2008 Emerging Trends & Blue Sky Report Executive Summary

In 2008, the Construction Industry Institute (CII) Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) conducted an environmental scan to identify key issues and trends with the potential to affect CII’s members. The findings of this scan were analyzed to assess the impact on CII’s strategic plan and are distributed to CII members. This environmental scan consisted of two key components, Emerging Trends and Blue Sky Visioning.

The Emerging Trends and Blue Sky Visions of this report can vary geographically, by industry sector, and between individual organizations. Because of the nature of this study and the diverse makeup of CII, Trends and Visions must be analyzed at a broad level.

The trend environment of construction and society as a whole is constantly changing. At the time of publication, the United States is experiencing a period of great economic uncertainty. This economic uncertainty is also having global repercussions that are not yet fully understood. The construction industry is certainly not immune to the effects of this economic uncertainty and there may be significant consequences to the way the industry operates.