Exploratory literature review of blockchain in the construction industry

First academic publications on blockchain in construction instantiated in 2017, with three documents. Over the course of several years, new literature emerged at an average annual growth rate of 184%, surmounting to 121 documents at time of writing this article in early 2021. All 121 publications were reviewed to investigate the expansion and progression of the topic. A mixed methods approach was implemented to assess the existing environment through a literature review and scientometric analysis. Altogether, 33 application categories of blockchain in construction were identified and organised into seven subject areas, these include (1) procurement and supply chain, (2) design and construction, (3) operations and life cycle, (4) smart cities, (5) intelligent systems, (6) energy and carbon footprint, and (7) decentralised organisations. Limitations included using only one scientific database (Scopus), this was due to format inconsistencies when downloading and merging various bibliographic data sets for use in visual mapping software

Blockchain technology and green supply chain management (GSCM) - improving environmental and energy performance in multi-echelon supply chains

In this competitive and technology driven world, businesses are striving to gain benefits of environmental sustainability and energy conservation by implementing the latest technologies in their supply chains. A promising way of evaluating the environmental performance of a product or a process is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modelling, but the reliability of LCA results is mostly compromised due to the lack of real data from upstream and downstream supply chains. Our research aim is to drive LCA modelling through Blockchain Technology (BCT) and internet-of-things which have the capability to record reliable, transparent, and secure data from across the supply chain. The modified LCA model will provide various industries with the quantified benefits of BCT in terms of industrial emissions reduction. This conference paper reflects the 1st stage of research where we carried out a detailed literature review on potential use of blockchain technology in green supply chain management and based on the findings, we developed an integrative framework architecture for the supply chain of a supermarket product. In the next phase, the integration of BCT and LCA will be studied in food supply chains using a supermarket case study of Walmart-IBM developed blockchain consortium

Copernicus for urban resilience in Europe

The urban community faces a significant obstacle in effectively utilising Earth Observation (EO) intelligence, particularly the Copernicus EO program of the European Union, to address the multifaceted aspects of urban sustainability and bolster urban resilience in the face of climate change challenges. In this context, here we present the efforts of the CURE project, which received funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme, to leverage the Copernicus Core Services (CCS) in supporting urban resilience. CURE provides spatially disaggregated environmental intelligence at a local scale, demonstrating that CCS can facilitate urban planning and management strategies to improve the resilience of cities. With a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement, CURE has identified eleven cross-cutting applications between CCS that correspond to the major dimensions of urban sustainability and align with user needs. These applications have been integrated into a cloud-based platform known as DIAS (Data and Information Access Services), which is capable of delivering reliable, usable and relevant intelligence to support the development of downstream services towards enhancing resilience planning of cities throughout Europe

The influence of blockchain technology on decision making in peer-to-peer energy trading

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThe increasing pressure set by climate change is bringing up new ways to take advantage of the latest emerging technology for environmental objectives. The energy sector in the cities’ functioning is one of the most critical industries where more renewable and efficient solutions are needed. Peer to peer (p2p) energy trading is a mechanism that allows the participants to share the excess energy produced by their private solar panel, helping to reduce the pressure on the main grid in a sustainable way. In this context, blockchain-based p2p energy trading is the solution for which the energy sharing mechanism can become more efficient and safer thanks to the fundamental features of blockchain technology, encouraging more people to join the network and provide a significant contribution to the climate change problem. Like in all the sharing economy markets, p2p energy trading is strictly dependent on the behaviours and perceptions of participants. The first issue that arises is that blockchain technology is an incredibly new innovation and it’s not clear how people perceive it, if with trust or scepticism. There is a risk that the presence of blockchain can slow down the adoption process because of lack of confidence in the technology, decreasing the potential beneficial impact of p2p energy trading. The second issue is the actual trading behaviour of the participants. The sharing mechanism is based on the willingness of the participants to share their assets but if this willingness is not constant, the whole functioning is blocked. Also, the presence of blockchain can alter the actions of participants making them more oriented towards individual benefits than those of the community. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate how participants behave in blockchain based p2p energy trading, analysing their trading actions under different blockchain enabled scenarios and their willing to join such networks

Archival Study of Blockchain Applications in the Construction Industry From Literature Published in 2019 and 2020

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate proposed blockchain applications in the construction industry from contemporary literature. Methodology: Archival studies will be used to obtain academic content from secondary sources. An explorative strategy will be adopted with no preconception or biases on the preferred route of execution. Blockchain is a fast-evolving technology with a high rate of yearly progression; therefore, this paper refines the search to recently published material in 2019 and 2020. Data is collected in two stages, firstly, categories of research are extrapolated from secondary literature and recorded into a table, and afterwards, the corresponding proposed application of blockchain is documented and reviewed. Findings: An adequate breadth and variety of categories are substantiated from archival literature, which effectively contributes to the extraction of proposed blockchain applications for construction. The data collection extracts 19 categories from the explorative study, in which 19 proposed solutions (one per category) is presented. All of the advisory content for the proposed solutions were obtained from a deliberated selection of 21 academic study papers. Limitations: The study is limited to one proposed application per category, totalling 19 proposed solutions; however, assessing various approaches per category could not be researched comparatively due to voluminous information. Thus, recommendations incorporate a holistic case study of one subject category which incorporates a multitude of various proposed applications. Originality: This paper contributes to new knowledge through extrapolating proposed blockchain applications from academic literature in 2019 and 2020

WoodCircus, Underpinning the vital role of the forest-based sector in the Circular Bioeconomy. D2.2 Resource Efficiency, Side Streams and Value Chain Analysis – WP2 Final Report

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Performance assessment of urban precinct design: a scoping study

Executive Summary: Significant advances have been made over the past decade in the development of scientifically and industry accepted tools for the performance assessment of buildings in terms of energy, carbon, water, indoor environment quality etc. For resilient, sustainable low carbon urban development to be realised in the 21st century, however, will require several radical transitions in design performance beyond the scale of individual buildings. One of these involves the creation and application of leading edge tools (not widely available to built environment professions and practitioners) capable of being applied to an assessment of performance across all stages of development at a precinct scale (neighbourhood, community and district) in either greenfield, brownfield or greyfield settings. A core aspect here is the development of a new way of modelling precincts, referred to as Precinct Information Modelling (PIM) that provides for transparent sharing and linking of precinct object information across the development life cycle together with consistent, accurate and reliable access to reference data, including that associated with the urban context of the precinct. Neighbourhoods are the ‘building blocks’ of our cities and represent the scale at which urban design needs to make its contribution to city performance: as productive, liveable, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive places (COAG 2009). Neighbourhood design constitutes a major area for innovation as part of an urban design protocol established by the federal government (Department of Infrastructure and Transport 2011, see Figure 1). The ability to efficiently and effectively assess urban design performance at a neighbourhood level is in its infancy. This study was undertaken by Swinburne University of Technology, University of New South Wales, CSIRO and buildingSMART Australasia on behalf of the CRC for Low Carbon Living

Green Consensus and High Quality Development

This open access book is based on the research outputs of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) in 2020. It covers major topics of Chinese and international attention regarding green development, such as climate, biodiversity, ocean, BRI, urbanization, sustainable production and consumption, technology, finance, value chain, and so on. It also looks at the progress of China’s environmental and development policies，and the impacts from CCICED. This is a highly informative and carefully presented book, providing insight for policy makers in environmental issues

Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders