understanding of resources. When we say we want to develop a sustainable resource or design, then we want that resource or design to be fit for human use, but also to exist without damaging our ecosystem. Having a sustainable resource means we are using that resource moderately, but also allowing the resource to replenish, putting less of a strain on the ecosystem. By the same token, if we are working with a sustainable design, then that design, whether it is a car or building or appliance will be able to exist in our environment without putting a strain on resources.

Sustainable design in buildings pertains to a philosophy of design that incorporates considerations of the relation between the economic, ecological, and social spheres and the need for sustainable resources for consumption.

What this all means is this: we have come to understand that humans as a species exist within a delicate ecological system, or the environment. Our concept of the environment is no longer that of a simple background full of resources that we can fool around in all day. We have come to understand the environment as a complicated process that we are inexorably a part of. Everything we do affects the environment, which in turn can affect our society back, which can cause all sorts of economical changes as well. It is in this way that society, the ecosystem, and the economy are all connected. If we damage one portion of that relationship, the damage will eventually transfer to the other portions. It is this current understanding of our world that leads us to put so much weight on sustainable design.

Waste ends up in landfills and becomes unusable matter. Since sustainable building designs use recycled materials and are reusable, we don’t have to dig into the actual environment and extract raw materials. The longer we can put to use limited resources that we absolutely need, the longer our environment has time to recharge and replenish its resources to be used for future generations. Modular buildings are green by this very standard. They use recycled materials and the modular structures are reusable themselves, so the original raw materials get put to use in longer lifecycles, giving our renewable resources more time to recharge.

So to conclude, we exist as part of a delicate interrelation of human societies and ecosystems. If something harmful happens to an ecosystem, this in turn will damage human society and vice versa. It is in our best interest to build structures that use up as little of the environment’s resources as possible, so that in the future we can continue to have resources to work with.

Whatever the case, the fact of the matter is that we are now painfully aware of the human impact on the ecosystem and the environment in general. Climate changes due to global warming, energy shortages, depleting fresh water stores, collapsing ecosystems, and other environmental problems have been made fully present in today’s public awareness. In the last 30 years, the picture painted by these problems was pretty bleak. Basically, corporations were recklessly destroying the environment in pursuit of profit, and the general character of mankind was seen to be squandering natural resources daily, natural resources that we took for granted but that wouldn’t be around for much longer. Soon the earth would be an inhospitable wasteland and we would be obliterated.

However, that’s not the picture we see today. The green movement has reached a critical stage in which businesses and concerned individuals have embraced environmentalism and the pursuit of green technology. Whereas in the past, going green was seen as expensive and impractical and was resisted, today going green is seen as actually profitable and cost-saving and a necessary pursuit for the good of our future generations. We are beginning to see the development of a bright, optimistic view of our environment and the future. Population growth is stabilizing and the existing population is more aware of human effect on the environment than ever.

Instead of just advancing for the sake of advancing, modern technology is advancing carefully, taking care not to “tread all over the grass.” Technology is now green-oriented, focusing on energy conservation, efficiency, and waste elimination.  Modern technological advances are not only focusing on human benefit, as they were before, but balancing that with environmental benefit and doing a great job of managing the two while still bounding forward, in my opinion. That’s brilliance right there.

Modern modular construction is a big part of the green technology movement, seeing as how construction waste makes up more than 30% of landfill waste. With the reusability and recyclability of modular systems, construction waste could be virtually eliminated if modular construction advances as the standard method of construction. Modular systems are made from completely recyclable materials, which helps. But one of the greenest aspects of modular buildings is their reusability. If you build a modular building intended to carry out a certain function out of universal, modular parts, you can break those parts down and rearrange the parts to build another building that can carry out a completely different function.

This is a profound advantage that carries benefits that are two-fold. Not only are you cutting down on waste from having to destroy a building and dispose of the debris, but you are saving on the energy and resources that it takes to construct a whole other building. This is an elegant solution to construction waste if I don’t say so myself, and a sign of the beginnings of a new, bright age of clean, green technology.

Modularity is a broad term that applies to a certain system wherein a combination of universal parts is put together to make a whole. These individual parts are generally self-contained, isolated units that can be rearranged into various configurations to carry out a variety of functions.

