An integrated analytical approach to environmental management in construction

Abstract

A remarkable difference between the registration rate of ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) and the implementation rate of environmental impact assessment (EIA) in construction industry in Mainland China indicates that there may be little coordination between the implementation of the EIA and the EMS in construction projects in Mainland China, and the EIA practice may not really serve as a tool to promote environmental management (EM) in construction. Since the China Environmental Protection Bureau recently enacted to implement the environmental supervision system in construction project supervision, contractors have to pay greater attention to adopt and implement EM in construction. In this regard, this thesis presents an integrative methodology named E+ for dynamic EIA in construction, which integrates various EM approaches with a general EMS process throughout all construction stages in a construction project. The EM approaches integrated in the E+ include an analytical approach of construction pollution index named E+ Plan CPI, an analytical approach of environmental-conscious construction planning named E+ Plan EnvironalPlanning, an analytical approach of incentive reward program for material management named E+ Logistics IPR, and an analytical approach for waste material exchange named E+ Logistics Webfill. The E+ is expected to effectively and efficiently assist contractors to enhance their both EIA and environmental performances not only in Mainland China but also in other areas.