DELIVER SUBMITTALS ELECTRONICALLY

DELIVER SUBMITTALS ELECTRONICALLY
This month's tip is courtesy of July's Green Tip submission winner, Mark Nestorowich of Lightspec. Mark suggested delivering all material and equipment submittals electronically via either email or digital email to significantly reduce paper use and waste on construction projects.
For anyone not familiar with the process, as an electrical contractor, CIR has to provide an average of 8 to 10 submittal packages for materials and equipment such as cable, lighting and fire alarm systems on every contract. Each package contains 8 to 10 copies of a submittal that ranges anywhere from 20 to 30 pages or more. That's 2,500 sheets of paper for one job, but that's only counting the electrical contractor. Most jobs also have plumbing, mechanical and general contractors each providing their own submittal packages. Needless to say, providing electronic submittals could save 10,000 sheets of paper or more on every job.
CIR project manager Amy Clifford agrees and adds that electronic submittals also save a great deal of time on a job. She recently completed a local, multi-million dollar job which required all submittals be delivered electronically. Amy stated that, "We save time by not having to prepare 10 copies of every submittal set, and the architect or engineer saves time by only having to make notes on one of each submittal package electronically." Paired with the paper savings, it's clearly a win-win situation!

Congratulations Mark! Thank you to everyone who submitted their green tip, we're looking forward to seeing all of your suggestions this month!