DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION IN SUSTAINABLE BUILDING PRACTICES AND THE ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-102
Author(s):  
Eunhwa Yang ◽  
Ying Hua ◽  
Thomas Diciccio

The stakeholder network in a building project can influence the process of adopting sustainable building practice. Complexity of construction projects calls for integrated modes of collaboration, while the excess inertia among stakeholders resulted in sluggish adoption of sustainable design and technologies. This study examined buildings that both had and had not adopted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and/or ENERGY STAR in the New York metropolitan area, built, or went through major renovation between 1998 and 2013. Secondary datasets from multiple sources, including a private building database company, US Green Building Council, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, were combined based on building address and used for analysis. Stakeholders involved in those projects were retrospectively identified to understand the diffusion of innovation. The analysis included a total of 205 projects and 273 organizations. Findings suggest that having an architect who had worked on ENERGY STAR project(s) increased the likelihood of adopting ENERGY STAR. However, stakeholders' previous work collaboration was not associated with the adoption of sustainable programs. The method of utilizing multiple secondary datasets was tested to contribute to the methodology of building research by enabling the accumulation of knowledge.

2011 ◽  
pp. 351-377
Author(s):  
Goh Bee Hua

The client’s role in leading the change in the construction industry has been widely perceived as crucial and, on the theme of sustainable building, it is advocated that clients must play their role to lead in engaging industry stakeholders in managing sustainable performance of construction projects. In essence, it is the client that makes the initial decision to procure construction works and the way in which procurement takes place. This influences the degree of environmentally-friendly (or sustainable) practice that is implemented in a project. For most building owners and property developers, this decision is affected by cost. A proposed rule-based system that contains decision-support rules pertaining to the assessment of (whole-life) cost implications for building projects is described in this chapter. The system is to be developed to meet the assessment criteria of Singapore’s BCA Green Mark Scheme and to support the use of BIM for designing energy efficient buildings and beyond.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 1650002
Author(s):  
Zohreh Pourzolfaghar ◽  
Rahinah Ibrahim ◽  
Nor Mariah Adam

Construction projects usually encompass numerous disciplines, requiring the integration of knowledge from civil, mechanical, electrical and other engineering domains. Some researchers contend that the integration of construction knowledge and experience at the early design phase would improve the overall project performance. Domination of tacit knowledge during design phase of building projects is the major source of knowledge flow problems between involved professionals. Therefore, this study intends to explicate the required mechanical and electrical knowledge which has to be considered during the conceptual design phase of a green building project. To fulfil this goal, a case study has been conducted to specify the entity of the required mechanical and electrical knowledge. The primary method for the data collection here is observation. Furthermore, this study employs the triangulation method in order to validate the collected data. The results contain the required mechanical and electrical knowledge which has to be considered during the conceptual design phase of a green building project.


Author(s):  
Goh Bee Hua

The client’s role in leading the change in the construction industry has been widely perceived as crucial and, on the theme of sustainable building, it is advocated that clients must play their role to lead in engaging industry stakeholders in managing sustainable performance of construction projects. In essence, it is the client that makes the initial decision to procure construction works and the way in which procurement takes place. This influences the degree of environmentally-friendly (or sustainable) practice that is implemented in a project. For most building owners and property developers, this decision is affected by cost. A proposed rule-based system that contains decision-support rules pertaining to the assessment of (whole-life) cost implications for building projects is described in this chapter. The system is to be developed to meet the assessment criteria of Singapore’s BCA Green Mark Scheme and to support the use of BIM for designing energy efficient buildings and beyond.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu ◽  
Chen ◽  
Chou

The assessment systems for green building have been developed and implemented for decades. Well-known systems include the U.S. system LEED, the U.K. system BREEAM, the Canadian system GB tools, and the Japanese system CASBEE. These systems will be discussed and compared together with Taiwan’s EEWH system. Each assessment system may contain a different set of evaluation items to evaluate the sustainability level of a building project. Contrarily, the assessment system for green civil infrastructure projects is rarely discussed and developed globally. In Taiwan, studies have been conducted to develop a new assessment system with some reasonable key indicators and evaluation items, serving as the tool to evaluate the sustainability level of a green civil infrastructure project. In this paper, the authors studied and summarized different key indicators and evaluation items, and made comparisons among some major assessment systems for both green building and green civil infrastructure projects. Based on the comparison of the various assessment systems, it is found that greenery, recycling of materials, water conservation, carbon emission reduction, and energy saving are considered in both green building and green civil infrastructure assessment systems. Nevertheless, external building structure, energy consumption, healthy air and temperature, illumination of the indoor environment, rainwater recycling, and underground reservoirs are considered only in green building assessments, but not in green civil infrastructure assessments. Moreover, durability, benefits, landscape, humanities, culture, and creativity, which are discussed adequately in green civil infrastructure assessments, are not highlighted in green building assessments. In addition, two construction projects in Taiwan, one green building project and one green civil infrastructure project, are presented to exemplify sustainability practices and assessments.


