Unit: 1144 Sustainable Construction: Innovations and Strategies for a Greener Future Case Study

Unit: 1144 Sustainable Construction: Innovations and Strategies for a Greener Future

Access timely and effective assignment help services provided by Native Assignment Help, a reputable company in the UK.

Introduction: Unit-1144 Enhancing Sustainability in Construction Through Emerging Technologies and Best Practices

The report will demonstrate the concepts of sustainability concerning the built environment. The report will also discuss the future state of the construction industry while focusing on the development of technologies that could help companies improve their operations. This report will further highlight the issue of sustainable construction which has an enormous impact on the environment and society. The goal of companies using sustainable construction is to reduce the industry's impact on the ecology (Hossain, et. al. 2020). Using recyclable and renewable natural materials, minimizing energy consumption, reducing wastage of resources and effective use of technology in construction projects can help in implementing sustainability in the industry.

Concepts of sustainability concerning the built environment

Sustainability consists of satisfying the needs of the current age group exclusive of compromise that is needed for potential creation while making a certain sense of balance among ecological care, cost-effective growth, and community well-being. A sustainable plan is a cooperative process whereby the built environment achieves extraordinary levels of environmental balance through new construction, toward the humanization of architecture and long-term viability. Focusing on ecological context, a sustainable plan merges the minimum and natural resources conditioning solutions of the innovative advanced technologies of the present, into an incorporated intelligence system that supports individual control with professional negotiation for resource awareness. A sustainable plan rediscovers the environmental, social, and technical values, of communities, completely using the existing infrastructures, including streets and small-town planning principles. In arouse of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government is offering incentive funding to restart economies (Darko, et. al. 2019). It has become more important to consider the long-term value conception of urban built environment investment. Many guidelines and tools exist, but it is also essential to look at the governance aspect of how businesses, cities, and other stakeholders can work together to realize the visualization of a sustainable built environment. The distressing challenges it faces, include rapid urbanization, population aging, energy consumption, climate change, social inequality, deteriorating infrastructure, conventional planning, design, and construction practice (Shi and Liu, 2019). The struggle against reduction in carbon footprint and climate change should be the first and foremost key considerations while allowing a high level of well-being and comfort for users.

The future state of the construction industry

The construction industry wants to evolve and change, as each year new trends come into view within the industry, strongly focusing on sustainability and technological advancements. Construction companies should make sure to stay ahead of the game; it can be helpful to be aware of rising trends that could prepare the companies for the future. Technological trends are determining the future of construction and companies today are influenced by that technology is balanced to impact the construction industry like never before (Yepe and López, 2021). The invention of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought an unbelievable array of developments that are helping companies improve the process of building and infrastructure development. Green building is the predictable standard for the renter, homebuyer, and commercial tenant. Unluckily, many eco-friendly and sustainable features remain a lavishness, despite their long-term savings, though this will modify over the next decade as ecology and sustainable construction become more mainstream. Sustainable construction includes both the technology to inferior the use of resources, the building's carbon footprint, and the building model to reduce the use of resources. These enable vast green capes to cover up the structure while also improving its confrontation to high-powered tempests driven by climate change (Bibri, et. al. 2020). Standard concepts will enhance compatibility among infrastructure and building projects which improves economies of scale, improves productivity, and speeds up the industrialization of the construction industry.

5 different ways in which the construction process impacts the environment

The construction project has a most important collision on the world’s surroundings and contributes to ecological damage both on a local and global scale. It is vital to learn the impacts of the construction industry causes to scale back damage to the environment.

During the construction stage of projects, waste supervision is viewed as the main ecological impact, there is an abundance of other ecological concerns during production that must be addressed and considered equally (Sawhney and Odeh, 2020). There are many sources of water pollution on construction sites which comprise diesel and paints, fossil fuels, solvents, and poisonous chemicals. Every phase of any structure development has a quantifiable impact on the environment. The use of different unprocessed materials and the moving of resources from the source to the construction sites has a massive collision on the surroundings. 

The environmental footprint of the construction sites and the use of water, as well as waste exclusion and disposal, can harm society and natural resources. Construction actions have radically changed landscapes since the Industrial Revolution. Company managers need to understand how construction projects impact the surroundings, as well as how these impacts can be reduced and mitigated. Energy efficiency in construction is vigorously expensive and includes fuel, such as petrol and diesel, and electricity, which is required for the transportation of machinery, equipment, and generators and also for maintaining the site camps. 

It is therefore significant to enlarge the energy effectiveness of the project, which can be done by using contemporary technology and ensuring proper preservation of equipment and machines on sites. There is a huge demand for architects and scientists to meet the increasing power demands with clean energy solutions (Greenwood, et. al. 2019). 

To make sure sustainable development in the future, building, and design should consent to energy effectiveness from the earliest stages of the project. Construction projects generate waste which can be in the form of hazardous waste, builder’s rubble, and foodstuff waste from the employees on site. It is decisive that a thorough desecrate management preparation is outlined before the beginning of construction, which facts the source of waste, the methods of disposal, as well as the capability for waste generated to be recycled on the construction site. To avoid nonstop trips to a waste disposal capacity, many site officers construct a waste cage at the site camp, where misused resources are temporarily stored within a resistant, durable cage or container until such an instance where it can be properly disposed of.

Noise can be affected by machinery that is not correctly silenced, loud music, or excavations and drill operations. If there are responsive receptors close to the site, the construction manager should fulfill local working hours so as not to cause an excessive disturbance. The construction industry should use sustainable resources whether it is the high-rise tower, the construction of a dam, or a building or structure that requires a lot of raw and natural materials during the process. This includes limestone, wood products, building sand, clay, metals, and some natural materials, such as soil for a dam wall. These can be sourced on-site, but most frequently the materials must be sourced from somewhere else and transported to the site (Werners, et. al. 2021).

