Factors affecting the implementation of green specifications in construction

Risk assessment of circular economy practices in construction industry of Pakistan

The construction industry (CI) is responsible for consuming 3 billion tons of natural raw materials annually. Also, as per the survey by World Resources Institute, the CI accounts for 40 % of the total waste generated globally. The solution to this inefficient resource usage and adverse effects on the ecosystem is implementing Circular Economy (CE) practices in CI. However, the concept of circular construction is in developmental stages. Therefore, it is more prone to damaging risks than traditional construction. The primary aim of this study is to identify and assess the risk related to implementing CE practices in developing country construction sector. To achieve this aim, 25 risks were shortlisted from the literature review and evaluated upon the probability, detection, and severity risk criteria. This study proposed a novel hybrid fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach to analyze the shortlisted risks. Fuzzy Step Wise Assessment Ratio Analysis (FSWARA) is employed to gauge the risk criterion weightage. Moreover, Fuzzy VIKOR (FVIKOR) is used to determine the risks' ranking as per the weightage of the risk criterion. The analyses ranked "lack of political support and incentives for circular construction", "difficulty in selection of circular construction experts", "profit uncertainty", and "circular material quality" as the most critical risks. Therefore, it is recommended for legislative authority to devise a framework that promotes and provides support to circular construction. Moreover, this study fills the literature gap by assessing the risks of CE practices in the CI of Pakistan.

Multidimensional study of factors influencing sustainable construction adoption in Yemen: insights for implementing sustainable practices

Despite political volatility, Yemen's construction sector is gradually progressing to satisfy the country's housing needs. Most construction projects, however, employ traditional construction methods and have yet to be able to adopt sustainable construction, which is economically feasible, socially responsible, and environmentally beneficial. To support sustainable construction, this study analyzes various factors that might drive sustainable practices in construction projects in Yemen. These drivers are discovered from the literature and validated by experts using grey Delphi. Forty-four drivers were approved across three dimensions: economic, social, and environmental. These drivers are assessed using grey AHP. The economic factor is determined to be the most crucial in the adoption of sustainable construction. Competitiveness, improved well-being, and improved indoor environmental quality are rated as the top economic, social, and environmental dimensions, respectively. Overall, competitiveness is acknowledged as the most important driver for the implementation of sustainable practices in Yemen's construction projects. The study's findings were discussed with the experts who were involved in the evaluation. The findings were agreed upon, and it was underlined that a proactive approach from both construction project participants and public authorities can increase the competitiveness of sustainable construction. Additional policies to promote competitiveness of sustainable construction are also advocated.

A systematic managerial perspective on the environmentally sustainable construction practices of UK

Construction industry, though is the backbone of any economy, still add a significant portion of emissions, utilising energy supplies, and reasoning in bulk of waste production. The sustainable construction practices are the only solution considering the global climatic challenges. Owing its enormous benefits, a lot of sustainable constructions projects are built around the world, both in developed and developing countries. However, considering the innovative material and technological involvement, and lack of knowledge and expertise, such sustainable construction projects are not always successful. This research aims to investigate the barriers and factors impacting sustainability in the construction projects. More specifically, its primary purpose is to have the perspective of managers on the actors and barriers of sustainable construction in the UK. A mixed method was used to collect the data, one in the mean of questionnaire survey, and the second through the case study. To acquire quantitative data, a snowball sampling was applied to collect the questionnaire survey based data from 128 UK construction managerial positions, such as system managers, sustainability managers, project managers and construction managers, etc. The quantitative acquired data was analysed using mean analysis, relevant importance index (RII), correlation and multiple hierarchical regression. The RII analysis discovered that sustainable construction designs is a top drivers of sustainable construction practices, whereas excessive concentration on price is found as the top impediment of sustainable construction practices. It was also shown by the hierarchical regression analysis that stakeholders factors, project management factors and technological factors significantly impact to sustainable construction practice. However, surprisingly the role of barriers was not observed in the sustainable construction practices of the UK. The same findings were also confirmed with the case study analysis of the Kier Group plc, which believes in the sustainable construction practices. Hence, it is needful for the positive sides of these factors be considered and duly exploited. The research findings provide interesting industrial insights towards sustainable construction projects, while providing useful directions to the industrialists, policymakers and construction professionals, not only by reducing the unfavourable effects, but also by proposing the intention of restoring factors of the environment, economic and social sustainability.

