Carbon dioxide reduction in the building life cycle: a critical review

The construction industry is known to be a major contributor to environmental pressures due to its high energy consumption and carbon dioxide generation. The growing amount of carbon dioxide emissions over buildings’ life cycles has prompted academics and professionals to initiate various studies relating to this problem. Researchers have been exploring carbon dioxide reduction methods for each phase of the building life cycle – from planning and design, materials production, materials distribution and construction process, maintenance and renovation, deconstruction and disposal, to the material reuse and recycle phase. This paper aims to present the state of the art in carbon dioxide reduction studies relating to the construction industry. Studies of carbon dioxide reduction throughout the building life cycle are reviewed and discussed, including those relating to green building design, innovative low carbon dioxide materials, green construction methods, energy efficiency schemes, life cycle energy analysis, construction waste management, reuse and recycling of materials and the cradle-to-cradle concept. The review provides building practitioners and researchers with a better understanding of carbon dioxide reduction potential and approaches worldwide. Opportunities for carbon dioxide reduction can thereby be maximised over the building life cycle by creating environmentally benign designs and using low carbon dioxide materials

The Learning Climate of an Organisation and Practitioner Competence

This paper reports on a fully structured interview survey, using a multi-sectional questionnaire, of experienced construction contract price forecasters. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between organizational learning styles (the learning climate of an organization, individual learning styles and approaches-to-learning) and competency (individual forecasting performance/accuracy). The results found that the degree of accuracy of the subjects’ forecasts improved as their perception of the overall learning climate, and particular its working practices and staff development systems, improved. However, the relationships between their ability to learn from experience, measured in terms of individual learning styles and approaches-to-learning, and the quality of their forecasts were found to be very different from those anticipated. No significant correlations were found between forecasting accuracy and the organizational learning styles measures used, except for the learning style Reflective Observation and the approaches-to-learning dimensions labelled 'Risk-taking', 'Insecurity' and 'Self-confidence'. The results for Reflective Observation imply that those forecasters who overemphasise reflection and deliberate and ponder before taking action produce inaccurate, while the 'Insecurity' and 'Self-confidence' dimensions suggest that balanced forecasters, i.e., those who were neither insecure nor overconfident, produce more consistent forecasts. Similarly, the results for the 'Risk-taking' dimension indicate that high-risk takers tend to underestimate, while those who are more conservative tend to overestimate contract prices

Decision support system for contract bidding Interim report

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FACTORS HINDERING THE PERFORMANCE OF

It has been said that the effective performance of the Project Manager (PM) is the single most critical factor affecting successful project outcomes. Little is known, however, of the nature and extent of the hindrances to PM effectiveness in the Construction Industry (CI). This paper reports on the results of a worldwide survey of PMs concerning these issues and shows that they have the potential to be more effective and more productive in their working. Associated with this is a need to be more aware of progress and developments in the CI generally, more aware of progress and developments in their own organisation, more delegation of contract administration tasks and more general administrative support. Also highlighted is the lengthy working hours of PMs