Sustainability in construction industry

Nigeria is the most populous Black race country in Africa and in the world with a total land area of 983,213 km2 occupied by over 160 Million people: The interaction of these millions of people with their environment has left indelible mark on the landscape. Urbanization, deforestation, flooding, desertification, over population and all kinds of pollution are some of the resultant effects of man's interaction with his environment. These changes result from the populace attempt to achieve their seemingly endless desire for food, shelter, recreation and infrastructural facilities and urbanization in general. This has placed a lot of pressure on the environment. Flooding has become the annual experience of Nigerian cities especially in Aba, Abia State where it has causes economic stampede in the rainy seasons of the year. Effort made by the government and residents to forestall the menace has produced sub-optimal results. There is hence, the need to adopt more proactive, standard and reliable procedures that can give sustainable outcome and restore the socio-economics growth of the urban centre.

Back cover text: Megaprojects and Risk provides the first detailed examination of the phenomenon of megaprojects. It is a fascinating account of how the promoters of multi-billion dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, how the formula for approval is an unhealthy cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued economic development effects. This results in projects that are extremely risky, but where the risk is concealed from MPs, taxpayers and investors. The authors not only explore the problems but also suggest practical solutions drawing on theory, experience and hard, scientific evidence from the several hundred projects in twenty nations and five continents that illustrate the book. Accessibly written, it will be the standard reference for students, scholars, planners, economists, auditors, politicians and interested citizens for many years to come.

The Supplementary Green Book Guidance on Optimism Bias (HM Treasury 2003) with reference to the Review of Large Public Procurement in the UK (Mott MacDonald 2002) notes that there is a demonstrated, systematic, tendency for project appraisers to be overly optimistic and that to redress this tendency appraisers should make explicit, empirically based adjustments to the estimates of a project’s costs, benefits, and duration. HM Treasury recommends that these adjustments be based on data from past projects or similar projects elsewhere, and adjusted for the unique characteristics of the project in hand. In the absence of a more specific evidence base, HM Treasury has encouraged departments to collect data to inform future estimates of optimism, and in the meantime use the best available data. In response to this, the Department for Transport (henceforth DfT), has contracted Bent Flyvbjerg in association with COWI to undertake the consultancy assignment "Procedures for dealing with Optimism Bias in Transport Planning". The present Guidance Document is the result of this assignment.

Infrastructure threatens to lock-in societies to fossil fuels, unless something is done about it now. This is because infrastructure lasts for such a long-time, meaning that any infrastructure built or rebuilt now will last well into the 21st century – even until the end of the century in some cases. Consequently, there is a need to integrate climate change, especially adaptation, into infrastructure now or societies will be left with infrastructure designed around an unsustainable socio-technical system (e.g. combustion engines, roads, suburbanization, etc.). Such change is conceptualized in the literature as a sustainability transition. However, any attempts at such transitions have to address the materialities of infrastructure systems (e.g. physical form, environmental context, etc.). In this paper I develop the concept of socio-material systems and apply it to transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada.

This paper focuses on problems and their causes and cures in policy and planning for large infrastructure projects. First, it identifies as the main problem in major infrastructure development pervasive misinformation about the costs, benefits, and risks involved. A consequence of misinformation is massive cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and waste. Second, the paper explores the causes of misinformation and finds that political-economic explanations best account for the available evidence: planners and promoters deliberately misrepresent costs, benefits, and risks in order to increase the likelihood that it is their projects, and not the competition's, that gain approval and funding. This results in the "survival of the unfittest," where often it is not the best projects that are built, but the most misrepresented ones. Finally, the paper presents measures for reforming policy and planning for large infrastructure projects, with a focus on better planning methods and changed governance structures, the latter being more important.

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

As megaprojects have become ubiquitous, their real benefits and costs have come under increased scrutiny. We interviewed Bent Flyvbjerg, who has extensively studied megaproject development. Flyvbjerg has found systematic problems in the development process: by intentionally misrepresenting information and deliberately disregarding risks, proponents instigate projects that result in fewer benefits and higher costs than promised.