Evaluation and Optimization of Sustainable Development Level of Construction Industrialization: Case Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region

In order to promote the sustainable development of architectural industrialization, it is necessary to evaluate its development level, identify the development status and key restricting factors, and achieve the effect of “promoting the development by evaluation”. However, the existing studies are mostly limited to the scope of provinces and cities, and there are few studies on the construction industrialization of an economic circle as a whole. Therefore, this paper locates the research within the scope of the region, constructs the evaluation model of the sustainable development level of the regional construction industrialization, and selects the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as a case study. The research shows that the sustainable development level of construction industrialization in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is in the middle level, which needs to be improved from the aspects of economic support, technological innovation, and management. This paper provides a reasonable reference for how to evaluate and better promote the sustainable development of regional construction industrialization.

Sustainable Sand Substitutes in the Construction Industry in the United States and Canada: Assessing Stakeholder Awareness

The United Nations has declared a global sand crisis, called for reduced sand consumption, and proposed solutions to address the crisis, including adopting sustainable substitutes for sand. The construction industry is a major consumer of sand, yet a recent study found a very low level of awareness by stakeholders of the crisis. The purpose of this study is to assess the familiarity of construction industry stakeholders with 27 sand substitute materials, grouped into five components that emerged from a factor analysis. Data were collected using a survey designed by the authors. Respondents consisted of 156 construction industry professionals located in 35 US states and 7 Canadian provinces. Stakeholders were classified according to a framework considering the level of power and interest of each stakeholder in sustainable construction projects. Hypotheses of no differences in awareness for two types of stakeholder groups were generally supported. First, no differences were found for decision makers responsible for ordering sand vs. non-decision makers. Second, for professional roles, academics were more familiar with some substitutes than those in other roles. The article concludes with implications for research and practice, with recommendations on how to increase awareness of sand substitutes among stakeholders in the construction industry.

Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality in the Building Sector: A Bibliometric Review

Due to large energy consumption and carbon emissions (ECCE) in the building sector, there is huge potential for carbon emission reduction, and this will strongly influence peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality in the future. To get a better sense of the current research situation and future trends and to provide a valuable reference and guidance for subsequent research, this study presents a summary of carbon peak and carbon neutrality (CPCN) in buildings using a bibliometric approach. Three areas are addressed in the review through the analysis of 364 articles published from 1990–2021: (1) Which countries, institutions, and individuals have conducted extensive and in-depth research on CPCN in buildings, and what is the status quo of their collaboration and contributions? (2) What subjects and topics have aroused wide interest and enthusiasm among scholars, and what are their time trajectories? (3) What journals and authors have grabbed the attention of many scholars, and what are the research directions related to them? Moreover, we propose future research directions. Filling these gaps will enrich the research body of CPCN and overcome current limitations by developing more methods and exploring other practical applications.

Review of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) Implementation in the Context of Building Energy Assessment

In recent years, many researchers across the world have addressed the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the energy assessment of the built environment. However, several potential issues still need to be resolved in order to utilise the benefits provided by BIM to a maximum degree. To fill this gap, a systematic literature review is conducted in this study to critically investigate the utilisation of BIM tools in energy assessment. To achieve the above-mentioned objective, after shortlisting the relevant papers published hitherto, using keyword searching, a systematic review was undertaken, including the application of BIM in the contexts of different countries, types of BIM tools, BIM and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) integration, energy affiliations, stakeholders’ involvement and their roles, uncertainty, and sensitivity analysis. The outcomes show the most widely used and effective BIM tools in different types of construction projects in various countries. The review of the literature clearly shows that BIM tools can effectively be used in the assessment of energy performance of buildings. The article gives insight to engineers, architecture, and decision makers to carefully select appropriate BIM tools in terms of energy assessment.

The Role of Stakeholder Engagement in Developing New Technologies and Innovation for Nitrogen Reduction in Waters: A Longitudinal Study

