Ecological Quality of the Construction Investment Project

The aim of the article is to indicate the possibility of assessing the quality of construction solutions for investment projects by analyzing their environmental performance, also formulated as ecological quality. The concept of the environmental performance of a construction project was defined as adapting the solutions applied throughout the whole life cycle to comply with the environment. The life cycle of the construction project begins articulating building needs, then the concept and feasibility study of the project appears at the beginning of the life cycle of the project. This is followed by the design of the building and executive processes. The next stages of the project life cycle are the implementations of logistic and construction processes, which end with putting the project into service. The operation phase ends with a project closure (usually demolition or deconstruction). An attempt was made to specify the criteria for assessing the ecological quality of construction investment projects in individual phases of their cycle. The investigations were based on available literature and practical experience of the authors of the study. It was also stressed that the perspective of the subject should be taken into account in the environmental assessment. This is due to the fact that the processes of shaping the object in the program, project and implementation phases are related to operational processes and the liquidation phase. It was emphasized that each of the stakeholders should perceive all stages of the construction project cycle

Big Data as a Project Risk Management Tool

Risk management plays a key role in project management methodology. Nowadays, it is quite common to manage projects with the use of digitally collected data. The Big Data (BD) analysis can enhance the quality of information taken from these records and be used for project management. Moreover, it can be a project risk management tool. Some examples of BD application can be found in the investment and construction projects which use both physical and virtual data derived from controlling, bids for tender, schedules from sub-contractors or some other specific information. An accurate analysis of all that data (BD) makes it possible to discover new phenomena characteristic for the project. Getting to know them can be helpful in reducing the risk of accomplishing the project objective. The chapter is intended to arouse the readers’ interest in this new source of valuable information, required to improve a course of projects. An awareness of utility of Big Data was presented on the basis of the recent anonymous survey among Polish construction entrepreneurs at the turn of years 2016 and 2017. The research has been the first step towards the broad analysis of the propensity of construction companies for using BD in project risk management. Moreover, it points out some capabilities in this matter

Problems accossiated with project maturity in construction companies

This paper describes the problem of project maturity for construction companies when analyzed by their ability to execute construction investment projects. On the basis of survey results it was revealed that the success of a company is connected with the increasing level of project maturity as a condition for a successful project management

Circular Economy and Green Public Procurement in the European Union

Until now, construction was considered through the prism of technical possibilities of implementing investment plan supporting and, at the same time, urbanization processes. The development model, present in highly developed countries, is far from sustainable. The departure from natural technologies for erecting construction works must have resulted in excessive use of resources, mainly nonrenewable. The strong negative impact on the natural environment of the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry cannot go unnoticed. Therefore, a solution to the problem of excessive energy consumption in technological processes in construction, which are also generators of huge amounts of pollution, should be discovered. Circular economy (CE) is one of the concepts of response to the threat posed by these negative externalities. It is worth considering construction materials as reusable elements, e.g., after the demolition of a building. The implementation of the CE concept in AEC requires an identification of the next stage in the life cycle of buildings—the rebirth. The chapter focuses on the issues of green public procurement present in the orbit of interest of decision-makers from the European Union. It was associated with the idea of CE, which is significantly entering the construction sector in both managerial and technical terms

Cost risk of construction of small hydroelectric power plants

The growing demand for electricity forces the humanity to find the most economical methods of its production. Functioning without electricity in today's world deprives human from the possibility of a free existence, and even completely prevents it because of the technicisation of society. Growing awareness of acquiring "clean" environmentally-friendly energy from renewable sources contributes to the successive development of this sector of the economy. The purpose of the article was to analyse the risk of construction costs for small hydroelectric power plants along with an indication of the location and needs of a small hydroelectric power plant in Poland. The subject of the study was a small hydroelectric power plant producing electricity, using a turbine to convert the kinetic energy of water into mechanical energy. Aiming at illustrating the benefits of the discussed investment based on the estimation of construction costs and, as a result, financial results, a specific case of a small hydroelectric power plant located in the region of Kujawsko-Pomorskie [Kuyavian-Pomeranian Viovodeship] in central Poland was analysed. The intended research objective was achieved using industry literature, magazines as well as technical knowledge of persons holding building qualifications (including hydro-technical construction) and materials made available by two Bydgoszcz companies specializing in the implementation of small hydroelectric power plants. The COMAR- Jarek Górecki® algorithm, which operates in the industry as the author's concept of calculating the variation of financial outlays incurred for the implementation of investment and construction projects, was used to analyse the risk of costs of a construction project

Examining the asymmetric impact of COVID-19 pandemic and global financial crisis on Dow Jones and oil price shock

COVID-19 has significantly affected the financial and commodity markets. The purpose of this investigation is to understand the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Dow Jones and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil returns in relation to other crises using the Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) model. The results indicate that COVID-19 and the accompanying lockdown have adversely impacted both yields and that the impact on oil prices is more significant than on the Dow Jones index. The variance and squared residuals of oil prices and the Dow Jones reached their highest historical levels during the COVID-19 outbreak, even higher than during the global financial crisis, and especially the VaR of both markets reached their historical peak points during the COVID-19 era. The variance of WTI during COVID-19 is higher than that of DJI, as was also the case during the financial crisis. These findings confirm that COVID-19 has negatively impacted investors’ ability to determine optimal portfolios and thus the sustainability of financial and energy markets more than the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. We, therefore, suggest that policy changes are needed to maintain financial sustainability and help investors deal with future financial and other crises

Osobowość projektowa menedżerów zarządzających budowlanymi przedsięwzięciami inwestycyjnymi

W artykule wskazano, że branża budowlana nie odbiega znacznie od innych pod względem ogólnych podstaw funkcjonowania organizacji gospodarczych. Specyfika branżowa pojawia się wyraziściej w zakresie zarządzania projektami. Uwidoczniono specyficzne cechy działalności budowlanej, wywierające istotny wpływ na kształtowanie charakteru projektów inwestycyjno-budowlanych. Na podstawie wyników badań empirycznych wskazano parametry projektowe jako wyzwania dla menedżerów przedsięwzięć budowlanych projektów inwestycyjnych. Badania dowiodły, że największym problemem jest przekraczanie planowanego terminu realizacji przedsięwzięcia budowlanego. Zarządzanie czasem i budżetem projektu to najbardziej istotne czynniki ryzyka w zarządzaniu budowlanymi przedsięwzięciami inwestycyjnymi. Sprecyzowano zasadnicze elementy kompetencji menedżerów budowlanych projektów inwestycyjnych. Wskazano też potrzebę kształtowania dojrzałości projektowej menedżera projektu, a także problemy stymulacji osobowości menedżera projektu przez zmiany pokoleniowe

OCENA PROCESÓW LOGISTYCZNYCH W PRZEDSIĘWZIĘCIACH BUDOWLANYCH

Procesy logistyczne w toku realizacji przedsięwzięć budowlanych, stanowią istotny element systemu produkcji budowlanej. Zatem winny być postrzegane jako determinanta sukcesu tych przedsięwzięć. Trzeba jednak zauważyć znaczącą rolę przedsiębiorstw budowlanych, jako wykonawców robót budowlanych. O szczególnym splocie celów przedsięwzięć i ich wykonawców – przedsiębiorstw budowlanych – decyduje specyfika produkcji budowlanej. Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie charakteru produkcji budowlanej, realizowanej na placach budowy, w której procesy logistyczne mają szczególną rolę. W celu zdiagnozowania sposobu prowadzenia procesów logistycznych przeprowadzono badania ankietowe 55 przedsiębiorstw budowlanych. Badania wykazały znaczące uczestnictwo przedsiębiorstw budowlanych w prowadzeniu procesów logistycznych, a co za tym idzie ponoszenie w dużej mierze kosztów logistycznych i podejmowanie ryzyka logistycznego. Metoda „just in time” jest wprowadzana w celu minimalizacji czasu realizacji przedsięwzięć budowlanych. Z kolei jako największe zagrożenie wynikające ze stosowania tej metody przedsiębiorcy wskazywali trudności w synchronizacji harmonogramów budowlanych i harmonogramów dostaw zasobów produkcyjnych

Who Risks and Wins?—Simulated Cost Variance in Sustainable Construction Projects

More and more construction projects are closed before they ever start. Among the most significant reasons for project failures is cost risk. Construction companies have many problems with reliable cost management. Rising demands of the key market players insist on making construction projects more sustainable according to the simultaneous improvement of the economic, environmental and social responsiveness dimensions. In order to investigate these problems, a four-phase research methodology has been followed consisting of: (1) literature review to identify research trends and gaps, (2) survey to construction experts to detect their subjective perspectives about risk costs and analyse the corresponding costs structure for the investment in sustainable projects, (3) simulations based on Monte Carlo simulation with an author’s methodology for calculating the cost risk with an additional statistical analysis, (4) ending questionnaire to obtain the final feedback from the experts and the validation of obtained results. A contribution to the development of knowledge about cost risk is the observation that the changing probability distributions of individual cost-generating components may include both economic as well as technological and organizational aspects. Thus, with the proposed approach, often complex, global challenges of sustainable construction projects can be tackled in an accessible way