Modularity as a concept can be seen in but not limited to: technology, art, music, biology, and of course, manufacturing and building.

In technology, certain aspects of computers and software can be seen to be modular. Computers contain chips, microprocessors, power supplies, and various other components that can be configured in a variety of casings to create different types of computer systems to carry out different roles. Operating systems like Windows support a huge variety of programs that can be integrated in the operating system but stand on their own as a functioning program, like Word or a computer game.

There are forms of art that can be rearranged to create new artistic expressions. Digital art especially can be manipulated by a variety of users and rearranged to create new statements.

In Jazz, musicians are considered modular entities that stand on their own as individuals, yet combine to form a unique sound. These musicians can combine in whatever arrangement they feel and create different sounds.

In biology, certain organisms, especially plant life, consist of various components that can be combined in a variety of configurations: a tree can consist of branches, twigs, and leaves that can be arranged in whatever configuration the tree happens to grow in.

In manufacturing, modern assault rifles and other weapons systems are usually modular in nature. These weapons can be broken down and reassembled with various riflings, receivers, and bodies to accommodate different ammunition types and combat roles.

In construction our own modular buildings consist of individual parts that can be put together and organized to suit a variety of applications. People often marvel at how many different types of products we sell: clean rooms, offices, media rooms, partitions, press boxes, machine enclosures, guard houses, restrooms and more. But really, all of these products are variations born out of a configuration of universal wall and rail systems, with different function-specific furnishings such as HVAC systems, faucets, and TVs. 

A modular system is generally a sign of maturation in the specific discipline it is used in. In manufacturing and technology, it is the result of the efforts on the part of a creator to build a product with more ease of use, versatility, and lower cost. A modular system has the benefits of being more affordable and flexible than its fixed-structure counterparts.

That is why we are so proud of our modular buildings!

Two decades ago, maybe more, the word “modular” was associated with prefabricated homes, mobile homes, and portable trailer buildings. The word began to acquire negative connotations. When people thought of modular, they thought of the cheap, quickly thrown together buildings that could be traced to the beginnings of modular construction after WW2. You walk through a building like that and you feel like you are stepping through a cardboard box. It’s no wonder the term began to gather negative connotations.

However, in the past 20 years, modular construction has seen incredible advances in technology and method, where today’s modular building is a completely different species of building altogether.

Modular construction is quickly becoming the new definitive “construction”, and represents an exciting new way of thinking about construction itself. The trouble is, the word still carries those old negative connotations and a lot of people don’t realize what is going on in the industry. This is a problem, considering how energy efficient, waste efficient, flexible, and intuitive modular construction has become. 

People see the modular products that Allied Modular puts out and some of them are genuinely surprised. They marvel at how nice the buildings are and how solid they look and feel.

Realizing the true image and connotations to be associated with today’s meaning of the word “modular” on a mass scale would really usher in the modular method as the new definitive type of construction, and I think that is slowly happening to some extent.

It makes me think of today’s 3D technology in digital entertainment, oddly enough.

But I suppose you can draw the analogy without too much difficulty. 3D technology has been around for a while; I believe they first started showing 3D movies in the 1950’s, and then the technology grew more popular in the 80’s and 90’s, but it was still only limited to a smaller niche then. Finally, the technology caught up with the idea and we see releases such as Avatar that are hugely popular and then the floodgates open and now everything is becoming 3D. We will see more advanced forms of the technology and 3D will become the standard delivery of digital media.

I see a lot similarities with that and modular construction.

An idea will often begin as a gimmick and as technology catches up and the gimmick becomes more and more useful and wholesale, the gimmick can solidify into something useful, and eventually a standard if the idea is powerful and universal enough.

I think modular construction is one of those ideas, an idea that will become a standard.

So we come back to the question of how we deliver the image of modular construction as the new standard of construction into the global consciousness.

Do we do it simply by demonstration? I think that is already underway at this point. Can we help to move it along with a cartoon character? A funny commercial? An icon? I don’t know at this point.

Time will tell, as it always does.

First I’d like to throw a couple of statistics at you:

•   A full 1/3 of the companies listed in the 1970 Fortune 500 vanished by 1983

So what we can infer from that statistic is that these companies vanished as technology and culture changed. Their leadership did not prepare the companies for change, so when the world changed around them, they had to go out of business.

