Charles J. Kibert

Strategies for successful construction and demolition waste recycling operations

Establishing a successful construction/demolition (C&D) waste recyling operation in the USA is a challenge today, especially because secondary materials markets have not yet matured. Increasingly, municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill operations refuse to accept C&D waste. Skyrocketing tipping fees due to the scarcity of landfill sites, and growing concerns from regulatory agencies and the public, have placed C&D waste recycling operations under intense scrutiny. The experiences of regional C&D recyclers indicate that successful recycling operations require a minimum of 0.8 ha of clear space for processing equipment, incoming waste stockpiles, recycled materials, and manoeuvring room for mobile equipment and operations. Reasonable quality, reliable equipment suitable for these operations generally costs between

Developing indicators of sustainability: US experience

300 000 and

The next generation of sustainable construction

750 000 for a 400-500 tonne/day operation. At present, operators of these facilities make a profit almost solely on tipping fees, with the recycling operation functioning mainly to maintain materials throughput. Different categories of C&D recycling machinery and waste processing strategies are presented. Strategies for converting C&D landfills into successful C&D recycling operations are also examined. C&D waste recycling economics are presented to demonstrate the essential ingredients for successful operations.

Construction ecology and metabolism: natural system analogues for a sustainable built environment

Sustainability indicators integrate environmental, social, and economic factors such that the complex cause and-effect relationships between these multiple factors can be more readily investigated. The whole systems approach of sustainable development differs from traditional environmentalism by its inclusion of economic and social factors. The selection of sustainability indicators will therefore inevitably be a human value-driven process. Environmental health will nonetheless be paramount. Empirical studies in the USA have found that states with lower pollution levels and more environmental regulation have healthier economies and fewer disparities in income between economic classes (Templet, 1995). In construction, indicators of sustainable construction are a necessary parallel to the macro-national and regional-scale indicators measuring societys movement toward or away from some approximation to sustainable development. Les indicateurs de viabilite integrent des facteurs ecologiques, sociaux et econo...

Informing LEED's next generation with The Natural Step

This special issue of Building Research & Information is devoted to examining the future of sustainable construction, more precisely, how it is evolving and where it might expect it to be in the next few decades. There are numerous definitions for sustainable construction, for example ‘the creation and operation of a healthy built environment based on ecological principles and resource efficiency’, one of the outcomes of a 1994 conference on sustainable construction (Kibert, 1994). For the purpose of this special issue, sustainable construction may best be defined as how the construction industry together with its product the ‘built environment’, among many sectors of the economy and human activity, can contribute to the sustainability of the earth including its human and non-human inhabitants. In effect it addresses the main ethical dilemma posed by sustainable development, namely the obligations of the world’s contemporary population to future generations. In considering the sustainability of this particular sector, the physical boundaries are quite extensive and include the extraction of materials, the manufacturing of products, the assembly of products into buildings, the maintenance and replacement of systems, and the ultimate disposition of waste, building systems, and ultimately the building structure. It includes the energy and water consumed during all phases of the product and building life cycles. The impacts of the manufacturing, construction, operation, and disposal phases on human and natural system health are also important considerations in evaluating the success of efforts attempting to implement sustainable construction. Further complicating the picture is the physical distribution and relationships of buildings and infrastructure and the resulting energy consumption profiles that are the outcome of planning decisions. Finally, implementation includes the interaction of public policy in the form of regulations, incentives, and disincentives; the role of the real estate, finance, and insurance industries; and the role of institutions of higher learning, design firms, and construction companies in educating, training, and employing the wide range of actors in this complex sector known as the built environment. The primary focus of building industry professionals, those that design, build, and operate facilities, has been on the wide range of buildings that comprise the bulk of the built environment. More specifically, with respect to sustainable construction they have been addressing what may be called high-performance green buildings. Today’s high-performance green buildings are a significant improvement over the conventional buildings of the past. They consume significantly less energy, materials, and water; provide healthy living and working environments; and greatly improve the quality of the built environment. Although notable progress has been made in building performance, for the most part contemporary green buildings use existing materials and products; design approaches, and construction delivery systems. Ecological design, perhaps the key concept in creating high-performance buildings, is in its infancy and sorely needs articulation for there to be the possibility of creating truly green buildings. The concept of green building materials also needs to be better defined and methods for their evaluation need to be developed. Closing materials loops by designing buildings for deconstruction and developing disassemblable building products with recyclable materials is a barely addressed issue in the context of today’s green buildings. The role of nature in buildings is another one of the key areas needing development for the future green buildings. Natural systems can provide heating and cooling, wastewater processing, stormwater uptake, food production, and a range of other services for the built environment. New energy strategies, such as ground coupling, radiant cooling and advanced photovoltaic systems, are needed to lower dramatically energy consumption and increase the use of renewable energy systems. In addition to efficiency gains and better conservation of resources, adjustments of social expectations (comfort, amount of space, mobility, access, etc.) will be an important factor in the development of a more sustainable built environment (Chappells and Shove, 2005). In short, progress has been made but the difficult problems remain unsolved. BUILDING RESEARCH & INFORMATION (2007) 35(6), 595–601

