scholarly journals LEED–PDRI Framework for Pre-project Planning of Sustainable Building Projects

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.

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.


Author(s):  
Asli Gurgun ◽  
Mehmet Ozbek

The growing interest in sustainable design and construction introduces new set of risks specific to green building projects. One of the challenges in green building projects that require special consideration is the selection of the appropriate contractors to ensure that the targeted sustainability goals of the projects will be achieved. Rapid growth of green building movement requires that contractors that are willing to be active in sustainable construction learn green building rating systems, application processes, green products, and related laws and regulations. This study investigates major factors affecting the selection of contractors that will be responsible for the construction of projects aiming certification through green building certification systems. An extensive literature survey was completed to identify the significant factors in the selection process, which are important for the successful completion of the projects. It is found that experience in green building projects and certification system procedures, managerial approach, technical approach, price, past performance, and qualifications are important in the selection of contractors in green buildings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5397
Author(s):  
Bilal Manzoor ◽  
Idris Othman ◽  
Syed Shujaa Safdar Gardezi ◽  
Haşim Altan ◽  
Salem Buhashima Abdalla

Although Building Information Modeling (BIM) can enhance efficiency of sustainable building projects, its adoption is still plagued with barriers. In order to incorporate BIM more efficiently, it is important to consider and mitigate these barriers. The aim of this study is to explore and develop strategies to alleviate barriers in developing countries, such as Malaysia, to broaden implementation of BIM with the aid of quantitative and qualitative approaches. To achieve this aim, a comprehensive literature review was carried out to identify the barriers, and a questionnaire survey was conducted with construction projects’ stakeholders. The ranking analysis results revealed the top five critical barriers to be “unavailability of standards and guidelines”, “lack of BIM training”, “lack of expertise”, “high cost”, and “lack of research and BIM implementation”. Comparative study findings showed that “lack of research and BIM implementation” is the least important barrier in other countries like China, United Kingdom, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Furthermore, qualitative analysis revealed the strategies to mitigate the BIM implementation barriers to enhance sustainable goals. The final outcome of this study is the establishment of a framework incorporated with BIM implementation barriers and strategies namely, the “BIM-based research framework”, which can assist project managers and policymakers towards effective sustainable construction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 7081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Hoang Pham ◽  
Byeol Kim ◽  
Joosung Lee ◽  
Yonghan Ahn

The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program supports sustainable construction as part of the effort to address climate change and resource depletion. It is the world’s most popular green building certification system, with more than 146,400 projects. Satisfying the LEED requirements brings many benefits to a project’s design performance and adds community value, but it does incur additional costs and challenges. This study examined the choices made by those working on the 222 LEED New Construction version 4 (LEED-NC-V4) projects that were certified between September 2014 and March 2020 to determine how the LEED project teams selected appropriate LEED goals. The results reveal interesting insights into the way project LEED goals and the credits corresponding to the target certification level were chosen, as well as the links and trade-offs between the various credit options. Based on these findings, useful suggestions are made for ways to help LEED project teams achieve their target certification levels and encourage authorities to continue to improve their local green regulations. The analysis of actual certified projects’ data makes it possible to re-evaluate the effects of newly updated requests in LEED v4 in the light of the stated goals of the USGBC.


Author(s):  
Suat Gunhan

Today’s clients both public and private have additional expectations from builders. Full cycle services capability that includes financing, planning, building, and facilities management started to be pronounced in larger projects. These expectations are mainly driven by sustainability requirements of clients. These projects necessitate a comprehensive planning approach. The comprehensive planning scope includes all project activities from design to post-construction services (facilities management) with collaboration of project stakeholders. There is no defined method of project delivery for sustainable projects yet. The majority of top green building contractors in the United States are experienced in Construction Management at Risk (CMR) and DesignBuild (DB) delivery methods. This research study aims to explore the project delivery processes currently practiced in the United States’ building construction industry. The survey questionnaire was conducted with the selected Top Green Building Contractors (the list of contractors is published in the Engineering News Record Magazine annually). The original list is composed of 100 national construction firms. The San Antonio and Austin firms were invited to participate to the survey questionnaire. The findings reveal the major green building providers’ methods and procedures that are used during sustainable projects’ delivery. The results indicate that the sustainability is seen as more of a common practice for all projects by most survey participants. There is no specific method for sustainable projects yet. A well-defined sustainable building delivery method should ideally originate from DB and/or CMR.


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.


Author(s):  
Nahla Hazem Hussein ◽  
Irene Samy Fahim

Sustainability is essential for maintaining certain levels of life quality for next generations. Accordingly, Egypt started to establish its own rating system to achieve sustainable development. There are several green building rating systems that are recently used such as: the LEED (Leadership in energy and environmental Design) rating system, Green Pyramid Rating System “GPRS”, and TARSHEED rating system. GPRS and LEED are almost the same since GPRS is based on LEED. Due to the significant cultural and environmental changes between Egypt and the United States, LEED rating system cannot be implemented in Egypt. On the other hand, the rating system TARSHEED includes three categories only, namely energy, water, and habitat, to determine sustainable construction performances. For example, waste management category which is one of Egypt’s challenges is ignored by TARSHEED. This research introduces a new modified rating system for new construction with new weights to suit Egypt requirements. This work presents a comprehensive study and comparative analysis between the existing green building rating systems for new construction in Egypt. Moreover, some surveys and questionnaires are conducted to take the experts opinion in the green field. A new checklist for new construction is constructed using data obtained from Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) decision making tool. This list includes new categories and subcategories with new weights, which suit the environmental challenges in Egypt.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2202
Author(s):  
Amalka Nawarathna ◽  
Muditha Siriwardana ◽  
Zaid Alwan

The choice of materials is crucial in responding to the increasing embodied carbon (EC) impacts of buildings. Building professionals involved in material selection for construction projects have a vital role to play in this regard. This paper aimed to explore the extent to which building professionals in Sri Lanka considered EC as a material selection criterion. A questionnaire survey was conducted among a sample of building professionals in Sri Lanka. The results indicated that the consideration of EC as a material selection criterion remained low among key professionals, such as architects, engineers, and sustainability managers, despite their reasonable influencing powers and knowledge of EC. Those respondents who had considered EC as a selection criterion said they had been primarily driven by green building rating systems and previous experience. Those respondents who had not considered EC during material selection commonly reported that they had been prevented from doing so by the lack of regulations and the lack of alternative low carbon materials. Respondents believed that the involvement of actors, such as the government, professional bodies, environmental organizations, activist groups, and the public, may be significant in promoting the greater consideration of EC during material selection.


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.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document