ustainable Constructio

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6 • Use U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system when possible • Treat the built facility as an integrated whole, a key tenet to both sustainable design and constructability. • Establish early integration of Green Design and Constructability reviews. (Sustainable Design, 2003) Integrating green design into a construction project is an ethical decision in today's world. However, this goal cannot be fully accomplished without making the right decisions about constructability. Constructability reviews need to be performed on a project to determine the feasibility of green concepts, not only for the owner’s wallet but also in terms of potential indirect effects caused by their implementation. Even ideas that might not seem feasible at first might become reality through the constructability reviews, assuming that the entire team has input on the review. It is for this reason that the integration of all parties needs to happen early to determine if the Green Design will truly be “Green” in the end. Educating the public and industry: The advancement of Sustainable Construction to a global concept did not occur without help. Many developed societies have recognized its importance for some time, and have been working to inform the public and industry personal. The U.S. government in particular has developed many programs that aim to increase public and industry awareness of sustainability, among them the two programs that follow: Certification Programs: LEED is a U.S EPA approved, internationally recognized certification system measuring how well a building or community performs across categories that the U.S. Green Building Council has determined are most effective for aiding in sustainability. These categories consist of energy savings, water efficiency, carbon emission reduction, improved indoor air and environmental quality, stewardship of resources and impacts on the surrounding environment. The LEED program provides building owners and building users a simple structure for identifying and implementing practical and quantifiable building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions that minimize the impact on the environment. The LEED program has been designed to be flexible enough to apply to commercial as well as residential construction. The LEED program has been developed to not only consider the building lifecycle but also, design and construction, operations and maintenance, and renovation when needed. Furthermore, the LEED program for Neighborhood Development incorporates the goals of LEED into the community that the project occupies, thereby minimizing cultural impact. (USGBC) Solar Decathlon: The Solar Decathlon is a student competition involving universities from around the world and is fashioned after the Olympic decathlon, with ten contests testing performance in selected areas. Instead of focusing on athletic ability, however, the Solar Decathlon focuses on the application of solar energy and other sustainable building techniques to the construction of residential structures. Its purpose is to illustrate the feasibility and to encourage the use of alternative energy sources and renewable energy technologies in everyday homes. The decathlon gets its name from the 10 specific areas of competition: architecture, engineering, market viability, communications, comfort, appliances, hot water, lighting, energy balance and transportation. In addition to
7 producing enough electricity and hot water to perform all the functions of a home, each home must produce surplus energy that will be metered and returned to the grid. Integrated Teams: Change is one of the most significant sources of cost and schedule growth on a construction project. This is a significant problem on a Sustainable project due to the added complexities and documentation. Many of these changes can be controlled, yet few firms extend the extra effort to do so. With the rise of the Integrated Delivery method, this control is somewhat inherent in the overall construction process, as contrasted with the traditional Hard Bid method. The following section will discuss Integrated Delivery’s effect on changes and communication on a construction project in comparison to traditional methods of delivery, along with a case study of an Integrated Sustainable Construction project currently underway at Iowa State University. What is Integrated Delivery? Integrated Delivery focuses on combining the design, permit, and construction schedules in order to simplify the traditional Hard Bid process. This does not shorten the time it takes to complete the individual tasks of creating construction documents, acquiring building permits, or actually constructing the building. Instead, the project team strives to bring together design and construction professionals in a collaborative environment to complete these tasks at the same and therefore shorter time. An Integrated Delivery project typically makes one team responsible for both design and construction of the project. In many cases, if this team is lead by a contractor, the process is known as Contractor-led Design-Build. If the team leader is a design firm, the process is known as Design-led Design-Build. In either case, the organization employed by the owner rarely handles both aspects of design and construction in-house. In fact, the organization often subcontracts with either on-site personnel or architects and engineers to aid in completing the project. Controlling Changes: In order to understand how Integrated Delivery positively affects construction projects, consider a common problem on many projects -- controlling change. These changes can either be Owner Generated or Field Generated. Owner Generated Changes occur both during design and construction. The owner, usually after visiting the site or reviewing plans, decides to add to or retract from the project. This is often done in an effort to add some item that was overlooked from the design, or to reduce the scope of the project so as to control the total cost. Owner Generated Changes are common on almost all projects and are inevitable. Field Generated Changes occur out in the field during construction. These changes are most commonly associated with conflicts between design features and or errors in the original design or construction methods. Field Generated Changes are the most easily controlled and can usually be avoided or minimized with good communications among all parties involved. (Riley, 2005)
Page 1 and 2: Iowa State University Integrated Te
Page 3 and 4: 3 Executive Summary The concept of
Page 5: 5 Not just a passing fad: Europe ha
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Page 15 and 16: 15 All lessons from the fall were
Page 17: 17 Works Cited Bruntland Commission

ustainable Constructio

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