Daylight was the main source of lighting in vernacular architecture, and building design accordingly responded to its strategic limitations. Needs for new types of buildings in conjunction with the great development of electric lamp led to the ascendancy of electric lighting. However, a return to the interest in natural lighting emerged with the energy crises in the 1970s. In order to meet the new requirements, new optical materials and technologies have been combined to produce innovative daylighting systems able to deliver daylight long distances into buildings. There is a need to maximize the utilization of daylight, to optimize the integration between daylighting and electric lighting systems so as to increase the potential application of daylighting system. The development of the hybrid lighting systems (HLS) aims to satisfy these desires. 
HLS seek to maximize the utilization of daylight by tracking sunrays, and in most cases they are concentrated to minimize the light guidance size, which eases the installation and in turn increases the potential application of HLS. Prior to delivery of daylight, electric lighting source is added to instantly top up any possible shortage of daylight. A control system works to regulate this process to minimize the energy consumption. The one output device for both sources used in the HLS made it possible to no longer need for two distinct lighting systems to be installed in one space.
Investigations in this work have measured HLS performance in terms of light delivery, light quality, energy saving and economic performance. Potential applications of HLS in different buildings types and across a wide geographical region have been investigated. An overall evaluation of HLS has been carried out. Furthermore, methods to estimate illuminance data, where measured data is unavailable, have been developed to help investigating systems performance over different geographical locations. Illuminance data produced using the developed methods showed superiority over that produced using other available methods, with the additional advantages of simplicity and universal application.
HLS performance and potential application are influenced by many variables including system characteristics, building types, and location features. The research showed that the most important variable is the concentration ratio of the light collector. This determines HLS ability to collect daylight, and thus its applicability in different geographical locations. It also stipulates light collector and guidance size, and thus HLS applicability in different building type, influences the delivered light quality, and thus occupants’ perception of daylight, and influences HLS initial and running costs. Delivered light by HLS may not be perceived as daylight due to the absence of the outside view, the likely change in daylight colour because of the mixing with electric light, the fade awareness of the seasonal and diurnal changes in daylight colour and intensity because of the instant and continuous top up. The challenges of cost, light quality and integration in building design are the most serious barriers confronting HLS ability to penetrate the market and to be used widely. This work makes suggestions to overcome these problems.

This paper explores how theories of the planning fallacy and the outside view may be used to conduct quality control and due diligence in project management. First, a much-neglected issue in project management is identified, namely that the front-end estimates of costs and benefits – used in the business cases, cost-benefit analyses, and social and environmental impact assessments that typically support decisions on projects – are typically significantly different from actual ex post costs and benefits, and are therefore poor predictors of the actual value and viability of projects. Second, it is discussed how Kahneman and Tversky’s theories of the planning fallacy and the outside view may help explain and remedy this situation through quality control of decisions. Third, it is described what quality control and due diligence are in the context of project management, and an eight-step procedure is outlined for due diligence based on the outside view. Fourth, the procedure is tested on a real-life, multibillion-dollar project, organized as a public-private partnership. Finally, Akerlof and Shiller’s recent discussion in economics of “firing the forecaster” is discussed together with its relevance to project management. In sum, the paper demonstrates the need, the theoretical basis, a practical methodology, and a real-life example for how to de-bias project management using quality control and due diligence based on the outside view.

This paper reviews current trends in the design and construction of concrete roads, the common types of concrete pavements, the failure modes of rigid pavements, the design method used in South Africa and construction site practices that designers and contractors carefully consider in order to ensure concrete pavements meet their strength, durability performance requirements with respect to sustainability and desired service life. Consequently, design or construction errors or inappropriate selection of materials have a considerable impact on the reduction of the pavement's service life. It is also shown that durable concrete pavements do not depend solely on the concrete quality but also on proper site construction practices which include placement, compaction and curing. Therefore, it is important for pavement engineers to understand and address the issues of appropriate materials selection, mix design and detailing, prevailing drainage conditions, construction techniques, and pavement performance. Likewise understanding the theoretical background underlying commonly used design procedures, and to know the limitations of the applicability of the procedures are important.

