João Alexandre Paschoalin Filho, Claudia Maria da Silva Bezerra and Antonio José Guerner Dias
The civil construction industry has vital importance to Brazil's economy. However, this sector is also responsible for the environmental impacts. Governments have been taking…
Abstract
Purpose
The civil construction industry has vital importance to Brazil's economy. However, this sector is also responsible for the environmental impacts. Governments have been taking measures aiming to mitigate these impacts. Among these, the elaboration and implementation of civil construction solid waste management plans can be highlighted. However, these plans still lack standardizations and tools for their evaluation. Environmental indicators proposal for construction solid waste management plans assessment is presented to verify the adhesion of these to environmental laws, technical standards and green building certification systems recommendations.
Design/methodology/approach
The construction solid waste management plans of three construction works were evaluated by the proposed indicators to verify the procedures related, generating, in the end, a scale between 0 and 5. After that, plans were compared with each other.
Findings
The proposed indicators have made possible the evaluation of the environmental practices performed for three different construction works. By the proposed indicators, the environmental practices were compared to technical standards and legislation suggested procedures.
Practical implications
As a contribution, the evaluation proposal presented may help the construction industry as well as the public authority to evaluate the construction solid waste management plans currently elaborated, so that these can offer a quality improvement and more effective environmental measures.
Originality/value
Methodologies that guide the evaluation of construction solid waste management plans can be beneficial for the construction companies, which can improve the quality of the plans elaborated internally and verify the effectiveness of the plans elaborated by specialized consultancies. In general, most of the construction solid waste management plans are prepared with the purpose of only complying with the legislation, more specifically of the National Council for the Environment, Resolution 307/2002.
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João Alexandre Paschoalin Filho, Antonio Jose Guerner Dias, João Henrique Storopoli, Andrea Ghermandi and Hendrio Chaves de Carvalho
This research aims at studying the influence of a classroom’s inner environmental conditions on undergraduate students’ performance using an experimental methodology.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims at studying the influence of a classroom’s inner environmental conditions on undergraduate students’ performance using an experimental methodology.
Design/methodology/approach
The Uchida-Kraepelin test (U-K test) was applied to measure the performance of a group of 47 students in a selected classroom that was arranged according to the following experimental conditions: air-conditioning on, and doors and windows closed (D1); doors and windows open, and air-conditioning off (D2); air-conditioning off, and doors and windows closed (D3). After completing the tests, questionnaires were distributed to evaluate the students’ assessment of each set of environmental conditions.
Findings
On-site measurements of humidity and carbon dioxide levels stress the importance of ensuring good natural ventilation through open doors and windows, independently of whether the air-conditioning system is operated or not. Also, the authors find that the students’ self-assessment regarding the inner environmental conditions for each studied set was entirely accurate, with set D3 being assessed as the worst. The U-K test scores for each environmental set did not show statistically significant differences, which means that, in the studied conditions, the student’s performance in the tests was not affected by the inner environmental conditions.
Practical implications
There is a direct relationship between the building’s indoor conditions and an occupant’s health. Factors such as poor maintenance, bad indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and building age will worsen the building’s condition and negatively impact the occupant’s health. Educational buildings with poor IEQ can reduce the concentration and performance of occupants.
Social implications
School is an important place to help students grow in their various capabilities. They spend approximately 30% of their daily lives in schools for their educational activities. Since most of their activities are performed indoors, indoor environmental attributes, such as light, heat, air and sound, should be maintained as required. In general, schools are not thermally comfortable. The extreme thermal environment of classrooms affects students’ concentration. Thermal discomfort may also cause irritation. In addition to reduced concentration, such an environment could also cause tiredness, sluggishness and health problem.
Originality/value
Despite the importance of the issue, scientific investigations of the correlations between students’ performance and the quality of scholar buildings’ inner environmental conditions are still relatively recent. In this context, this research further explores the effect of a classroom’s different environmental inner conditions on the performance of undergraduate students at a university in São Paulo/Brazil.