2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 123-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gamini Weerasinghe ◽  
Karthik Soundararajan ◽  
Janaka Ruwanpura

Green buildings help in sustainability, in terms of achieving energy efficiency and minimizing the utilization of natural resources. Additional benefits include long-term sustainable building management and maintenance. There is, therefore, compelling motivation for the building of sustainable projects. This inspiration has led to the development of the leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) rating systems and projects by the United States Green Building Council and the Canadian Green Building Council. Proper building project management (BPM) of such projects is warranted. Pre-project planning is a crucial part of BPM that ensures delivery and performance of construction projects. Pre-project planning is defined as the process that encompasses all the tasks between project initiation and detailed design. There is a positive relationship between comprehensive pre-project planning and enhanced project performance. Given the motivation for environmentally sustainable projects and proper management of constructing such projects, diligent pre-project planning for such projects is required. This paper investigates the use of the LEED rating system in pre-project planning of sustainable construction projects by developing a matrix that combines the LEED and the Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) developed by the Construction Industry Institute. The conceptual matrix and its application to a case study demonstrates that the value of linking pre-project planning with LEED to improve the decision making process during planning and designing of building projects to improve sustainability.


Author(s):  
Emmanuel Chidiebere Eze ◽  
◽  
Rex Asibuodu Ugulu ◽  
Onyealilam Peter Onyeagam ◽  
Desoji Anthony Adegboyega ◽  
...  

The complexity and fragmented nature and the multiple stakeholders in the construction industry often make it difficult to come up with a firm decision regarding sustainable building materials selection. The wrong choice could negatively impact the project objective and performance outcome. This study assessed the critical factor influencing the choice of sustainable building materials (SBM) selection on construction projects in the Southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire, non-probability (purposive and snowball) sampling techniques, and an internet-mediated survey. Data analyses were carried out using the appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical tools and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The study revealed recycled plastic, natural clay and mud, stone, bricks and tile, cellulose, stray bales, grasses, limestone, and wood timber, are the commonly used sustainable building materials. Also, their level of awareness is high while their adoption is moderate. EFA revealed that the major clusters of determinants of the choice of green building materials are: emissions minimisation, low running cost and reusability, low thermal and energy consumption efficiency, low cost and high health and safety consideration and waste minimisation. The key factors influencing the choice of sustainable building materials selection in construction are: reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, materially embodied energy cost, operating and maintenance costs, non-toxic or low toxic emissions generated by the products/materials, recyclability of the building materials, availability of the technical skills, renewable (reusable) properties, inhibiting the impact of buildings on the environment, safety and health of the occupants, and appearance and aesthetic. It is recommended that consideration be given to these factors in selecting sustainable/green building materials in the designs and specifications of construction projects.


Author(s):  
H.M. Mazzone ◽  
W.F. Engler ◽  
G. Wray ◽  
A. Szirmae ◽  
J. Conroy ◽  
...  

Viral inclusion bodies isolated from infected pest insects are being evaluated by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture as biological insecticides against their hosts. Our research on these inclusion bodies constitutes part of an effort to support their approval by the Environmental Protection Agency as insect control agents. The inclusion bodies in this study are polyhedral in shape and contain rod-shaped viral particles. When ingested by pest insects, the inclusion bodies are broken down in the insect gut and release the viral particles which infect and multiply in the nuclei of host cells. These viruses are termed nucleopolyhedrosis viruses (NPV) and are representatives of the baculoviruses (Wildy, P. 1971 IN J.L. Melnick, ed., Monographs in Virology, vol. 5, S.Karger, New York).


2013 ◽  
Vol 649 ◽  
pp. 207-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Bielek ◽  
Boris Bielek ◽  
Juraj Híreš

Interaction - society, ecology and energy. Technology and its three principal areas in society represented by industry, transportation and human settlements. Human settlements and architecture as a symbiosis of function, aesthetics, technology and economics. The criterion of the art in architecture expressed by system link Building - Climate - Energy. New value relationships in the human economy. Transformation of the material sector, energy sector and the entire economy. Low-energy building of today. Green building as an important transitional phase to the target program of sustainable future building.


Encyclopedia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 472-481
Author(s):  
Nasim Aghili ◽  
Mehdi Amirkhani

Green buildings refer to buildings that decrease adverse environmental effects and maintain natural resources. They can diminish energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, the usage of non-renewable materials, water consumption, and waste generation while improving occupants’ health and well-being. As such, several rating tools and benchmarks have been developed worldwide to assess green building performance (GBP), including the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) in the United Kingdom, German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) in the United States and Canada, Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) in Japan, Green Star in Australia, Green Mark in Singapore, and Green Building Index in Malaysia. Energy management (EM) during building operation could also improve GBP. One of the best approaches to evaluating the impact of EM on GBP is by using structural equation modelling (SEM). SEM is a commanding statistical method to model testing. One of the most used SEM variance-based approaches is partial least squares (PLS), which can be implemented in the SmartPLS application. PLS-SEM uses path coefficients to determine the strength and significance of the hypothesised relationships between the latent constructs.


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