Abstract

The number of law carbon construction project had increased tremendously across Malaysia over the recent years. In fact, there is no doubt on the necessity of development law carbon construction and benefits that have for the society, specifically for the construction companies. In order to make significant inroads into the low carbon construction practices, the industry needs to improve its energy usage and natural resources consumed in all its construction site activities. This study attempts to evaluate the sources of CO2 emission regarding water usage during construction project; secondly, to identify effective optimization method with regard to water usage in construction activities; and finally, to provide a plan of actions to minimize CO2 emissions during construction activities. SPSS version 20 was used to analyse the collected data. 385 questionnaires were distributed to the construction companies in Malaysia. The findings revealed that, despite the importance of low carbon construction, not many companies are serious enough to cut down their natural resource consumption. The particular phenomena, myriad of contractors and construction firms in Malaysia have not yet paid attention binding themselves to carbon construction and green building's constitution in general by contrast to common construction activity. The location of the site for water is the main way for the law carbon construction and has been highlighted as the main reason of ignorance of the current situation within the construction sector. Indeed, introducing optimization methods is vital for contractors and supervisors of the sites to be motivated regarding inequality on usage of water during construction project, which lead to carbon dioxide creation. In addition to optimization water consumption, monitoring the usage of water during construction activity can play as a main role.

Keywords:

Construction site, energy, low carbon, Malaysia, natural resource, water consumption,

References

1. Bernard, H.R., 2000. Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Sage Publishing Ltd., London.
   
2. Bon, R. and D. Crosthwaite, 2000. The Future of International Construction. Thomas Telford Ltd., London.
   CrossRef    PMCid:PMC86526    
3. Brockman, M.D., 2007. Land and Environment Court Proceedings. Environmental Defender's Office Ltd.
   
4. Casals, X.G., 2006. Analysis of building energy regulation and certi?cation in Europe: Their role, limitations and differences. Energ. Buildings, 38(5): 381-92.
   CrossRef    
5. Chan, E.H., Q.K. Qian and P.T. Lam, 2009. The market for green building in developed Asian cities: The perspectives of building designers. Energ. Policy, 37(8): 3061-3070.
   CrossRef    
6. Christy, J. and R. Spencer, 2003. Global temperature report 1978-2003. Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama, US.
   
7. Climate Change Secretariat, 2002. A Guide to the Climate Change Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
   Direct Link
8. Coelho, B. and A. Andrade-Campos, 2014. Efficiency achievement in water supply systems: A review. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 30: 59-84.
   CrossRef    
9. Construction Water Use Guidelines, 1997. Construction Water Use Guidelines: For Release of Municipal Tap Water to the Environment.
   Direct Link
10. Crawford, R.H. and G.J. Treloar, 2005. An assessment of the energy and water embodied in commercial building construction. Proceedings of the 4th Australian LCA Conference. Sydney, February 2005.
    
11. Deakin University, Architecture and Building Website, 2007. Treloar, G. Profile. Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University.
    
12. Dunn, W., 2002. Infant/Toddler Sensory Pro?le Manual. Psychological Corporation, New York.
    
13. Fong, W.K., H. Matsumoto, C.S. Ho and Y.F. Lun, 2008. Energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission considerations in the urban planning process in Malaysia. J. Malays. Inst. Planners, 6: 101-130.
    
14. Guidelines to Account, 2010. Guidelines to Account for and Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals for Buildings (Commercial, Residential or Institutional Purposes). Hong Kong.
    
15. Houghton, H., 2004. Global Warming. 3rd Edn., Cambridge University Press, New York.
    CrossRef    
16. Houghton, J.T., Y. Ding, D.J. Griggs, M. Noguer, P.J. Van der Linnden, X. Dai, K. Maskell and C.A. Johnson, 2001. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
    
17. IPCC, 2001. Climate change 2001: The scientific basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the 3rd Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, New York.
    
18. McNab, D.J., M. Lynch and P. Young, 2011. Auditing of water use on construction sites-phase I. Working together for a world without waste, WAS908-004. Retrieved from: www.wrap.org.uk/construction.
    
19. Moxon, S., 2012. Sustainability in Interior Design. Laurence King Publishing Ltd., City Road, London, pp: 192.
    
20. Raftery, J., M. Anson, Y.H. Chiang and S. Sharma, 2004. Regional Overview. In: Chiang, Y.H. et al. (Eds.), the Construction Sector in Asian Economics. Spon Press, London.
    
21. Roaf, S., D. Crichton and F. Nicol, 2004. Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change. Architectural Press, Oxford.
    
22. Runci, P.J., 1999. Energy research and development in the European Union. PNNL-12218, Battelle Memorial Institute, Paci?c Northwest National Laboratory Technical Report, Richland, Wash, May.
    
23. Shaffii, N., 2010. Malaysia country report. Construction Industry Development Board, Malaysia.
    PMid:20709472    
24. Shaik, S.S. and T.A. Samuel, 2009. Methodology for estimating emissions in underground utility construction operations. J. Eng. Design Technol., 7(1): 37-64.
    CrossRef    
25. Sookack, N., S. Younghwan, B. Taeho, P. Jaesung and C. Wooseok, 2011. Characterization of carbon dioxide emissions during constructing of reservoir embankment using life cycle assessment method. Department of Rural Systems Engineering, Seoul National University, 599 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-921, Korea.
    
26. Trochim, W.K., 2001. The Research Methods Knowledge Base. Atomic Dog Publishing, Cincinnati, OH.
    PMid:11317802    
27. Wee-Kean, F., M. Hiroshi, H. Chin-Siong and L. Yu-Fat, 2009. Energy Consumption and Carbon Dioxide Emission Considerations in the Urban Planning Process in Malaysia. Retrieved from: eprints.utm.my/6626/?.
    CrossRef    

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

Open Access Policy

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.