Better nitrogen management, technologies, and regulation are required to reduce nitrogen losses in the aquatic environment. New innovative technologies can support farmers in a more targeted planning of fertilizer application and crop management at the field level to increase the effect of measures when reducing nitrogen losses. However, if farmers do not perceive the need for such a concept, the demand (market pull) will be minimal, making the implementation of such a technology difficult. The lack of this market pull could, however, be counterbalanced by a market push from research or requirements from public sector stakeholders (regulators). Within this domain, the main objective of this paper was to study technological change over time and identify and understand the crucial stakeholder involvement using the Functions of Innovation Systems Approach. This article shows how stakeholders’ perceptions and participation evolved over a 10-year period. It examines the interplay between technology readiness and the perceived readiness and acceptance by affected stakeholders. We demonstrate how stakeholder engagement was crucial to ensure the development of the technologies by creating marketable options for their future implementation. A key dynamic that emerged in this process was the transition from a research push to a regulator pull. We demonstrate the fact that without the regulatory requirement linked to changes towards more targeting of measures, the technology would not, on its own, be a business case, although it would provide new knowledge, thus representing a gain for society. The specific findings can be used in countries where new technologies need to be developed, and where a link to the regulation can ensure the active use of the new technology and, therefore, make their implementation worthwhile.

An Integrated Sustainable Construction Project’s Critical Success Factors (ISCSFs)

A construction project is a dynamic and complex process that involves the identification and accurate fulfillment of the predetermined needs and requirements of the clients by the project team. There are many challenges and constraints that prevent the achievement of these predetermined and various requirements effectively and successfully, so the project team must face and overcome these challenges by identifying all the factors that help the project’s success. However, it is still unclear how to measure success for Egyptian construction projects. Despite the fact that several lists of literature-based factors have been compiled, the individual factors appear to be tabulated rather than grouped according to some criteria to aid in the analysis of their interactions and potential consequences. As such, the objective presented in this paper was to identify and prioritize integrated sustainable critical success factors (ISCSFs) that influence the performance of Egyptian construction projects to ensure successful construction projects. Critical success factors were identified and grouped into 2 major categories—(1) internal related factors and (2) external related factors—and 10 subcategories—(1) company-related factors; (2) project-related factors; (3) project management related factors; (4) resource/procurement-related factors (labors, materials, equipment and subcontractors); (5) human capital-related factors; (6) support-related factors (financial, human resources, security and legal and administration); (7) stakeholder-related factors (clients, consultants, project managers and end-users); (8) innovation, learning and growth-related factors; (9) country-related factors; and (10) industry-related factors in three distinct stages. In total, 140 factors were gathered from the literature review in the first stage. In the second stage, a brainstorming session was held in order to reduce the number of those factors and focus on the most important ones that influence project success; thus, 100 factors were identified, filtered and developed. In the third stage, a questionnaire was created based on the significant factors identified. As a result, the 40 most important factors influencing the success of performance of construction projects have been identified, which are integrated between all factors (internal and external) and take into account the three pillars of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) as a decision-making tool to evaluate and improve project performance.

Modeling the Factors Enhancing the Implementation of Green Procurement in the Pakistani Construction Industry

This paper adds to the existing body of knowledge on green procurement approaches and sustainability theories for procurement management. It provides practical factors that can directly help the practitioners in implementing green procurement in construction projects. Green procurement is a new era in the construction industry of Pakistan. Thus, this paper aims to quantify the factors improving the adoption of green procurement in construction projects. A detailed literature review has been conducted to design and develop a conceptual model for green procurement. The study intricates the perception of 77 experienced practitioners involved in handling construction projects. The model was analyzed and validated with a partial least squares structural equation modeling technique with SmartPLS V3 software. The model results indicate that market factors and techniques play an essential role in enhancing green procurement acceptance and adoption. This study highlights the gap in achieving sustainability and controlling the environmental impacts caused by construction activities. It assists the construction practitioners to implement the green procurement for better environmental and sustainable performance.

Evaluating the Critical Barriers to Green Construction Technologies Adoption in China

Green construction technologies (GCTs) are important drivers of sustainable development in the construction industry. Despite a wide range of GCTs being available on the Chinese construction market, they are not yet widely popular. This study aims to evaluate the critical barriers hampering large-scale GCT adoption in China. Through a literature review, 21 barriers were identified and listed in the questionnaire survey, and 225 valid responses from 21 provinces in China were collected. The Mann–Whitney U test was conducted to verify whether different stakeholder groups perceive these barriers differently. Moreover, a comparative analysis of barriers to GCT, GBT (green building technologies), and GC (green construction) adoption was conducted. Results of statistical analyses showed that the top five barriers inhibiting GCT adoption are “lack of government incentives”, “extra costs associated with GCTs”, “dependence on traditional construction technology”, “a shortage of technological training for project staff”, and “conflicts of interest among stakeholders in GCT adoption”. Moreover, the top five factors preventing the adoption of GCTs differ from those of GBTs and GCs. This study not only provides valuable resources for stakeholders to better understand the critical factors preventing GCT adoption, but also could help policy makers to effectively promote GCT adoption.

