Social Sustainability of Green Building Research A Review
Green building research and construction is getting day by day a place in construction industry worldwide. With augmenting issues of environment and growing concern over climate change, a social sustainable green building research is getting importance. However, construction of green buildings still encounters impediments, as there is a lack of proper framework and research. The present study aims to identify common barriers encountered and social factors which are important for the sustainability of green building research. The findings from this review reveal that, although project cost is the paramount barrier among others, there is no paucity in sustainable knowledge in construction industry. Furthermore, a sustainable green building research (SGBR) framework for green building construction should be developed to overcome the barriers. (c) 2016 Elixir All rights reserved. Elixir Civil Engg. 98 (2016) 42696 42700 Civil Engineering Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) P L Bansal Elixir Civil Engg. 98 (2016) 42696 42700 42697 evidence of their behavior on a regular basis. In addition, Wade Benzoni et al. found that people were much more likely to deny harming the environment than to claim that they were helping the environment despite that the only difference was the way in which the information was presented. These kind of results imply that most people do not do more for the environment because they see themselves as environmentally benign. Renowned associations can play themselves out on a more practical level as well. Neuman (2006) reported that market often worry that, A building that promoted itself as an environmental paragon might give short shrift to basic functional considerations, like water pressure. Others recognize an association between green buildings and smaller space, lower comfort, or unappealing aesthetics. Such presumed associations led Whirlpool to consider removing the Energy Star label from their washers in the 1990s while still retaining the official Energy Star qualification and higher efficiency of less water and energy use. Internal market investigations showed that consumers associated high efficiency with poor performance thinking that less water meant less cleaning (Hoffman, 2006) Kempton, Boster, and Hartley (1995) found that people regularly underestimate the effects of small global temperature changes. To the people surveyed, a global average temperature change of 3degF to 9degF wasn't much at all, whereas climatologists project significant global disruption as low as a 2degF change. This lack of literacy makes the link between energy conservation and climate change more difficult for people to understand and creates a reduced sense of urgency or motivation for addressing environmental issues, much less to develop green building practices. There are numbers of important factors which are desired for the social sustainability of green building research. The following sections described the important factors. Reward Rewards take the form of both formal and informal signals, at times being ambiguous or conflicting. Many companies have hoped to foster improved environmental performance through the establishment of highly publicized environmental programs endorsed by top level speeches, only to watch them fail because they did not align the reward structures properly. In one example, a refinery manager quipped that his responsibilities were to protect the environment, maintain safety, and increase process yield. But when it came time for promotions, they skipped the first two and went straight to the third| (Hoffman, 2001) As a result, reward systems and not corporate policy guided his behavior. Time Time is as precious a resource as money. Green technologies and products require more information processing and an understanding of the technology's life cycle. Developing an expertise in green building is often overshadowed by more pressing concerns of managing existing workloads. Understanding new terminology and performance parameters of LED lighting, for example, can take hours of research and compilation that steals time from either other projects or someone personal time. New technologies must be identified, integrated, and tested as research as the technologies themselves evolve and improve. Howard Grenville (2006) described the Moore's Law time pressure in microchip manufacturing, which demands process innovation every few years. This pressure thwarts full investigation and solving of environmental issues in production. Similarly, owners looking to sell or lease a building quickly pressure the design and construction teams to use the known processes and technologies to prevent delay or leadtime extensions. Education Members of the building industry are highly influenced by the norms, rules and regulations inculcated in their early training experience. Therefore, one way to overcome social barriers is to integrate environmental literacy within existing training systems of the building sector. This includes architecture and engineering curriculum in the university, apprenticeships in the building trades, and even business education of owners and managers (Building Technology Incorporated, 2005) It can be a growing number of green construction courses emerging around the country in programs related to architecture, engineering, management, urban planning, and environmental affairs. Unfortunately, many remain in disciplinary departments and do not foster the crossdisciplinary collaboration necessary for this issue. The environmental impact of buildings cannot be seen as simply other factor to be added to the standard operating practice. But rather than viewing existing models as obsolete, to be discarded and replaced by a new set of ideas and theories, they must instead be adapted, bringing them closer to a realistic understanding of the behavior of the firm. This adaptation will manifest itself in a holistic approach to understanding the relationship between the built environment and the natural environment (Egri Pinfield, 1996) Arizona State University recently created a new School of Sustainability, where traditional theory based research gives way to problem based research. This approach integrates theories from multiple disciplinary sources to both understand environmental problems and teach students to design viable solutions. Few universities offer a green construction course that is aimed toward and attracts business, natural resource, architecture, and engineering students. Students work in multidisciplinary teams and report surprising success in learning the basic assumptions and cultures of other disciplines. Personal Touch On the personal level, homeowners need to understand the connections between their lifestyle choices and the energy use that results. They can then begin to see their monthly energy bill as something they can manage rather than merely accept. To accomplish this task, companies are developing energy monitors that track energy use and provide real time displays of its volume. Ohio University includes water savings in the dormitory competitions. Recycle Mania is a 10 week competition that includes over 400 colleges and universities, calculating the percentage of recycled to total waste per capita, and include internal per department and per building challenges (RecycleMania, 2008) Economy Economic Benefits Green buildings have many economic advantages that traditional buildings do not possess. According to Gluch et al. (2009) organizations can improve their business performance by focusing on three predictors of green business advantage: acquisition (routines to identify demands, initial reviews) assimilation (measurable goals, plans of action, LCA) and transformation (audits, environmental declarations) More specific examples are energy and water savings, reduced waste, enhanced productivity of occupants and decrease in maintenance and operation costs (USGBC, 2003) In addition, with prices of oil and natural gas skyrocketing in recent years, having energy P L Bansal Elixir Civil Engg. 98 (2016) 42696 42700 42698 savings in green building every year increases the building value, as occupants are able to recoup their investment in the building within a shorter period of time. constructing green buildings also entitles developers to different types of incentive. for instance, in the united states, states such as oregon and new york offer green buildings with tax credit, depending on the building size and leed certification level (yudelson, 2008) Better Risk Management According to usgbc (2003) adoption of proper green construction practices has many risk management advantages. for instance, adoption of sustainable construction practices, such as reusing building elements, can help reduce the risks of environmental liability with relation to construction waste disposal, shielding the developer from future lawsuits concerned with non compliance of sustainability related legislations. another example of these advantages is the mitigation of occupational risks for construction workers due to the reduction in new construction works required when building elements are reused. furthermore, green properties are now generating faster sales and leasing as compared with conventional building units as, in light of environmental issues such as global warming, the public at large are being educated of their numerous benefits (yudelson, 2008) Delivery Systems: Conventional Versus Green Building A majority of today's construction projects are still carried out in accordance with traditional methods and norms, where short term solutions are favored over long term ones, with material, technical solutions and managerial approaches that can seldom be classed as innovative green technology and practice (demaid and quintas, 2006; gluch, 2009) In particular, in terms of delivery systems, design bid build, construction manag