1. construction business news me October 201554
Green
steps
GCC governments are imposing
new standards to minimise
greenhouse gas emission and limit
resource depletion. Construction
companies can play a direct role
in this process, write Dr Ioannis
Spanos and Francesca DePetris
ever, more work is required in order
for these benefits to be fully applied in
the construction sector at a wider scale.
The right mix of initiatives from both
the public and private sector has proven
to be most effective in implementing
innovation and best practice internation-
ally. GCC governments are imposing
new standards to minimise greenhouse
gas emission and limit resource deple-
tion. Construction companies can play
a direct role in this process.
The following ten points describe
active steps which can be adopted to
T
he impacts of global warm-
ing are highlighted often
on the front pages of news-
papers, but what is often
overlooked is the role of
industry; manufacturing, transportation
and construction may be major pollut-
ers, but the greening of such industries
could create entire new revenue streams
and business opportunities.
According to data from the United Na-
tions Environmental Programme, glob-
ally, out of the total emissions related
to buildings, approximately 80% are
related to operational energy consumed
during occupancy with 20% of emis-
sions are emitted during manufacturing
of construction materials and during the
construction process. Considering the
overall construction emissions, for build-
ings and infrastructure, around 10% of
the UK national emissions are associated
with the manufacturing and transporta-
tion of construction materials and with
the construction process. In addition to
carbon reduction emissions, green con-
struction activities allow preventing and
minimising land pollution, increasing
water consumption efficiency, reducing
noise and traffic levels and maximising
waste diverted from landfill. Especially
on waste, statistics in Europe and the US
report that construction and demolition
waste alone can amount up to 30% of
total generated waste, more than 70% of
which can be recycled.
International experience has proven
that much can be done to change
these trends. Lately, stakeholders and
developers in GCC have become aware
of the benefits of sustainability; how-
make a transition towards a greener
construction process:
1. Sustainability knowledge should not
remain the exclusive domain of a
sustainability consultant embedded in
the construction team. Sustainability
requirements should be common
knowledge amongst management,
shop drawings production, procure-
ment and staff onsite. The senior ex-
ecutive directors, the company board
and the senior management have to
‘buy in sustainability’ as they may be
Dr Ioannis Spanos is the senior
sustainability manager at KEO International
Consultants. His consultancy and project
management experience includes the
development of low energy, environmental
friendly and sustainable urban solutions in
UK, West Africa and GCC during the last 14
years. He is a Chartered Energy Engineer
and following a Doctorate in the physics of
energy in urban environments, he has been
exposed in the design and development of
projects within all building sectors.
SUSTAINABILITY

2. construction business news me October 2015 55
Some of the common practical
green requirements within different
international rating systems are:
• Segregate waste on site and agree with
companies for removing the waste going to
recycling plants
• Have holistic project operational and
construction environmental management
plans; procedures on-site have to be clear,
interconnected and have regular and
structured quality checks
• Avoid procurement of high VOC content
materials and finishes: paints, adhesives,
sealants, carpets, floors
• Prefer the use of energy efficient
machines and equipment, avoiding leaving
them running idle and channelling their
exhausts away from workers or occupants
Know your building systems
• LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) – volunteer based
and developed by the US Green Building
Council. Includes requirements for
contractors to follow during the construction
stage. Enjoys global recognition.
• Estidama – a mandatory system devised
in Abu Dhabi and applicable to all new
buildings in the emirate on a five point
sliding scale
• GSAS (Global Sustainability Assessment
System) – a Qatari system also used in
other GCC countries such as Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia.
LEED and Estidama incorporate
requirements for contractors in the
same rating that is applied to the design
process, while GSAS or CEEQUAL (a UK
sustainability assessment, rating and awards
scheme for infrastructure) have created
individual schemes to assess sustainability
of the construction process alone.
the final authority when critical situa-
tions are escalated and a quick decision
is required. Greening a construction
company, of any size, requires challeng-
ing existing processes, making them
more efficient away from blindly follow-
ing ‘business as usual’.
2. Sustainability starts well before the
actual works on site by having a plan
of delivery based on sustainability prin-
ciples; principles which in most cases
reflect international best practice.
3. Sustainable construction processes have
to foster openness and collaboration
between internal teams and external
stakeholders, working towards a com-
mon target of creating truly sustainable
projects. This means that some barriers
may have to break down and all in-
volved parties should work together to
achieve the targeted sustainability goals.
4. Green procedures have to be embed-
ded in the contractual appointments and
subcontractor orders, focussing equally
on sustainability compliance, materials
selections and actual construction.
5. Sustainability compliance requires well
informed procurement and expert
knowledge of the market; a sustain-
able material is not always expensive
nor are low cost items always non-
sustainable. Construction companies are
usually more successful on sustainability
deployment when they believe in “one
team" approach.
6. Introduce a sustainability “charrette" in
every project, where the sustainability
criteria of the project can be analysed
and clear targets can be given to con-
struction team leaders.
7. Sustainability should be considered a
continuous improvement process, by
training staff at different levels. Com-
panies with an ISO certification, or
continuous learning programmes, at
all levels, will find the process much
easier as continuous learning can
rekindle motivation, understanding
of best practice and ultimately lead to
long-term sustainability initiatives.
8. Teams should be encouraged to
share knowledge and ideas: holding
regular workshops between differ-
ent construction teams to look at
ways to eliminate environmental and
sustainability impacts, hazards or
risks can provide a better communi-
cation vehicle of green knowledge
than having dedicated training on
sustainability.
9. Knowledgeable construction com-
panies could challenge the design
for better sustainable solution at no
extra cost during the construction
stage; a well-informed sustainability
consultant can provide support to
the client, designer and contrac-
tor to achieve a common beneficial
outcome.
10. Sustainability criteria of materials
must always be tagged within the
specific material submittal. Sustain-
ability criteria of any scheme (LEED,
Estidama, GSAS, CEEQUAL) have to
be always linked to specifications
and drawings, specifications and
drawings have to be linked to orders,
orders of sustainable materials have
to be linked to the deliveries on site
and, finally, all works and commis-
sioning has to be linked to the initial
sustainability criteria.
Francesca De Petris is an architectural
engineer specialising in sustainability
and construction management, currently
working as a sustainability manager
for KEO International Consultants. De
Petris has 15 years international work
experience, with over 8 years’ experience
of construction supervision in Europe
and the Middle East. De Petris holds an
MSc in Science of Architecture with the
Polytechnic of Turin, Italy and an MSc in
Environmental Design of Buildings with
Cardiff University, UK.