Ecology in Construction Management

International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308 (Print), ISSN
0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 5, Issue 3, March (2014), pp. 375-382 © IAEME
375
ECOLOGY DIMENSION IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
C. Akin*
*(Department of Civil Engineering, Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science, Chennai)
ABSTRACT
Construction engineering and management techniques are being integrated now-a-days with
computing and internet being the catalyst for making this more and more popular. But many times
the focus of this integration has been either cost or time or manpower. Recent times, environmental
effects are getting prominent and people's awareness on the consequences of pollution is increasing.
Keeping this in view the present paper focuses attention on introducing 'ecology' as a dimension in
construction from two perspectives- one from energy and another from recycling. Energy
consideration as one of the objectives in planning and execution and use of waste materials like fly
ash or plastic wastes during construction are introduced in the construction and management model
and a typical case study is given to demonstrate the idea and advantages.
Keywords: Energy, Recycled Materials, Fly Ash, Quantity, Co2 Emission.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
As an integrated system the construction engineering and management plays a major role for
reducing cost, time and manpower. But recent times the environmental effects made people’s
awareness towards the consequences of pollution. The focus here is introducing ecology as a
dimension in construction management, specifically from two perspectives - one from the energy and
the other from the recycling materials like fly ash. The Co2 emission is less in fly ash when
compared to the regular building materials such as cement, bricks, etc. Perturbation in the global
carbon cycle over the past century has exerted a serious influence on the global climatic change,
leading to warmer temperatures, increased ice melts, especially in the polar region and rise in sea
levels. It is now evident that the rise in Co2 concentration within the atmosphere is one of the main
causes for the apparent rise in the average global temperature. India, being a fast developing country
with high growth rate of industrial developing, is experiencing a dramatic rise in Co2 emissions and
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
AND TECHNOLOGY (IJCIET)
ISSN 0976 – 6308 (Print)
ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online)
Volume 5, Issue 3, March (2014), pp. 375-382
© IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijciet.asp
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376
has become the world’s fourth largest Co2 emitter in the world. The construction industry is one of
the major sources of pollution. Construction-related activities account for quite a large portion of Co2
emissions. Contribution of building industry to global warming can no longer be ignored. Modern
buildings consume energy in a number of ways. Energy consumption in buildings occurs in five
phases. The five phases corresponds to the manufacturing of building materials and components,
which is termed as embodied energy. The second and third phases correspond to the energy used to
transport materials from production plants to the building site and the energy used in the actual
construction of the building, which is respectively referred to as grey energy and induced energy.
Fourthly, energy is consumed at the operational phase, which corresponds to the running of the
building when it is occupied. Finally, energy is consumed in the demolition process of buildings as
well as in the recycling of their parts. We have found the alternate construction technologies, which
apart from reducing cost of construction by reduction of quantity of building materials through
improved and innovative techniques or use of alternate low energy consuming materials, can play a
great role in reduction of Co2 emission and thus helps in the protection of environment.
1.1 Objective and Scope
The main objective of the present paper is to introduce the ‘ecology’ as a dimension in
construction management. There are five dimensions in construction management such as man,
money, material, machinery and management in which it is a regular type without considering the
effects of environment and the living beings. Therefore, consider ecology as one of the dimension in
construction management. The ecological management will be done by comparing the regular
building materials such as cement, steel and concrete with the recycled materials such as fly ash or
plastic wastes with cement, sand, steel and concrete. The quantity of materials and the Co2 emission
are the two aspects which are compared for regular building and the recycled building. Therefore,
this study aims to quantify energy and Co2 emission caused by a 46.2 m2
building units subjected to
major construction materials consumed by the building.
2.0 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Use of recycled material - fly ash in India:
Use of fly ash is mandatory for the Indian state government buildings from September 1,
2013. With fly ash accumulation emerging a big threat to environment, the State government has
made mandatory for use of fly ash bricks in all government buildings located within a radius of 100
km of fly ash generating units. It had been made compulsory to meet 50 per cent of brick
requirement in government buildings from fly ash bricks. In 2011-12, fly ash generation was 23.57
million tons per annum (mtpa). Of which 12.77 mtpa could be utilized in various sectors such as land
filling, road construction, cement manufacturing and fly ash brick making. At present only 50 per
cent of the fly ash generated from coal burning could be utilized, while the rest is stored in ash
ponds. The cumulative accumulation of fly ash after its utilization stood at 93.86 mtpa (since the year
2000). Brick making constitutes only 3.25 per cent of the utilization, while bulk of the fly ash is
being disposed of in land filling or mine void filling. The State government has been insisting on
utilization of fly ash in brick making, but it had got little success. Finally, it came out a notification
making it mandatory in the construction of government buildings. The use of fly ash for building
construction is yet to be picked up in villages. People would follow once the fly ash bricks started to
be used in construction of government buildings. Going by projection on thermal power generation
in the State, the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has predicted that fly ash generation
may even touch 150 million ton per annum if all are installed and proposed thermal power plants go
into full capacity production.

377
2.2 Co2 emission during production of construction materials
Production of ordinary and readily available construction materials requires huge amounts of
energy through burning of coal and oil, which in turn emit a large volume of green house gases.
Reduction in this emission through alternate technologies/practices will be beneficial to the problem
of global warming. To deal with this situation, it is important to accurately quantify the Co2 emission
per unit of such materials. In India, the main ingredients of durable building construction are steel,
cement, sand and brick. Emission from crude steel production in sophisticated plants is about 2.75 t
carbon/t crude steel. We may take it as 3.00 t carbon/t of processed steel. The actual figure should be
more, but is not available readily. Cement production is another high energy consuming process and
it has been found that about 0.9 of Co2 is produced for 1 t of cement. Sand is a natural product
obtained from river beds, which does not consume any energy, except during transport. Brick is one
of the principle construction materials and the brick production industry is large in most Asian
countries. It is also an important industry from the point of view of reduction of green house gas
emissions as indicated from the very high coal consumption and the large scope that exists for
increasing energy efficiencies of brick kilns. In a study by GEF in Bangladesh, an emission of 38 t of
Co2 has been noted per lakh of brick production.
2.3 Case study on 46.2 m2
building:
The 46.2 m2
building floor areas do not include public areas as corridors, staircases and
parking areas. Fig. 2.3 shows the floor plan and the layout of the 46.2 m2
building unit. The materials
for the construction include machinery, engineering materials, building construction materials and
landscape architectural materials. The major construction materials are classified into three
categories such as structural materials, finishing materials and equipment materials. There are
thirteen different materials commonly used in the construction of building based on total mass. The
structural materials include steel bar (reinforcing rod), ready-mix concrete and plywood mold. The
finishing materials include concrete pile, room carpet (laminated paper finishing), tile, cement, clear
glasses and plaster board. The equipment materials include copper pipes, plastic pipes, electric wires
and lighting fixtures. The building is a 2BHK includes Kitchen-K, Living room-L, Bathroom-B, Bed
room-R. Table 2.3 shows that the amount of major construction materials required for 46.2 m2
building unit. The dimension of the building is in millimeter (mm).
Fig 2.3: Plan of 46.2 m2
building

378
Table 2.3: Amount of major construction materials required for 46.2 m2
building
Materials units quantities
Structural materials
Concrete pile ea 3.1
Concrete kg 84,169.4
Steel bar kg 4173.1
Plywood mold kg 2536.1
Finishing materials
Cement kg 1801.3
Tile m2
32.1
Clear glass m2
13.7
Plaster board Sheet 46.8
Carpet m2
46.9
Equipment materials
Copper pipe kg 11.6
Plastic pipe m 126.6
Electric wire m 426.3
Lighting fixtures Set 8.7
3.0 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
3.1 Analysis of quantity of energy required:
The first aspect of ecology is the quantity of energy required for the regular as well as
recycled building. For a regular building of the plan of 46.2 m2
, Fig. 3.1(a) shows the quantity of
energy required for foundation level, wall level and the roof level. Let us take only cement, steel and
concrete among all the thirteen different materials of different levels of the building. Therefore the
estimated quantities of 46.2 m2
building will be cement - 1801.3 kg, steel – 4173.1 kg and concrete –
84,169.4 kg for a regular or virgin building.
For recycled building of the plan of 46.2 m2
let us take fly ash as a recycled material added
with cement and concrete. Fig. 3.1(b) shows that the quantity of energy required for different levels
of building for foundation level, wall level and roof level. Therefore the estimated quantities of
recycled building will be cement – 1080.65 kg, steel – 2503.65 kg, concrete – 50501.49 kg for the fly
ash building or recycled building. Table 3.1 shows the energy required for different levels of
building. In recycled building, the fly ash saves 40% of energy than the regular building.
In regular building, 100% pure cement, reinforcement steel and concrete is used. But in recycled
building only 60% of cement is used and remaining 40% is fly ash. Since fly ash has the property of
high compressive strength, the size of the reinforcement steel can be reduced. Therefore 16 mm steel
rod is reduced to 12 mm reinforcement steel rod and 12 mm is reduced to 8 mm reinforcement steel
rod. In concrete, the composition will be 60% cement and remaining 40% fly ash is used, and 60%
natural sand and 40% quarry dust is used, and 60% aggregate and remaining 40% demolition waste.
Therefore, the quantity of energy required for Recycled building will be given as the quantity of
energy required for Regular building x 60%.
Energy required for Recycled building (kg) = Energy required for Regular building (kg) x 60%

