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Academic studies on building industry have much to contribute to the mission of sustainable development and yet there has been a lack of proactive engagement with environmentalism in the project-based organizations (PBOs). The embedding of “green” in project-based organization is made particularly problematic due to the increasing conflict between organization-wide change initiatives and emerging cost occurred during daily operation. An independent environmental representative is introduced to develop a new mode of PBOs to help environmental paradigm shift in the construction industry. The paper is a contribution towards an environmental understanding of the project management process.

This paper provides a cleaner production solution for the potential usage of molybdenum tailings as a replacement of fine aggregates in structural concrete. The influence of Molybdenum tailings on the concrete properties, reinforced concrete columns and concrete-filled steel tubular columns was investigated. The environmental impact of these structural concrete products with molybdenum tailings was also assessed. The results show that the molybdenum tailings, whose radionuclides satisfy the requirement in the standard, are suitable for the preparation of structural concrete under proper replacement ratio. The workability, mechanical and duration properties of molybdenum tailing concrete are reduced by increasing the molybdenum tailings replacement ratio. The rise of replacement ratio results in a linear reduction trend on the axial strength of the reinforced concrete and concrete-filled steel tubular columns using molybdenum tailing concrete. The results of the axial compressive tests for stub columns verify the fact that molybdenum tailing concrete could be used as cleaner productions in the construction industry. The cost and environmental impact assessment indicate that concrete filled steel tube is a more preferable solution for the usage of molybdenum tailings in structural concrete, especially with higher molybdenum tailing replacement ratio. It is feasible to replace natural sand with molybdenum tailings to prepare structural concrete members along with environmental benefits. The successful application of molybdenum tailing concrete in cleaner production may further promote the sustainable development of concrete structures.

Construction and demolition waste (C&DW) as a direct consequence of rapid urbanization is increasing around the world. C&DW generation has been identified as one of the major issues in the construction industry due to its direct impacts on the environment as well as the efficiency of construction industry. It is estimated that an overall of 35% of C&DW is landfilled globally, therefore, effective C&DW management is crucial in order to minimize detrimental impacts of C&DW for the environment. As the industry cannot continue to practice if the resources on which it depends are depleted, C&DW management needs to be implemented in an effective way. Despite considering many well-developed strategies for C&DW management, the outputs of the implementation of these strategies is far from optimum. The main reason of this inefficiency is due to inadequate understanding of principal factors, which play a vital role in C&DW management. Therefore, the aim of this research is to critically scrutinize the concept of C&DW and its managerial issues in a systematic way to come up with the effective C&DW management. In order to achieve this aim, and based on a systematic review of 97 research papers relevant to effective C&DW management, this research considers two main categories as fundamental factors affecting C&DW management namely, C&DW management hierarchy including reduce, reuse, and recycle strategies, and effective C&DW management contributing factors, including C&DW management from sustainability perspective, C&DW stakeholders’ attitudes, C&DW project life cycle, and C&DW management tools. Subsequently, these factors are discussed in detail and findings are scrutinized in order to clarify current and future practices of C&DW management from both academic and practical perspectives.

Total factor productivity (TFP) is a sustainable driver of economic growth, and TFP-driven growth is of great importance for a knowledge- and technology-intensive industry. However, there is a massive gap between theoretical research and practical observations on the role that TFP has played in driving construction growth since the global financial crisis. The understanding of this TFP role may shake and even change the traditional notion that the Chinese construction industry is a typical labor-intensive industry. To fulfill this gap, this paper presents an analysis on the driving effects of growth drivers in the industry. From the perspective of neoclassical growth theory, the Solow residual approach is applied to perform this analysis, where the growth drivers are decomposed into TFP, labor and capital. The data are collected from the China Statistical Yearbook on Construction and China Statistical Yearbook for the period of 2008–2016. Interestingly, the results indicate that during the surveyed period, the average driving effects of TFP, labor and capital were 45.08%, 39.95% and 14.97%, respectively. TFP was the first and foremost growth driver, but its driving effect has been facing a rigorous challenge from labor-driven effect. From an evolutionary perspective, the growth mostly driven by TFP occurred over 4 years (2008/09, 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14), which accounted for 50% of the whole study period; the growth mainly driven by labor occurred in only 3 years (2009/10, 2014/15 and 2015/16). Given this situation, the Chinese construction industry can no longer be considered a labor-intensive industry; instead, it is believed to be moving from a labor-intensive industry to a knowledge- and technology-intensive industry.