This paper focuses on problems and their causes and cures in policy and planning for large-infrastructure projects. First, it identifies as the main problem in major infrastructure developments pervasive misinformation about the costs, benefits, and risks involved. A consequence of misinformation is cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and waste. Second, it explores the causes of misinformation and finds that political-economic explanations best account for the available evidence: planners and promoters deliberately misrepresent costs, benefits, and risks in order to increase the likelihood that it is their projects, and not those of their competition, that gain approval and funding. This results in the ‘survival of the unfittest’, in which often it is not the best projects that are built, but the most misrepresented ones. Finally, it presents measures for reforming policy and planning for large-infrastructure projects with a focus on better planning methods and changed governance structures, the latter being more important.

A major source of risk in project management is inaccurate forecasts of project costs, demand, and other impacts. The paper presents a promising new approach to mitigating such risk, based on theories of decision making under uncertainty which won the 2002 Nobel prize in economics. First, the paper documents inaccuracy and risk in project management. Second, it explains inaccuracy in terms of optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation. Third, the theoretical basis is presented for a promising new method called "reference class forecasting," which achieves accuracy by basing forecasts on actual performance in a reference class of comparable projects and thereby bypassing both optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation. Fourth, the paper presents the first instance of practical reference class forecasting, which concerns cost forecasts for large transportation infrastructure projects. Finally, potentials for and barriers to reference class forecasting are assessed.

RESUMO

Tento em vista materiais potencialmente recicláveis no contexto urbano, o PET (polietileno tereftalato) já vem sendo utilizado em diversos segmentos industriais, porém este material, ainda é pouco utilizado na construção civil. Um estudo realizado pela Associação Brasileira da Indústria do PET (ABIPET) em 2011 revelou que houve um acréscimo de 304% na recuperação do PET de 1994 a 2011, totalizando cerca 294 Ktons cujo principal destino final foi aplicações nas indústrias têxteis (39,30%), não sendo contabilizada parcela de consumo para construção civil. Assim, o presente trabalho apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa experimental desenvolvida com o intuito de testar o uso do PET triturado em substituição da areia natural nas frações de 15%, 30% e 45% para a fabricação de blocos de concreto prensado com incorporação de PET reciclado. Foram determinados às características geométricas, os índices físicos e características mecânicas, tais como massa seca, absorção de água, condutividade térmica e resistência à compressão. Ao serem analisados os resultados, pode-se concluir que o teor que apresentou os melhores resultados foi de 15% de PET, devido ao acréscimo de sua resistência à compressão em relação aos demais teores, destacando-se ainda uma menor absorção, resultante de seu maior empacotamento e melhor homogeneidade do compósito.

Palavras-chave: Bloco de Vedação, Sustentabilidade, PET

ABSTRACT

Among the materials with potential of recycle, the PET (polyethylene terephthalate), is widely used in different industrials sectors. However, the use of this recycled material in construction industry is insignificant. In 2011, a study conducted by Brazilian Association of PET Industry (ABIPET) revealed a growth of the level of recycling of PET in 304% between 1994 and 2011. In absolute numbers this represents about 294 kilotons. This result represents the second in recycling of PET around the world, just behind of Japan. The main application of PET recycled are performed in textile industry (39,30%) and the consumption by construction industry  is so small that it was not recorded in survey. Thus, this paper aims to presents the results of an experimental research developed about the use of PET recycled replacing by volume of fine aggregate in fraction of 15%, 30% and 45%. The geometric, physical and mechanical characteristics were found, between them, the dry mass, water absorption, thermal conductivity and compressive strength. Can be conclude the content that replacing of 15% of PET  achieved the best results due of the biggest compressive strength, lower of water absorption, resulting from its higher homogeneity and better wrapping of composite with PET recycled.