379
Table 3.1: Energy required for Regular and Recycled building of 46.2 m2
Description Regular building (kg) Recycled building (kg)
Foundation level
Cement 900.65 540.325
Steel 1854.6 1112.7
Concrete 42084.7 25250.75
Wall level
Cement 300.21 180.105
Steel 927.3 556.35
Concrete 14028.23 8416.91
Roof level
Cement 600.44 360.22
Steel 1391 834.6
concrete 28056.46 16833.83
900.65
600.44
300.21
1854.6
927.3
1391
42084.7
14028.23
28056.46
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000
Foundation level
Wall level
Roof level
Quantity of Energy required for Regular building in Kg
Buildinglevels
concrete steel cement
Fig 3.1(a): Energy required for Regular building
Fig 3.1(b): Energy required for Recycled building
The comparison of the regular building and recycled building from the Fig 3.1(a) and Fig
3.1(b) shows that the quantity of the energy required for the 46.2 m2
building is low in the recycled

380
building of all building levels than the regular building. Fig 3.2(c) shows the result of quantity of
energy required for both regular and recycled building.
Fig 3.1(c): Comparison of Energy required for both Regular and Recycled building
3.2 Co2 emission analysis results
This is the other aspect of ecology in construction management. The Co2 emission of cement
is 0.32 kg-Co2/kg, steel bar is 3.51 kg-Co2/kg and concrete is 0.07 kg-Co2/kg. The area of 46.2 m2
,
the embodied energy was about 6.3 ton of oil equivalent (TOE), and Co2 emission was assessed to be
24.3 ton-Co2.
For regular building, Fig 3.2 shows the result of the assessment for Co2 emissions in 46.2 m2
building. The Co2 emission of regular building in cement is 576.416 kg-Co2 (1801.3 x 0.32), steel is
14647.581 kg-Co2 (4173.1 x 3.51) and concrete is 5891.858 kg-Co2 (84,169.4 x 0.07).
For recycled building, Fig 3.2 shows the result of the assessment for Co2 emissions in 46.2
m2
building. The Co2 emission of recycled building in cement is 345.808 kg-Co2 (1080.65 x 0.32),
steel is 8787.8115 kg-Co2 (2503.65 x 3.51) and concrete is 3535.1043 kg-Co2 (50501.49 x 0.07).
Fig 3.2: Co2 emission analysis result

381
The comparison of the regular building and recycled building from the Fig 3.2 shows that the
Co2 emission of 46.2 m2
building is low in the recycled building than the regular building.
4. CONCLUSION
The ecological dimension of construction management is done by considering the quantity of
energy and Co2 emission where recycled building with fly ash consumes less energy and less Co2
emission. Now it is the task of construction project managers and engineers of our country to
popularize the technology, so that India can significantly contribute to reduction in Co2 emission and
saves energy from its huge and rapidly growing construction sector. For reducing Co2 emission, and
its various potential effects on the earth, various building technology and construction materials have
been developed and applied into fieldwork. For these reasons, it is important to secure substantial
data on Co2 emissions in the building sector in order to efficiently respond to the demands of the
UNFCCC. Through this effort, greenhouse gas reduction plans in the building sector should be
established and performed. We have solutions in hand to reduce global warming. We should act now
through use of clean and innovative eco-friendly technologies, and evolve policies to encourage their
adoption by the statutory bodies to stop global warming. Along with other key sectors, this relatively
ignored construction technology sector can also play a major role in reduction of Co2 emission and
mitigate global warming. Hence ecology dimension plays a major role in construction management.
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