• 67% of companies did not know the financial cost of IT downtime to their business.

This statistic is surprising considering the losses that are possible because of IT downtime. Losses could be estimated from $10,000 – $1,000,000 dollars an hour for some companies due to IT downtime. How does downtime happen? And how does it wreak so much havoc?

Well, downtime usually occurs when change happens upon a company that is not poised for change. The company scrambles to make the changes with a huge loss in efficiency, and day to day business processes stop and employees become unproductive. When your business processes stop and your productiveness goes down, your business hurts! No wonder downtime tallies up so many losses.

Change is a necessary condition for existence. Even for so much as a second to pass, change is needed. So if the nature of the world is that of change, then the nature of your business must be change, in order to continue to prosper.

Always have a plan for change to follow for your company. If you are faced with a sudden change and your company isn’t prepared for it, you’re going to scramble around trying to implement  the change and your company is going to experience costly downtime.

Imagine for a moment two planks of plywood. If that plywood is struck by a sudden force, which piece is going to remain whole: a rigid, brittle piece of plywood, or a flexible, bendable piece of plywood? The same principle holds for a company. The flexible, bendable company is going to remain whole when it is struck by a sudden, new force.

How do you plan for change? Well, there are many facets of a company that can be made change-ready but I do not have enough expertise to advise you on everything. I do have enough expertise to advise you on one facet: the buildings that a company conduct their business in. Allow me to explain.

The nice thing about modular building systems is that they are flexible by their very nature. Modular wall systems are designed to be removed, added, and rearranged to meet an endless number of applications.

When it all comes down to it, if you construct buildings for your company and you use modular construction to do it, you are already planning for change on the building side. Modular construction is based on change. When you build a modular building, you are giving that building the capacity to be just about anything you need it to be for your changing business.

Now that’s some smart and easy planning right there.

We see cultural relativism everywhere. We constantly remind ourselves not to judge the behaviors and practices of individuals from another culture because these behaviors and practices can come from motives that we might not understand from our own perspectives.

We see the evidence of a highly distilled form of relativism in marketing: gum that changes flavor over a period of time and works differently with different people, body deodorant that changes scent over a period of time, removable faceplates for cell phones and video game consoles to allow individuals to express themselves through their gadgets in colors, designs, and more.

Future architectural designs reflect these underlying conceptions as well. Eventually we will see skyscrapers that consist of pillars of rotating units that allow the occupants on each story to change their respective views whenever they want.

Glimpses of relativist thought can be seen in the growing modular industry’s recognition of the benefits of flexibility and change in commercial construction especially.

Modular building methods are the cutting edge in construction. As opposed to hard construction, whose structures can be seen to “crystallize” into functionally rigid units that have to be broken down, cleared out, and rebuilt when they are no longer useful, modular construction involves the endlessly varied arrangement of universal parts to be “put together” into flexible structures that can be rearranged, relocated, or taken down with minimal effort.  

Modular builders understand the diversity of today’s businesses on a national and global level. What works for one business owner might not necessarily be the way to go for another. On top of that, businesses have to constantly change and grow to survive in this changing world.  As businesses change and grow, the structures that support these business’ daily processes will have to inevitably change and grow with them. A modular building has this capability.

A modular builder can work with a business and design and build what that particular business needs. Not only that, but the modular building that ends up being built can easily be relocated, rearranged, or expanded upon to suit the changing needs of the growing business.

Modern modular construction is a big nod to the differing needs and desires of separate individuals.  

Is relativist thought a good thing? My opinion is yes. As time goes on, and as our globe becomes smaller and smaller during this age of information and international commerce, we will find ourselves in an environment that is growing in diversity and perspectives. Relativist thought offers a flexible solution to dealing with all of the different perspectives and opinions and needs of different individuals. With relativist thought, we can modify our perspectives and methods on the fly to accommodate individuals of different backgrounds and needs as they present themselves to us. When this mode of thought is applied to all the various aspects of our culture: our products, our food, our buildings…then more and more individuals of varying backgrounds will be represented in this growing global culture of ours.

Modular building is a great example of this when it comes to modern construction.