Sustainable construction and the versatility of the quantity surveying profession in Singapore

PurposeThe changing role of quantity surveyors in the new paradigm of sustainable construction requires studies into new competencies and skills for the profession. The impact of sustainable construction on quantity surveying services, engagement and how they manage challenges provided an indication of the success indicators of the quantity surveying profession in meeting the sustainable construction needs.Design/methodology/approachA five-point Likert scale was developed from the list of quantity surveying firms in Singapore. An 85% response rate from 60 quantity surveying firms contacted in this study provided 51 responses. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were employed to evaluate the findings.FindingsThe factor analysis categorised the drivers derived from the literature into awareness of sustainable construction, adversarial role on green costing; carbon cost planning; valuing a sustainable property; common knowledge of sustainable construction; and lack of experience in sustainable construction.Social implicationsThe research findings supported the idea of increased sustainable construction skills in quantity surveying education, research and training.Originality/valueThe dearth of quantity surveyors with sustainable construction experience must focus on quantity surveying professional bodies and higher education. The quantity surveying profession needs reskilling in green costing and carbon cost planning to meet the needs of sustainable construction.

The environmental consequence of deep learning

Deep learning and artificial intelligence are often viewed as panacea technologies — ones which can decarbonise many industries. But what is the carbon cost of these systems? Damian Borowiec, Richard R. Harper and Peter Garraghan discuss.

Cost-benefit Quantification of Leaf Carbon Economics to Disentangle Responses of Plant Assemblages to Deer Herbivory

Although the plant carbon cost-benefit balance is known to be related to individual plant growth, reproduction, and population expansion, the association with plant community differences is not well understood. In this study, we examined how the leaf carbon cost-benefit metrics were associated with the assembly process of forest understory plant communities in areas highly affected by deer browsing. We calculated these metrics from plant physiologically parameters for 14 forest floor plant species growing in deer presence/absence site to detect the relationship between species dominance and leaf carbon cost-benefit metrics. As a result, the patterns of interspecific variation in benefit along the plant dominance rank differed in deer presence/absence sites, contributing to the marked differences in species composition and diversity observed at the two sites. In the absence of deer, where competition was the dominant determinant of plant community composition, carbon benefits among species were positively related to the plant dominance rank, indicating that species able to acquire more carbon were at an advantage. On the other hand, under deer herbivory, differences in carbon benefit between species were not strongly apparent and were not related to the plant dominance rank, indicating few differences in reproductive and expansion ability (plant fitness) between species. This process contributes to the high species diversity of plant communities observed in the presence of deer. Our results emphasize the possibility of connecting different fields of studies, physiological ecology, community ecology, and the plant carbon cost-benefit balance of single leaves to explain plant community composition differences.

Combined Configuration of Container Terminal Berth and Quay Crane considering Carbon Cost

Berths and quay cranes are scarce resources in the container terminal system. If the equipment is reasonably planned, the service quality might be improved and the operation cost of the terminal would be reduced. In addition, the competition among ports is not only the competition of the terminal service quality, throughput, and scale but also the competition of low-energy consumption and low pollution. In order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, this paper developed a multiobjective optimization model for the joint allocation of container terminal berths and Quay cranes. The model is developed based on preference of ships for berths, and the impact of carbon emission cost on terminal operations have been considered. The carbon cost from two aspects, namely, reducing the operation cost of ships and minimizing the average waiting time and departure delay of ships, has been considered. The improved adaptive genetic algorithm has been used to solve the model. A container terminal in Ningbo has been used as a case study. The carbon emission cost of the berths and quay cranes operation system has been calculated. The influence of the variation in carbon emission cost on the berths and quay cranes configuration scheme has been evaluated. The result proves that considering the carbon cost can make the berths and quay cranes operation more green and reasonable. It can be seen that the objective function value of the joint scheme is 5.92% lower than that of the traditional scheme, and the terminal operation cost of carbon emission constraints is 11.76% lower than that of no carbon emission constraints.

Analysis of embodied carbon and cost profiles of school buildings in Australia

PurposeIn recent years, there has been an increased focus on creating sustainable buildings that have a reduced carbon footprint. The primary method to achieve this has been through reducing operational carbon of buildings. However, as the industry aims to produce “carbon neutral” buildings with extremely low operational carbon through measures such as insulation, embodied carbon (EC) component could get increased. As such, it is equally important to understand the state of EC emissions in buildings. The aim of this research was to analyse typical EC and cost profiles of school buildings within Australia to understand which building elements need more attention.Design/methodology/approachThe research involved measuring EC of five classroom blocks in schools in Sydney through a case study research approach and document survey. Bills of quantities from these projects were analysed to estimate the EC and cost profiles of the buildings.FindingsResults indicated that some elements such as roof, site works, upper floors and substructure had a higher cost also demonstrating an increased EC indicating a possibility of a relationship between carbon and cost. Accordingly, these elements were identified as the typical carbon hotspots within school buildings in Australia, which need greater attention in reducing EC.Originality/valueThe study explores the carbon–cost profile of Australian school buildings and highlights the importance of reducing EC in carbon hotspots.