The use of natural resources or materials has a huge impact on natural diversity and ecosystems, and former to the construction of analysis with regards to material consumption and how it can be minimized. No construction project can be undertaken without the use of water as construction water must be sourced from non-potable sources, such as a water treatment plant or official boreholes, to reduce the ecological impact. There is a group of sustainableconstruction options that assist the firms in reducing unenthusiastic environmental collision such as inflatable water dams help in water runoff, and avert sedimentation. Whereas conventional dewatering solutions are time-consuming and costly, inflatable water dams are reusable and take little room. They are easier to set up and environmentally responsive by using accessible water already on the worksite.

If climate change and its impacts are to be tackled effectively, the construction industry must take a direct role at 3 levels

Mitigation

Construction projects need a great deal of cautious planning by identifying, analyzing, and supervising risks are essential for the feasibility of a project. There are many risk factors and the construction industry should mitigate those risks. Budget is the most susceptible factor and also the most discussed factor in a construction project. The companies can use construction project management software's plans on the budget which will help the companies with finances as well. One of the reasons for plan delays is a poor arrangement by the manager. The use of effective software tools for scheduling and making a project timeline would help the industry in mitigating the risk of poor arrangements. Work surroundings with safety hazards can lead to injuries and in extreme cases mortalities. To mitigate this risk the companies should train the employees with effective training programs and adopt safety management (Fawzy, et. al. 2020). Miscommunication can be the reason that creates disputes within the construction team and with the client as well. To avoid miscommunication and disputes, the companies should ensure to document everything. For example, Shoshone County’s plan was identified as a best practice for the reason that it takes a practical approach to mitigate damage by retrofitting the existing structure. The company has implemented retrofit, abatement, and re-development programs to strengthen the existing structure.

Adaptation

A change in the construction and function of a creature that outcome from a natural process by which a human being is better built-in to survive and also increase in an environment is called adaptation. The major cause for the public to move towards constructing a version is the deficiency in the presentation of the building, and sustainability of the building. The characteristics that must be included while moving out of building variation to enhance the environmental factor include comfort conditions and energy competence which can be amplified by establishing new or upgrade services (Werners, et. al. 2021). Examples of adaptation in the construction industry are substituted materials used to reconstruct the building for better visibility and uses like new flooring with coverings, and replacement of fittings of rooms, windows, and doors.

Secondary effects

The building design and construction consultant factors are more weighted in a change of design during the construction phase for internal factors. The external factors also known as secondary effects found to have a large influence on changing the plan followed by the third-party factors. The most 5 common causes of change orders can be identified a change of plans by the owner, project scope by the owner, problems on-site, error and omission in design, poor design, and working drawing details (Karpouza, et. al. 2021). In an integrated system, secondary effects are the development for both construction and design which can carry on almost altogether, exploratory various alternatives that are enviable from both viewpoints and thus eliminate the necessity of wide revisions under the appearance of value engineering.

For example, in 2014, the UK produced 201.8 million tons of waste. This figure may not seem disturbing, but the picture is that the building industry shaped 60% of that number. Within this circumstance, the scale of the trouble becomes impossible to ignore. The building generates a huge quantity of waste because it relies on a quick, cheap solution that needs to be replaced every year or even every few months. At the same time, recycling is still not a must on building sites, resulting in many valuable resources being wasted.

Conclusion

The report has discussed how construction companies can consume resources in a way that maintains sustainability in the industry. Sustainable construction allows firms to build with recyclable and renewable resources or materials. During construction projects, the firms must care to reduce energy and waste consumption where possible and defend the natural environment around the site. This has also stated various ways in which construction projects impact the environment and how they can be reduced.

References

Hossain, M.U., Ng, S.T., Antwi-Afari, P. and Amor, B., 2020. Circular economy and the construction industry: Existing trends, challenges and prospective framework for sustainable construction. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 130, p.109948.

Darko, A., Chan, A.P., Huo, X. and Owusu-Manu, D.G., 2019. A scientometric analysis and visualization of global green building research. Building and Environment, 149, pp.501-511.

Shi, Y. and Liu, X., 2019. Research on the literature of green building based on the Web of Science: A scientometric analysis in CiteSpace (2002–2018). Sustainability, 11(13), p.3716.

Bibri, S.E., Krogstie, J. and Kärrholm, M., 2020. Compact city planning and development: Emerging practices and strategies for achieving the goals of sustainability. Developments in the built environment, 4, p.100021.

Yepes, V. and López, S., 2021. Knowledge management in the construction industry: current state of knowledge and future research. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 27(8), pp.671-680.

Sawhney, A. and Odeh, I.S., 2020. Digital ecosystems in the construction industry—current state and future trends. Construction 4.0, pp.42-61.

Li, J., Greenwood, D. and Kassem, M., 2019. Blockchain in the built environment and construction industry: A systematic review, conceptual models and practical use cases. Automation in construction, 102, pp.288-307.

Fawzy, S., Osman, A.I., Doran, J. and Rooney, D.W., 2020. Strategies for mitigation of climate change: a review. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 18(6), pp.2069-2094.

Werners, S.E., Wise, R.M., Butler, J.R., Totin, E. and Vincent, K., 2021. Adaptation pathways: A review of approaches and a learning framework. Environmental Science & Policy, 116, pp.266-275.

Karpouza, M., Chousianitis, K., Bathrellos, G.D., Skilodimou, H.D., Kaviris, G. and Antonarakou, A., 2021. Hazard zonation mapping of earthquake-induced secondary effects using spatial multi-criteria analysis. Natural Hazards, 109(1), pp.637-669.