Keywords: Concrete blocks, Sustainability, PET.

Out-of-control information technology (IT) projects have ended the careers of top managers, such as EADS CEO Noël Forgeard and Levi Strauss’ CIO David Bergen. Moreover, IT projects have brought down whole companies, like Kmart in the US and Auto Windscreen in the UK. Software and other IT is now such an integral part of most business processes and products that CEOs must know their IT risks, which are typically substantial – and overlooked. The analysis of a sample of 1,471 IT projects showed that the average cost overrun was 27% — but that figure masks a far more alarming “fat tail” risk.  Fully one in six of the projects in the sample was a Black Swan, with a cost overrun of 200%, on average, and a schedule overrun of almost 70%. This highlights the true pitfall of IT change initiatives: It’s not that they’re particularly prone to high cost overruns on average – it is that there are a disproportionate number of Black Swans. By focusing on averages instead of the more damaging outliers, most managers and consultants have been missing the real risk in doing IT. In conclusion, the article outlines ideas as to what can be done to avoid Black Swans.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

"Over budget, over time, over and over again" appears to be an appropriate slogan for large, complex infrastructure projects. This article explains why cost, benefits, and time forecasts for such projects are systematically over-optimistic in the planning phase. The underlying reasons for forecasting errors are grouped into three categories: delusions or honest mistakes; deceptions or strategic manipulation of information or processes; or bad luck. Delusion and deception have each been addressed in the management literature before, but here they are jointly considered for the first time. They are specifically applied to infrastructure problems in a manner that allows both academics and practitioners to understand and implement the suggested corrective procedures. The article provides a framework for analyzing the relative explanatory power of delusion and deception. It also suggests a simplified framework for analyzing the complex principal-agent relationships that are involved in the approval and construction of large infrastructure projects, which can be used to improve forecasts. Finally, the article illustrates reference class forecasting, an outside view de-biasing technique that has proven successful in overcoming both delusion and deception in private and public investment decisions.

Results from the first statistically significant study of the causes of cost escalation in transport infrastructure projects are presented. The study is based on a sample of 258 rail, bridge, tunnel and road projects worth US$90 billion. The focus is on the dependence of cost escalation on: (1) the length of the project‐implementation phase, (2) the size of the project and (3) the type of project ownership. First, it was found, with very high statistical significance, that cost escalation was strongly dependent on the length of the implementation phase. The policy implications are clear: decision‐makers and planners should be highly concerned about delays and long implementation phases because they translate into risks of substantial cost escalations. Second, projects have grown larger over time, and for bridges and tunnels larger projects have larger percentage cost escalations. Finally, by comparing the cost escalation for three types of project ownership - private, state‐owned enterprise and other public ownership - it was shown that the oft‐seen claim that public ownership is problematic and private ownership effective in curbing cost escalation is an oversimplification. The type of accountability appears to matter more to cost escalation than type of ownership.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of traffic forecasts in transportation infrastructure projects. The sample used is the largest of its kind, covering 210 projects in 14 nations worth U.S.$59 billion. The study shows with very high statistical significance that forecasters generally do a poor job of estimating the demand for transportation infrastructure projects. For 9 out of 10 rail projects, passenger forecasts are overestimated; the average overestimation is 106%. For half of all road projects, the difference between actual and forecasted traffic is more than ±20%. The result is substantial financial risks, which are typically ignored or downplayed by planners and decision makers to the detriment of social and economic welfare. Our data also show that forecasts have not become more accurate over the 30-year period studied, despite claims to the contrary by forecasters. The causes of inaccuracy in forecasts are different for rail and road projects, with political causes playing a larger role for rail than for road. The cure is transparency, accountability, and new forecasting methods. The challenge is to change the governance structures for forecasting and project development. Our article shows how planners may help achieve this.

Green roofs have been proposed for energy saving purposes in many countries with different climatic conditions. However, their cooling and heating potential strongly depends on the climate and building characteristics. In particular, the increase of the thermal capacity of green roofs compared to traditional roofs, if not controlled with insulation, may lead to higher cooling and heating loads. This paper discusses the energy saving potential of green roofs adopting a variable insulation strategy. A system consisting of a plenum located between a green roof and the room underneath and a sensor-operated fan that couples (or decouples) the green roof mass with the indoor environment was developed. The fan is activated and stopped using temperature based rules; the plenum is ventilated only when the fan works, creating a variable insulation system. Four cells with an insulated traditional roof, a non-insulated green roof, an insulated green roof, and a green roof with the variable insulation system have been tested in a hot and dry climate with mild winters over several years. This paper compares and discusses different plenum control algorithms. Results are particularly promising because the variable insulating system proved to adjust the thermal capacity of the roof effectively. In summer, the non-insulated green roof and the green roof with variable insulation system achieved the lowest indoor temperature; in winter, the insulated traditional roof and the variable insulation green roof system achieved the highest indoor temperatures. Measurements are hence compared with simulations. Finally, the energy saving potential of the new green roof system is evaluated.

This paper delivers a cohesive system dynamic model for the assessment of sustainable development indicators, which will assist to explore the alternative scenarios of access to market, human well-being, environmental degradation, pattern of energy consumption, environmental balance, sustainability, and quality of life. This model is developed through the interaction of three pillars of sustainable development: social, economic, and environment. This theoretical framework will help policy makers and decision makers for sustainable development planning of not only Nepal but also other countries. In addition, this model will create wider space for policy makers, professionals, academics, and researchers to analyze the interconnectedness of sustainable development indicators and their future prospects in the rest of the world.

Risk, including economic risk, is increasingly a concern for public policy and management. The possibility of dealing effectively with risk is hampered, however, by lack of a sound empirical basis for risk assessment and management. This article demonstrates the general point for cost and demand risks in urban rail projects. The article presents empirical evidence that allow valid economic risk assessment and management of urban rail projects, including benchmarking of individual or groups of projects. Benchmarking of the Copenhagen Metro is presented as a case in point. The approach developed is proposed as a model for other types of policies and projects in order to improve economic and financial risk assessment and management in policy and planning.

This paper explores the potential of computer automation and visualization tools for engineering models, and demonstrates an opportunity to improve Information Technology (IT) support for integration in the construction industry. The paper has two main parts. The first part discusses the current state of the art of information exchange in the construction industry, which is considered the driver for integration. The evolution of project modeling, types of integration and integration mechanisms are also discussed. The second part presents a practical application as it is currently applied to a real project, where automation tools and methods are being used to construct a full scale CAD model of a facility. Specialized software is being used to visualize the model, and to coordinate design development among disciplines and with the client. The utility of an “intelligent” 3D CAD model is enhanced by the development of a “Construction Simulation”, which is a key integration element that leverages the use of the 3D model for construction. The paper describes IT support for integration in the construction industry, a topic currently being explored by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and Bechtel Corporation. The research methodology presents both a conceptual framework for understanding IT impacts to integration, as well as practical experience developed as a case study of an active Bechtel project.

In the first multipurpose river valley planning of India, the vast resources of Damodar River Basin (eastern India) are not only to be envisioned in their entirety; these are to be developed in a unified manner where the water, land and people are simultaneously bounded in a seamless web. Four large dams (Konar, Tilaiya, Maithon and Panchet), Durgapur barrage and Tenughat reservoir are built to tamp the flood prone Damodar River using water resource in an integrated method. The functionality of Damodar fluvial system is controlled by dams, barrage, weirs, sluices, embankments and canals, maintaining a dynamic equilibrium between fluvial processes and anthropogenic processes. Carrying more than fifty years of legacy, the existing drainage and flood control system of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has aggravated a number of hydrogeomorphic problems especially in lower Damodar River Basin, viz., siltation of river bed and reservoirs, uncontrolled monsoonal stream flow, declining carrying capacity of lower course, drainage congestion, low-magnitude annual floods, channel shifting, de-functioned canals, decay of palaeochannels, decline of ground water level and less replenishing of soils with fresh silts etc. The present paper is mainly tried to investigate the pre-dam and post-dam hydrogeomorphic variability in relation to flood risk and drawbacks of Damodar Valley Multipurpose Project. Specifically the annual peak flow of Damodar shifts from August to September due to dam construction and reservoir storage. Applying the annual flood series of log Pearson type III distribution we have estimated post-dam 5 years peak discharge of above 5,300 m3 s-1 and 100 years flood of above 11,000 m3 s-1. Due to siltation the bankfull discharges of sample segments are gradually declined  up to 4,011 m3 s-1, 2,366 m3 s-1 and 1,542 m3 s-1 respectively, having recurrence interval of 1.18 to 3.18 years only. With regulation of monsoon flow the standard sinuosity index is gradually increased downstream, having high dominance of hydraulic factors in respect of topographic factors. In the upstream section of study area (Rhondia to Paikpara) now shows dominance of aggradational landforms, braiding, avulsion, high width-depth ratio, breaching of right bank and valley widening, but downstream of Barsul the phenomena of bank erosion, confined sinuosity, low width-depth ratio and narrowness are more pronounced.

Do different types of megaprojects have different cost overruns? This apparently simple question is at the heart of research at the University of Oxford aimed at understanding the characteristics of megaprojects, particularly in terms of how they are established, run and concluded. In this study, we set out to investigate cost overruns in the Olympic Games. To do so, we examined the costs of the Games over half a century, including both summer and winter Olympics. We looked at the evolution of final reported costs and compared these to the costs established in the Games bids, submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) up to seven years before the Games occurred. In so doing we established the largest dataset of its kind, and documented for the first time in a consistent fashion the costs and cost overruns for the Olympic Games, from 1960 to 2012. We discovered that the Games stand out in two distinct ways compared to other megaprojects: (1) The Games overrun with 100 per cent consistency. No other type of megaproject is this consistent regarding cost overrun. Other project types are typically on budget from time to time, but not the Olympics. (2) With an average cost overrun in real terms of 179 per cent – and 324 per cent in nominal terms – overruns in the Games have historically been significantly larger than for other types of megaprojects, including infrastructure, construction, ICT, and dams. The data thus show that for a city and nation to decide to host the Olympic Games is to take on one of the most financially risky type of megaproject that exists, something that many cities and nations have learned to their peril. For the London 2012 Games, we find that: (1) With sports-related real costs currently estimated at USD14.8 billion, London is on track to become the most costly Olympics ever. (2) With a projected cost overrun of 101 per cent in real terms, overrun for London is below the historical average for the Games, but not significantly so. (3) The London cost overrun is, however, significantly higher than overruns for recent Games since 1999. London therefore is reversing a positive trend of falling cost overruns for the Games.

Over the past five decades, rapid development and conversion of forest land into urban land in Pahang River Basin have led to water related problems such as solid wastes problem and degradation of water quality and quantity. This paper discussed the current institutional framework for planning and development in Pahang River Basin, Malaysia. This case study applied the literature background study and field survey. There is lack of provision to give a clear mandate for public participation in the local planning level and public representative could not be guaranteed in the local planning committee. Based on this Pahang River Basin case study, this paper further argues that the participation of local community needs to be strengthened from consultation level to the involvement level. This could be approached through joint management concept. Integrated approach on water resources management of river basin requires a full commitment from all levels of stakeholders. However, the understanding of the characteristics of the river basin both from the natural and human system aspects could not be neglected in planning and development process.

free download of each chapter from: <http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/208294>

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In his Moving to Sustainable Buildings. Paths to Adopt Green Innovations in Developed Countries, Umberto Berardi explores the transition of the construction sector to sustainable building through the adoption of green innovations. Applying methods ranging from theoretical discussions to interviews and field studies, Berardi describes how organisational models among stakeholders are changing as the sector moves towards a green economy.