Sustainability in Construction Projects: A Systematic Literature Review

This paper aims to identify the major research concepts studied in the literature of sustainability in construction projects. Two bibliometric analysis tools—(a) BibExcel and (b) Gephi, were used to analyze the bibliometrics indices of papers and visualize their interrelations as a network, respectively. Therefore, a research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis and keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis were performed to uncover the primary research themes. The RFPN analysis clustered the studies into three major categories of evaluating sustainability, project management for sustainability, and drivers of sustainable construction. The KCON analysis revealed that while each paper had a different focus, the underlying concept of all clusters was sustainability, construction, and project management. We found that while ‘sustainability’ was the leading keyword in the first cluster, i.e., evaluating sustainability, it was the second top keyword with the eigenvector centrality of over 0.94 in the other two clusters. We also found that the concept of sustainability should be included in construction projects from the early stages of design and feasibility studies and must be monitored throughout the project life. This review showed that previous researchers used a variety of statistical and mathematical techniques such as structural equation modelling and fuzzy decision-making methods to study sustainability in construction projects. Using an integrated approach to identifying the research gaps in this area, this paper provides researchers with insights on how to frame new research to study sustainability in construction projects.

Identifying the Key Barriers to Promote Sustainable Construction in the United States: A Principal Component Analysis

The need to build more facilities has intensified the inherited adverse impacts of the construction industry on the triple bottom lines of sustainability (i.e., people, planet, and profit). The current practice of sustainability in the construction industry is far from reaching the targeted green goals. In order to foster these endeavors, this study aims to explore sustainable construction barriers in the United States. To achieve the objective, first, 12 sustainability barriers were identified based on an excessive and comprehensive literature review and solicitation of experts’ opinions to validate the barriers. Next, a questionnaire survey was developed and distributed among 135 industry professionals to evaluate the relative importance of factors. To offer a practical solution, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to analyze the data and find the most effective barriers. The results show that four major barriers, including (1) pre-construction constraints, (2) managerial constraints, (3) legislative constraints, and (4) financial and planning constraints are the most influential challenges that the industry faces to foster sustainable construction. Practical solutions are suggested to tackle sustainable construction barriers. The findings of this study are beneficial to the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry members along with owners and policymakers.

Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Driving Factors of Green Building Development in China

With the development of the world economy and the rapid increase in population, the carbon dioxide produced by large energy consumption has made environmental issues increasingly prominent, which has brought severe challenges to the survival and development of human society. The construction industry, as a major energy consumer and emitter, must change. Green buildings are an important way to promote the concept of sustainable development in the construction industry. In order to deepen the understanding of the spatial-temporal distribution and evolution characteristics of China’s green building development, this study collected statistical data of China’s green building label projects from 2008 to 2018, and studied the development status of China’s green buildings in three aspects: equilibrium, spatial distribution characteristics and spatial correlation. In addition, the driving factors of green buildings development were analyzed by using geological detectors. The results show that: (1) China’s green building development level has a high spatial imbalance and obvious agglomeration situation, but there is a large diffusion effect; (2) the spatial distribution characteristics, such as the distribution center, distribution range, distribution direction, and distribution shape of green buildings are constantly changing, and the changes have regularity; (3) in the early stage of green building development, there was a significant positive correlation, but most provinces were in low–low clusters; (4) economic level, technical level, and education level are the main factors influencing the development of green buildings.

Mapping Knowledge in the Economic Areas of Green Building Using Scientometric Analysis

This paper presents the first inclusive scientometric review of the economic areas of green building (GBE). The aim is to methodically examine and summarize the state-of-the-art of the GBE body of knowledge. To this end, this study analyses 1713 GBE-related bibliographic records retrieved from the Web of Science by using the quantitative method of knowledge mapping. The knowledge base, knowledge domain, and knowledge evolution of how they interacted with each other are explored using document co-citation analysis and keywords co-citation analysis of the existing body of literature. The research findings are informative in recognizing and interpreting the underlying structure and trends in GBE. A knowledge map provides a valuable and instructive understanding of the evolution and status quo of the GBE knowledge body, as well as assisting in recognizing the gaps and deficiencies involved. The results will help in understanding how GBE knowledge is evolving and its role played in green building, and thus provide suggestions of how academic research can enhance sustainability practices in terms of economic area in the future.

REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER'S PRODUCT POSITIONING: AHP-UTILITY-BASED MODEL

Inappropriate land development decisions lead to wasted land resources; such bad decisions can negatively impact urban landscapes and the environment, which makes the decision of an appropriate residential environment difficult. Therefore, a suitable assessment model is required to resolve this complexity. The present study applied the fuzzy Delphi method, analytical hierarchy process, utility theory, and other research methods to construct an evaluation model for residential environment location. the study findings reveal that consumers are attracted by regional environmental conditions and architectural design. However, the study found that community welfare is neglected. This model can help decision makers to evaluate utility values and profitability, in order to select the most suitable environment. Therefore, related authorities should strengthen community welfare and neighborhood development. Furthermore, social resources should be integrated in order to deliver social welfare and services to the community, thus enabling people in the community to obtain the necessary resources and assistance

Comparison of Quebec’s Project Delivery Methods: Relational Contract Law and Differences in Contractual Language

The province of Quebec, Canada, seeks to implement relational alternate project delivery methods to achieve sustainability and energy efficiency in public construction. However, the relational differences between the formal written parts of different delivery methods have yet to be analyzed and understood, as is the case with the relational aspects of contracts and the achievement of sustainable and energy-efficient infrastructure. Using a hermeneutic interpretation of Macneil’s relational contract norms and grounded theory, 26 contracts involving Quebec’s largest public client of vertical infrastructure and representing three different types of project delivery methods (design–bid–build (DBB), design–Build (DB), and construction manager–general contractor/integrated project delivery (CMGC/IPD)) were analyzed using NVivo. It was found that CMGC/IPD is the most relational project delivery method available to Quebec’s public clients, namely because of the public client’s active involvement in the realization process, the increasing complexity of roles, the multitude of common management structures, and the internalization of sustainability measures and conflict resolution. Furthermore, Quebec’s CMGC/IPD was found to be an IPD-ish delivery method, lacking the early involvement of the construction manager and the risk/reward sharing mechanisms necessary to achieve pure IPD status. The findings and theoretical considerations discussed here will help policymakers, contract drafters, and public clients interested in implementing relational contracting practices in public construction projects.

The Drivers and Performance of Environmental Practices in the Chinese Construction Industry

With the global concern of environmental protection and sustainability, construction firms are required to develop and implement environmental practices (EP) to mitigate the negative impacts of project activities on the environment. This paper attempts to explore two potential drivers (i.e., government regulations and project team’s knowledge and skills) and performance outcomes (i.e., environmental performance and organizational performance) when the firm implementing EP in construction projects. A survey-based research design was developed to measure the drivers, EP implementation, and performance and to collect data in the Chinese construction industry. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The results indicate that a project team’s knowledge and skills, rather than government regulations, are the key driving factors for the implementation of EP in construction projects. EP implementation is proved to have a positive impact on both environmental and organizational performance. This study provides empirical evidence for project environmental management research and offers managerial insights on how to promote EP in the construction industry.

Social Network Analysis of Factors Influencing Green Building Development in China

Green buildings have been viewed as one of the most effective solutions to the negative environmental impacts of construction activities. For the sustainable development of the economy and the environment, many governments in the world have launched a variety of policies to encourage the development of green buildings. However, green targets achieved during the operational stage of green buildings are far below the expectations from the design stage. In addition, the development of green buildings is unevenly distributed in different cities. To help resolve these issues, this paper identifies 28 green building influencing factors from two perspectives, the life cycle and stakeholders. Then, a social network analysis is used to analyse their interactions and identify the critical factors. Our results show that government supervision, incremental cost, property management experience, and the awareness of environmental protection in green buildings are the critical influencing factors in promoting green building development. However, some factors related to contractors, designers and suppliers are not as important as perceived. Finally, some policy recommendations are proposed to promote green buildings in China.