Life Cycle Assessment and Service Life Prediction

Applying the principles of sustainability to human activities ultimately must result in the scrutiny of all sectors of economic activity to assess the changes required to provide for a high quality of life for future generations. A high priority for evaluation, in the light of its impacts on environmental quality and resources, is industrial activity in general and the construction industry specifically. The construction sector consumes 40% of all extracted materials in the USA, and accounts for 30% of national energy consumption for its operation. The sustainability of this industrial sector is dependent on a fundamental shift in the way resources are used, from non-renewables to renewables, from high levels of waste to high levels of reuse and recycling, and from products based on lowest first cost to those based on life-cycle costs and full cost accounting, especially as applied to waste and emissions from the industrial processes that support construction activity. The emerging field of industrial ecology provides some insights into sustainability in the built environment or sustainable construction. Construction, like other industries, would benefit from observing the metabolic behaviour of natural systems where sustainability is built in. This paper describes a view of the construction industry based on natural systems and industrial ecology for the purpose of beginning the discovery of how to shift the construction industry and its supporting materials industries onto a path much closer to the ideals of sustainability.

Solid particulate aerosol fire suppressants

Building assessment systems, such as the US Green Building Councils Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) suite of standards, have been helpful in the initiation of a movement that is addressing the environmental impact of buildings. The approach utilized in these standards is in need of updating in order to address a number of potentially serious shortcomings. Among these are the lack of a quantifiable relationship between ‘points’ and environmental impacts, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ design for assessment, and an absence of consistent science underpinning LEED points. To address the last of these shortcomings, the potential use of The Natural Step (TNS) could form the foundation for the next generation of building assessment tools, sometimes referred to as LEED Version 3. LEED is used as an example of the potential application of TNS to remedy some of the major shortcomings of building assessment systems. The same approach would apply to voluntary, market-based building assessment systems used in other countries, e.g. the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), the Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE), and Green Star, to name but a few.

Preliminary research in dynamic-BIM (D-BIM) workbench development

Models of buildings in life cycle assessment (LCA) often use simple descriptions of operational energy, maintenance, and material replacement. The scope of many building LCAs is often limited and uses assumptions such as building lifetimes of 30 to 50 years. In actuality, building lifetimes vary considerably, and scenarios using standard assumptions may have incorrect results. Assumptions concerning material replacement, repair, and maintenance should be deliberate and as realistic as possible. This research was initiated to demonstrate the importance of service life assumptions on building life cycle assessment results. Three roof types (built‐up, thermoplastic membrane, and vegetated) and three wall forms (brick, aluminum, and wood siding) were analyzed. These materials were combined and modeled as nine distinct building envelopes. Five service life models were used to determine the service life of materials and systems. The analysis considered impacts related to material manufacturing, construction, operation, and maintenance. The Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts global warming potential, atmospheric eco‐toxicity, and atmospheric acidification impact assessment indicators were used. The analysis of the cumulative life cycle impact and life cycle impact per year found that life cycle impact was primarily dependent on the predicted frequency of major material replacement as well as differences in the frequency and intensity of prescribed maintenance. In some scenarios, the relative differences in the life cycle impact of the alternatives were dependent on the environmental indicator used.

Economic incentive framework for sustainable energy use in US residential construction

A variety of private and public sector programs are developing a new class of fire suppressants, known generically as solid particulate aerosols. These have superior volumetric efficiency, low initial and life-cycle costs, low toxicity, no known global atmospheric environmental impacts (ODP/GWP), and the potential for a wide variety of applications. Researchers are developing solid compound formulations that, when pyrotechnically initiated, generate powerful fire suppressant aerosols that behave more lightly than do air gases. Preliminary indications show that these aerosols are up to four times more powerful as fire suppressants on a mass basis than Halon 1301. Using a solid, gel, or powder as the starting point for generating an aerosol eliminates the need for piping and pressure cylinders and creates a potential for a wide variety of fire suppression applications in facilities, aircraft cargo containers, portable rapid deployment shelters, fuel storage tanks, battery/UPS rooms, unstaffed telecommunications facilities, and armored vehicle engine compartments. The speed of aerosol formation depends upon system design and configuration. This paper covers mechanisms of aerosol fire suppression and presents the most recent test results.

Safety concerns related to modular/prefabricated building construction

Past and ongoing research efforts toward seamless integration of building design and analysis have established a strong foothold in the building community. Yet, there is lack of seamless connectivity between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and building performance tools. D-BIM Workbench provides an essential framework to conduct integrated building performance assessments within BIM, an environment familiar to all stakeholders. With tighter tool integration within BIM, this open-source Workbench can be tailored to specific analysis such as energy, environmental, and economic impact of buildings. The Workbench, currently under development, will enable on-the-fly simulations of building performance tools to design, operate, and maintain a low/Net Zero Energy (NZE) built environment and beyond. This paper discusses the preliminary research in D-BIM Workbench development such as the Workbench architecture, its open-source environment, and other efforts currently under progress including integration of 3D heat transfer in the Workbench.