Berardi’s book should prove valuable to engineers, architects, environment researchers and policy makers alike, as it successfully weaves together different aspects of green building to create a multidimensional matrix through which sustainable architecture can be understood.

Umberto Berardi, an assistant professor at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA, USA), teaches courses on sustainable construction, architectural engineering systems and building physics. He was awarded an MSc from the Politecnico di Bari, an MSc from the University of Southampton (UK) and a PhD from the Scuola Interpolitecnica in Italy. His research areas are related to building acoustics, sustainable constructions and energy saving technologies for buildings. Berardi is also a passionate pianist and a strong proponent of interdisciplinary cooperation between the arts and engineering.

Scrap tyres are being generated and accumulated in large volumes causing an increasing threat to the environment. In order to eliminate the negative effect of these depositions and in terms of sustainable development there is great interest in the recycling of these non-hazardous solid wastes. The potential of using rubber from worn tyres in many civil engineering works has been studied for more than 30 years. Applications where tyres can be used and where the addition of tyre rubber has proven to be effective in protecting the environment and conserving natural resources include the production of cement mixtures, road construction and geotechnical works. Recycling of tyres in the applications mentioned above represents a suitable means of disposal for both environmental and economic reasons.

Among the most pressing energy and environmental strategic challenges today is to identify and deploy viable alternatives to fossil-fuel-based energy systems  The barriers to deployment are systematic, leading to a state of affairs described as ‘carbon lock-in’ (Unruh
2000; Neuhoff 2007). Simply stated, even if alternative energy systems are cost-competitive in theory, the prime movers that control their diffusion throughout society –
for example, conversion and distribution infrastructure; financing mechanisms; skilled labour force; attitudes toward particular kinds of energy production activities and energy services – exhibit a preference for incumbent carbon-intensive fossil energy resources. Carbon lock-in represents path dependencies within energy systems including sunk-cost in prevailing infrastructure and entrenched political interests along with positively reinforcing relationships with broader system dynamics, from global financial logics that continue to monetise unburned carbon through energy
futures contracts to our everyday practices and expectations about mobility, comfort, and overall
well-being that underpin regular visits to the gasoline station. All of this is to say that energy systems are sociotechnical in nature, characterised by deep and often subtle interdependencies between technological, social, political-economic, and cultural processes which operate across the energy supply chain and at all scales of energy system operation (Miller, Richter, and O’Leary 2015).

The innovative daylighting systems (IDS) seek to maximize the utilization of daylight in building, where the conventional daylighting systems are no more able to meet the illumination requirements. Although many IDS have been commercially produced, none of them managed to penetrate the market strongly. Challenges, such as high initial cost, utilization difficulties, and application limitations, prevent them from widespread use. Most of these challenges can be overcome, but no IDS is likely to overcome all them at once. Alternatively, a number of systems efficiently suit different circumstances is a more practical approach.

During World War I, the US Congress made it unlawful to speak against the war. The executive prosecuted many for doing so and when tried at the Supreme Court it upheld the sentences. During the Iraq War it was not a crime to speak against the war, but it was almost impossible to be heard if you had anything critical to say. Mass media practiced a self-imposed censorship. The op-ed below was written a few days after the invasion of Iraq and sent to main media in the US, but none wanted to print it on the grounds that critique of the war was considered untimely.

This paper presents a summary of some recent research closely associated with the sustainable development of concrete technology in Bangladesh. The research
projects include: (1) causes of deterioration of concrete structures in Bangladesh, (2) problems at construction sites that causes early deterioration of concrete structures in
Bangladesh, (3) the quality of various cement brands commonly used in Bangladesh, (4) the properties of concrete made with various aggregates commonly used in Bangladesh,
and (5) recycling of demolished concrete as coarse aggregate for new construction.