The incessant production of cement has increased the amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere; thus, aggravating the issue of global warming which has an adverse effect on the environment. Therefore, a more sustainable approach and a careful review of the existing admixtures used to replace conventional concrete have become highly imperative. To this end, many investigations on geopolymer concrete (GeoPC), which exhibit similar or better durability and high strength when compared to conventional concrete, have been carried out by various researchers. GeoPC concrete has the advantage of cement replacement with supplementary cementitious materials that are combined with alkali activated solutions. GeoPC is a relatively new, innovative and sustainable engineering material with many advantages over ordinary concrete. For example, it exhibits higher early strength, lower natural resource consumption, low cost and ability to form various structural shapes. GeoPC is an essential material that can be used for concrete building repairs, maintenance of road transport infrastructure and reducing the negative environmental effects. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive review of GeoPC material, its constituents, production techniques, curing regimes, properties and its potential applications in the construction industry.

The traditional concrete is one of the most energy-intensive construction materials responsible for about 10% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Efforts are being made to develop an alternative binder for concrete. The geopolymer concrete (GPC) has emerged as a promising novel construction material for the production of cement and provides a clean technology option for sustainable development. This paper undertakes a review of the performance behaviour of reinforced geopolymer concrete structural elements and summarises the findings on the mechanical performance of reinforced GPC elements, e.g., columns, beams, and walls. In this review study, the mechanical properties of GPC structural elements have been investigated and compared with that of OPC concrete. The failure mode of GPC structural element has also been reported, and it was almost in the same manner of OPC concrete failure. The potential of GPC with regards to the chemical resistance and heat resistance could be significantly employed in the various industrial constructions such as marine constructions, pavements, and sewage pipes, etc. Moreover, it was observed that GPC could be safely used in structural elements owing to its excellent mechanical properties using provisions of design codes. More experimental studies are required to give a better understanding of the mechanical properties of GPC for its mass utilization in diversified application areas and spread the clean technology option in the construction industry.

Despite the increasing efforts made by the construction sector to reduce the environmental impact of their processes, construction sites are still a major source of pollution and adverse impacts on the environment. This paper aims to improve the understanding of construction-related environmental impacts by identifying on-site causal factors and associated immediate circumstances during construc- tion processes for residential building projects. Based on the literature and focus group fi ndings, we have developed a construction-related Environmental Impact Causal Model consisting of a process-oriented causal network of thirty-nine environmental impacts, forty- fi ve causal factors and over two hundred causal relationships. It is intended to contribute to a reduction in construction-related environmental impacts on building sites by supporting contractors and other decision-makers in the early identi fi cation of factors that are likely to lead to impacts or to exacerbate their consequences, as well as the later environmental performance evaluation and control. The causal model is validated by investigating over a hundred environmental incidents. Finally, possible methods to improve construction-related environ- mental performance are suggested.

Environmental problems have been considered to be serious in the construction industry. Waste management pressures are pressing very hard with alarming industrial warming signals. Among the different types of construction and demolition wastes, concrete is about 81 percent of the volume of construction and demolition waste in Australia. To minimize the concrete waste generated from construction activities, recycling of concrete waste is one of the best methods to improve the environment. However, situations of concrete recycling in different countries vary considerably. Japan is a leading country in recycling concrete waste, with 100 percent recycling of the wastes that are used for new structural applications. This paper investigates the current concrete recycling situations in Australian and Japanese construction industries. A questionnaire survey and structured interviews were conducted. In comparing the current concrete recycling situations between Australia and Japan, it should be noted that major difficulties found from Australian and Japanese construction industries are on different phases of the transition to recycling of construction wastes. Therefore, it is suggested that the Australian construction industry should be: i) developing a unified policy in concrete recycling; ii) providing financial governmental support; iii) developing clear technical specifications or standards on the use of recycled aggregate for structural applications.

Green public procurement is often promoted as a tool to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions in the supply chains of public entities. However, only a limited number of studies has quantitatively assessed the environmental impacts of green public procurement schemes. The aim of this paper was to assess the potential impact of the CO2 Performance Ladder on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands. The CO2 Performance Ladder is a new green procurement scheme that is currently used by several Dutch public authorities. It is a staged certification scheme for energy and CO2 management. Achieving certification gives companies a competitive advantage in the contract awarding process. Currently, more than 190 companies participate in the scheme. The scheme accounts for 1.7 Mt of aggregate CO2 emissions, corresponding to nearly 1% of national greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands. Since the introduction of the scheme, total CO2 emissions have decreased substantially. Nevertheless, these emission reductions should be interpreted with caution because the emission reductions are largely due to reductions by a few companies, and the level of emissions is affected to a large extent by economic activity. The companies participating in the scheme have set different types of CO2 reduction targets with varying levels of ambition. The projected impact of reaching these targets on CO2 emissions is a total CO2 emission reduction in the range of a 0.8–1.5%/yr, with a most likely value of 1.3%/yr. The CO2 Performance Ladder could therefore contribute significantly to achieve the annual reduction rate necessary to remain below the 2020 Dutch emission ceiling for sectors not included in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme.