Dive Brief:
- Concord, California-based builder Swinerton reported its highest revenue in four years and highlighted its sustainability and tech efforts in its 2023 Sustainability Report, which the firm released on May 31.
- Swinerton’s revenue reached $4.2 billion in 2023, a 5% increase from its highs of $4 billion in 2020 and 2022, per the report. The company also reported a new backlog high from those years at $5.2 billion, an approximately 11% increase from 2023’s $4.7 billion.
- The builder — which reached the No. 35 spot on Engineering News-Record’s 2024 list of the top commercial contractors in the country by revenue — shared that it completed 483 projects in 2023, and will position itself to continue growing subsidiaries like Timberlab, its mass timber arm, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
Among its financial advancements, Swinerton also highlighted examples of how it’s using technology across the company. These include:
- Finding new forming methods for shotcrete walls to improve safety and reduce formwork material consumption.
- Developing real-time concrete scanning to reduce defects and destructive corrections.
- Adopting new tools for drone operations to make inspections and monitoring safer and more accurate.
- Identifying new tracking tools for inventory and shipping that reduce the need for additional travel, reduce waste and prevent costly delays.
- Developing ethical policies for generative artificial intelligence tools.
Swinerton is also continuing to address the findings of its materiality assessment, a study the contractor commissioned in 2022 to identify the areas it needs to focus on amid its push to use more sustainable materials.
Steps the firm has taken so far include the launch of its environmental sustainability policy; developing a framework to implement its diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging program; identifying areas of the business accountable for addressing and managing material issues; and developing a process to track and report progress, per the report.
The update comes after a large C-suite shuffle for the firm at the start of the year. Longtime CEO Eric Foster retired in January, leading to a flurry of appointments. David Callis, formerly the company’s chief operating officer, took Foster’s role, while Ray Haj, a former regional lead, took Callis’ spot.