Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

HANDBOOK 2 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION
member can maximize his or her participation on the project (Tang 2001, Sun y Aouad 2000, AIA
National y AIA California Chapter 2007).
Sustainability and the Construction Industry
The construction industry is one of the main contributors to depletion of natural resources in the world
(Bentivegna et al. 2002). Currently this industry consumes around 43% of the energy, 72% of the
electricity, 17% of the water, and 32% of the materials and resources; in addition it produces 40% of
green house emissions, 40% of solid wastes, soil loss, reduction on air quality, and has a high negative
impact on biodiversity. In response to high impact this, emerges the concept of sustainable
construction.
With the aim of defining what is sustainable and what is not, to standardize its measurement and to
avoid green washing, different rating systems have been developed. Across the world there are several
sustainable project rating systems such as BREEAM (Building Research Establishment
Environmental Assessment Method) in the United Kingdom, CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment
System for Built Environment Efficiency) in Japan, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) in the United States, and Green Star in Australia, among others. The authors selected LEED
in order to define the sustainability criteria on this project.
LEED is a certification system that measures the sustainability of the project using six main
categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources,
environmental quality, and innovation in design. Within each category there are some prerequisites or
aspects that must be met in order to have a sustainable project, and some credits or aspects that could
be or could not be met depending on the characteristics and goals of a specific project. The credits are
associated to a number of points, and the certification level is determined according to the number of
credits achieved by the project. The credits and prerequisites have been established according to the
sustainability criteria defined in consensus by the construction industry in the United States (USGBC
2007).
Construction Industry Integration
The construction industry has several characteristics which are preventing it from achieving
improvements on its overall project performance and sustainability. Some of these characteristics
include a fragmented supply chain: each portion of the work is done by different parties that are
usually not contractually responsible with each other, the communication and information exchange
between the different parties is very poor and is characterized by a lack of information exchange
standards, and relationships and team work is based on a culture of adversarial roles, lack of
transparency and mistrust. There is a false belief that each project is different, preventing the transfer
of knowledge from one project to the other. In addition the knowledge and ideas of the contractor and
subcontractors are often lost, because they join the project when most important decisions have
already been taken. The contract wording is based on remedies and penalties and its main intention is
to transfer risk from one party to other party, which usually is not the most appropriate party to bear
the risk; therefore, it limits the possibility of cooperation among different parties and their innovation
capacity. There are not common project goals and objectives and the compensation structure is based
on individual performance; therefore each party works in its own best interest and not in the best
interest of the project. Often the interests of one party could be to the detriment of another party or the
interest of the project itself. In addition there is no room for innovation and the focus is in local
optimization (Matthews and Howell 2005, Sun and Aouad 2000, Forcada Matheu 2005, O’Connor
2009, Zaghloul and Hartman 2003, Tang 2008, Sullivan 2009, Skal 2005, Rooney 2006, Rahman and
Kumaraswami 2004).
There are some drivers that are leading the industry towards a more integrated approach to delivering
the projects. Sustainability is gaining more importance as a project success factor. There are important
challenges in terms of generational, cultural and market changes. International competition has
increased and several governments are supporting integration. There are very important advances in
technology. Projects are more complex; owners are more experienced, knowledgeable and have
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