Editorial

Citation

Haupt, T.C. (2009), "Editorial", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. 7 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt.2009.34307aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Volume 7, Issue 1

Few would argue that there has been a significant increase in interest from policy makers, practitioners and researchers and the general public in the last two decades related to the development and promotion of green construction. This is more so given international pressure to reduce the environmental impacts as a result of, for example, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions, water and soil pollution occurring due to the exponential growth in activities associated with the built environment. In many developed countries, the built environment accounts for about two-thirds of electricity consumption, nearly one-third of primary energy use and almost half of all greenhouse emissions.

This special issue encompasses a diverse yet interrelated range of themes within Green Construction. It presents research associated with strategies and tools designed to provide energy efficient solutions; performance assessment of processes and technologies, and the consideration of social issues associated with motivating and improving awareness to embrace green issues in construction and the built environment.

In their paper Augenbroe et al., describe a web-based investment optimization tool able to support decision makers in determining the best investment options from available energy efficiency improvement options in the light of expected long range energy costs. Their paper provides useful insight into how such a tool can act as an essential instrument for campus managers tasked with refurbishing buildings in their portfolio to increase energy performance. The developed tool, which has been subjected to an initial testing on a portfolio of campus buildings, is also proffered to assist campus and portfolio managers faced with selecting an optimal mix of technologies and buildings within budgets.

Muga et al.’s paper discusses an integrated framework of life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis for evaluating the environmental and economic performance of two different pavements, namely continuously reinforced and jointed plane concrete pavements. This paper argues in favour of using an integrated framework to evaluate the performance of different materials. The paper documents some of the limitations of their study, how these limitations could be addressed, and proposes approaches to dealing with these in the next stages of their study.

Few would argue that there is an increasing move towards providing a better and cleaner environment for the future. Many countries now increasingly have predetermined targets in pollutants that need to be achieved by circa 2050. Given these targets, the determination of the impact of construction on the environment, arguably, necessitates the estimation of pollutant contribution by these activities. The paper of Sihabuddin and Ariaratnam takes a quantitative approach to developing a methodology for estimating emissions in underground utility construction operations. It examines the major pollutants from equipment and trucks burning diesel fuel and shows that the emissions can be calculated from standard equations using details available at any project site. It is argued that the estimation of emissions is the initial step in curbing and mitigating airborne pollution from construction activities. Not only is the output from their study beneficial to contractors as well as policy makers, they also sees a future where anticipated airborne emissions is likely to be a standard criterion for the selection of contractors given the current emphasis on green construction.

In the paper by Bichard, the effect is discussed of methods derived from the study of social psychology to motivate better sustainable behavior in the workforces of three built environment companies. The techniques employed in the study and reported in the paper are based on an understanding that fact-based motivation alone is insufficient to create lasting sustainable change. Therefore, the use of techniques were employed that involved more intuitive or emotional methods, argued to be unusual in a predominantly conservative field as the built environment, such as the application of certain theatre-based techniques, and forum theatre approaches. The paper highlights how issues all play an important role as behavioral change strategies such as the manner and route to communication with the workforce on matters of sustainability, an understanding that the workforce is segmented into a number of definable value sets, innovations applied to employee engagement, tactics used to convince employees of the gravity and significance of better sustainable performance.

Potbhare et al.’s paper outlines the main characteristics of green building guidelines in developed countries and critically appraised their influence on the evolution and adoption of similar guidelines in India. It presents a methodology for a comparative analysis of green building guidelines in the USA, UK and Japan. Based on comparative analysis of LEED^®NC-USA and LEED^®India, their paper presents the main catalysts and hindrances associated with the acceptance of LEED^®India. Given that there is generally an increase in growth in construction industries in developing countries, the methodology presented in the paper could be adapted in understanding the evolution and future adoption of green building guidelines in other countries.

In the final paper, given that the green building phenomenon has, arguably, recently extended to the residential sector in the USA, Carswell and Smith discuss the prevalence of green building within the multifamily residential sector. By drawing on a series of comparative analyses of green criteria scorecards provided by the US Green Building Council across property types, their paper determines whether climate and rents differ substantially between green multifamily locations and the area means, leading to some interesting results. The findings of the paper should, inter alia, help policy makers understand how the multifamily sector differs from other property sectors seeking green certification.

The involvement and contribution is particularly acknowledged of the guest editors, namely Prof. Charles Egbu and Dr Mohammed Arif from the School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, England, UK and Prof. Matt Syal from the School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University, USA who co-ordinated the process of paper submittal and review. Special thanks to each of the contributing authors and reviewers for their contributions to the papers in this special issue on green building and construction. The topic of greening in construction is current and together with climate change which will feature in a future special issue stimulates healthy debate among built environment researchers across the globe.

Theo C. Haupt