Addressing Global Changes for a Sustainable Built Environment: Implementing Sustainable Construction

Citation

Arif, M. and Syal, M. (2013), "Addressing Global Changes for a Sustainable Built Environment: Implementing Sustainable Construction", Construction Innovation, Vol. 13 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci.2013.33313caa.001

Addressing Global Changes for a Sustainable Built Environment: Implementing Sustainable Construction

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Construction Innovation, Volume 13, Issue 3

This Special Issue is the second of a two-part series focusing on Sustainable Built Environment. The first issue focussed on management of sustainable construction, whereas this issue deals with the implementation of sustainable construction and contains five papers. Sustainable Built Environment consists of: green buildings, green infrastructure, sustainable communities and cities, green machines, renewable energy, and smart grid. Given these areas, green buildings are a critical part of the overall sustainable built environment implementation. All other aspects are either directly connected or dependent upon the green buildings. Green buildings have become institutionalised in society due to the emergence of green building guidelines, the emergence and adoption which have evolved over the last ten to 15 years. The first green building guideline, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) was introduced in the UK in 1990. Another milestone was the formation of US Green Building Council in 1993 and the introduction of its green building guidelines known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) in 1998. Since then, there has been a rapid growth in the number of green building guidelines around the world. More than 23, mostly developed and rapidly developing countries, have implemented their green building guidelines and many other developing nations are in the process of framing these green building guidelines for their societies. Contributing to the green building is the embodied energy that goes in the construction of buildings. Therefore, issues such as waste minimisation during construction and use of practices such as reverse logistics also contribute to the actual implementation of a sustainable built environment. This issue includes five papers covering various aspects of sustainable built environment.

The first paper by Hightower introduces a new measure which establishes a direct relationship between physical environment and its impact on consumers’ assessment of a service encounter. In addition, the mediating effects of service quality perception, customer satisfaction, and consumers’ attitude toward a service provider are considered.

The second paper by, Kakitahi et al., identified the causes of rework in Ugandan construction industry. The authors contend that rework in construction should be estimated over the lifecycle of the building. Given the additional construction that is planned in the National Development plan, it is now even more important to establish the magnitude and causality of this and this paper presents a case study methodology to address this.

The third paper by Yates provides scenarios for the incorporation of sustainable waste minimisation strategies that were determined during a research project that investigated sustainable engineering and construction processes. Yates establishes the main types of construction waste and the sustainable strategies that could be used to minimise this.

The fourth paper by Piratla and Ariaratnam investigates design alternatives for pump-included water distribution networks considering sustainability and reliability aspects. It advocates that CO₂ emissions could be reduced at a reasonable cost. This paper also investigated the trade-offs between cost and reliability of water distribution networks. The results from this research suggest that lifecycle CO₂ emissions from water distribution networks could be reduced at a reasonable cost by choosing better objectives during the design stage.

The final paper by Li et al., provides constructors with a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities in LEED projects while exploring ways to provide a “value-added” service to the project. Some of the issues in the UK equivalent BREEAM green building standards are considered in order for it to promote innovation in construction projects. In addition this paper identified innovation in design credits as a potential “value-added opportunity” for constructors to become preferred members of the LEED project teams.

These two Special Issues have provided a comprehensive overview of the major issues facing stakeholders to ensure “sustainability”; which include practical and procedural solutions of both ends of the management and implementation stages.

Mohammed Arif, Matt SyalGuest Editors