Hybrid Input-Output Analysis of Embodied Carbon and Construction Cost Differences between New-Build and Refurbished Projects

Refurbishing buildings helps reduce waste, and limiting the amount of embodied carbon in buildings helps minimize the damaging impacts of climate change through lower CO2 emissions. The analysis of embodied carbon is based on the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is a systematic tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product, technology, or service through all stages of its life cycle. This study investigates the embodied carbon footprint of both new-build and refurbished buildings to determine the embodied carbon profile and its relationship to both embodied energy and construction cost. It recognizes that changes in the fuel mix for electricity generation play an important role in embodied carbon impacts in different countries. The empirical findings for Hong Kong suggest that mean embodied carbon for refurbished buildings is 33–39% lower than new-build projects, and the cost for refurbished buildings is 22–50% lower than new-build projects (per square meter of floor area). Embodied carbon ranges from 645–1059 kgCO2e/m2 for new-build and 294–655 kgCO2e/m2 for refurbished projects, which is in keeping with other studies outside Hong Kong. However, values of embodied carbon and cost for refurbished projects in this study have a higher coefficient of variation than their new-build counterparts. It is argued that it is preferable to estimate embodied energy and then convert to embodied carbon (rather than estimate embodied carbon directly), as carbon is both time and location specific. A very strong linear relationship is also observed between embodied energy and construction cost that can be used to predict the former, given the latter. This study provides a framework whereby comparisons can be made between new-build and refurbished projects on the basis of embodied carbon and related construction cost differentials into the future, helping to make informed decisions about which strategy to pursue.

Green Building Construction Projects in Singapore: Cost Premiums and Cost Performance

This study aims to investigate the cost premiums and cost performance of green building projects. After an extensive literature review, relevant data from 242 traditional and 121 green building projects performed by 30 different companies were collected through a survey in Singapore. The results indicate that the green cost premiums range from 5% to 10% and that project type and size are significant factors affecting the cost premiums. Furthermore, the cost performance is mostly over budget, ranging from 4.5% to 7%. Finally, this study proposes some feasible solutions for cost premiums reduction and cost performance improvement.

Green supply chain management

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to introduce and provide an overview of the various issues related to Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) and suggest further scope and direction of research in this emerging field.

Design/methodology/approach

– The work relies on experiences, case studies and other literature related to GSCM. Literature has been segregated to understand various GSCM issues. A detailed review is used to sort out the literature and develop the research direction of the study. The review is focussed on development of GSCM including all those researchers which is relevant to environmental and social sustainability toward operation management and the supply chain. A literature review seems to be a valid approach, as a necessary step in structuring a research field.

Findings

– The objectives of this paper are to identify major research work conducted on GSCM and to classify them to identify gaps in literature and opportunities for future research. The paper has provided an integrative framework for study, design, implementation and GSCM performance. The findings also identify a number of issues that need to be addressed.

Research limitations/implications

– Implication of the work is that the knowledge of the research gap can be used to focus efforts on key areas so as to ensure speedy and comprehensive implementation of GSCM practices.

Practical implications

– The paper may prove to be a very useful source of information to practitioners and regulators in their green practices implementation programs.

Originality/value

– This paper provides some of the very first insights into development of GSCM theories. The methodological review will provide better understanding of the current state of research in the discipline.

A fuzzy logic enhanced environmental protection education model for policies decision support in green community development

This study proposes the promotion of environmental protection education among communities as a solution to the serious problems of high energy consumption and carbon emissions around the world. Environmental protection education has direct and lasting influences on everyone in society; therefore, it is helpful in our fight against many serious problems caused by high energy consumption. In this study, the Delphi method and the fuzzy logic theory are used to develop a quantizing assessment model based on qualitative analysis. This model can be used to assess the results and influences of community residents' participation in environmental protection education on green community development. In addition, it can be used to provide references for governing authorities in their decision making of green community development policies.

A multimethodology contractor assessment model for facilitating green innovation: the view of energy and environmental protection

The trends of the green supply chain are attributed to pressures from the environment and from customers. Green innovation is a practice for creating competitive advantage in sustainable development. To keep up with the changing business environment, the construction industry needs an appropriate assessment tool to examine the intrinsic and extrinsic effects regarding corporate competitive advantage. From the viewpoint of energy and environmental protection, this study combines four scientific methodologies to develop an assessment model for the green innovation of contractors. System dynamics can be used to estimate the future trends for the overall industrial structure and is useful in predicting competitive advantage in the industry. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and utility theory focus on the customer's attitude toward risk and are useful for comprehending changes in objective requirements in the environment. Fuzzy logic can simplify complicated intrinsic and extrinsic factors and express them with a number or ratio that is easy to understand. The proposed assessment model can be used as a reference to guide the government in examining the public constructions that qualified green contractors participate in. Additionally, the assessment model serves an indicator of relative competitiveness that can help the general contractor and subcontractor to evaluate themselves and further green innovations.