A Proposed Model of Construction Cost and Carbon

Emission Best Practices in the Malaysian

Construction Industry

Mustafa M. A. Klufallah, Khamidi Mohd Faris, Muhd Fadhil Nuruddin

Abstract—The Malaysian construction industry contributes as an

empowerment to the Malaysian economic sector. Even though,

the building and construction industry are the key sector for

sustainable development, but still they are among the biggest

threat to the environment in a form of greenhouse gases (GHGs)

emissions. Moreover, this industry consumes a huge amount of

natural resources and emits million tonnes of carbon emission

per year. In fact, the Malaysian construction industry is

categorized as the 30th world ranking in carbon emission.

However, the Malaysian Construction industry introduced the

Malaysian CIB Report, Green Building Index (GBI) and lately

the Green Performance Assessment System in Construction

(Green PASS) to help the construction’s stakeholders in

evaluating the impact of their buildings on the environment.

Several studies around the world identified the main sources of

GHGs and introduced various assessment methods to reduce the

amount of carbon emissions of construction projects but it is lack

of implementation in the Malaysian construction context. This

paper presents a critical literature review for tools and methods

used to assess and reduce GHGs emissions of construction

projects and it proposes a new model to assess sustainability in

the Malaysian construction industry.

Keywords-component; construction industry; carbon emission;

sustainability; carbon assessment; GHGs; carbon calculator

INTRODUCTION

The construction industry is one of the most important industries supporting every economic sector. This industry is responsible for building the nation’s physical infrastructure, providing transportation facilities, accommodation for the citizens, businesses and institutions. Although there are demands of construction projects for commercial, industrial and residential, the construction industry has a great impact in the environment and very significant issues raised recently in a form of carbon footprints and global warming. Since then, the construction projects contribute harmful gases that emitted into the atmosphere, which known as the GHGs.

Between the years of 2009 and 2030, the global primary energy consumption is expected to rise by 1.6% annually [1]. Therefore, to mitigate the impact throughout the life cycle of buildings, the construction industry and the related activities are the pressing issues faced by all the stakeholders to promote sustainable buildings [2].

The global increases in CO2 concentration are primarily due to fossil fuel and land uses. Due to the issues arising from

buildings in a form of carbon emission, there is a necessity to mitigate these emissions by using the newly Malaysian carbon calculator and to identify the relationship between construction cost and carbon emissions to develop a usable framework as a new standard in identifying best practices.

BACKGROUND

A. The Malaysian Construction Industry: An Overview

Over the past decade, the Malaysian construction industry has contributed significantly to the Malaysian economy as an enabler of growth to other industries. The industry is an essential growth enabler because of its extensive linkages with the rest of the economy, for example, the manufacturing construction industry (such as basic metal products and electrical machinery) and financial services industry. Furthermore, in the Malaysian scenario the construction industry plays a significant role towards the economic development and contributes to the growth of the Gross National Product (GNP). In 2009, the contribution was 3.0% to the gross domestic product (GDP) as shown in Fig.1 [3].

Figure 1. Contribution of construction sector to GDP

Construction sectors contributes near about 10% of GNP and more than half of capital investment in all countries [4]. There is a strong link between building construction and urbanization. Current human development shift from predominately rural areas to urban centers [5].

This evidence shows that 50% of human population is currently lives in cities, and this percentage is on the rise as the human population increases. In fact, it is predicted to peak

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2013 IEEE Business Engineering and Industrial Applications Colloquium (BEIAC)

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at approximately seven billion people by early 2012, and it might reach about eight billion by the years 2025 to 2030 [6].

B. Construction Industry & Greenhouse Gases Emissions

The Construction activities are considered as a major contributor to environmental pollution [7-11], and the impact of construction industry produces undesirable remnants [12-14]. This includes the depletion of non-renewable resources, destruction of landscapes and creation of health and safety problem, both relating directly and indirectly to the people involved in this industry. In addition, the construction industry consumes large quantity of environmental resource and it is one of the largest polluters of the environment [15-16]. Currently, the world is facing the challenge of global warming and climate change issues.

The anthropogenic driver of climate change is the increasing concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere, this include, CO2, water vapour, nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and tropospheric ozone (O3). Among these gases, CO2 is the most important by-product in the manufacture of building materials [17]. Since the construction industry takes such a role in environmental degradation, controlling and reducing GHGs emissions have become an imminent task to be managed.

C. Greenhouse Gases Effects: An Overview

As shown in Fig. 2, the greenhouse effect is induced when the atmospheric gases trap the ultraviolet rays that come directly from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere. In addition, CO2 is the most important anthropogenic GHGs, and the global increases in CO2 concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel and land uses [18]. The GHGs will increase temperatures and result in higher evaporation thus, the amount of water availability will be reduced. In addition, this problem is further exacerbated during the dry months. An increase in storm magnitudes will increase the intensity and frequency of floods [19].

In particular those involving combustion of fossil fuels like

petroleum, bio-fuels, diesel and biomass burning come from trees and solid wastes as a result of their higher carbon content which produce GHGs that affects the composition of the atmosphere, which lead to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. Land use change due to urbanization and forestry and agricultural activities is also affecting the physical and biological properties of the earth surface and subsequently affecting the regional and global climate. The observed effects of climate change include the increase temperature of the earth, length of seasons variation, melting of the ice-caps and rise in sea level [20]. Recent years 1995 to 2006 have been recorded to be the warmest years since 1850s.

The warmer temperatures are known to cause changes in

regional precipitation, later freezing and earlier break-up of ice on rivers and lakes, lengthening of growing seasons, shifts in plant and animal ranges, and earlier flowering of trees. The sea-level has been predicted to rise between seven and twenty three inches by 2080, posing increased risk of loss

Figure 2. The effects of GHGs on the atmosphere

of land and habitats, and danger to human population in coastal areas. Moreover, the changes in climatic conditions have increased the probability and extreme climatic events such as hurricanes, droughts, wildfires and other natural disasters, resulting in damages to human lives, property and the nation’s economy [21].

D. Buildings Construction & Environmental Issues

Recently, the Carbon emission had a tremendous increase in public appearance and it is a buzzword widely used across the media, the government and in the business world. According to data from the Worldwatch Institute, the construction industry annually consumes a huge amount of natural resources and raw materials. In fact, these consumptions are 25% of timber, 40% of stones, gravels and sand and 16% of water in the world.

The life cycle of building construction consumes a great quantity of energy and emits GHGs. For instant, in the member states of the European Union, buildings through their life cycle consume approximately 50% of the total energy demand and contribute almost about 50% of the carbon emissions to the environment [22].

There are three categories of energy consumption in construction, which are inherent energy, energy in use and embodied energy [23]. The inherent energy is when the materials are processed through combustion of chemical processing, which release chemical energy.

Furthermore, Energy in use usually refers to the energy used by building’s occupants such as water heating and lighting. Lastly, Embodied energy, which is the total energy of constructing materials, for example, extracting of raw materials, manufacturing, assembling and transporting to construction site. All these activities consume energy and emit million tonnes of CO2 as shown in Fig. 3.

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Figure 3. Carbon emission of a building life cycle

The embodied energy can be specified as “Cradle to Gate” (extracting of raw materials until the transportation to construction site), which is a common practice as the boundary condition is specified as compared to “Cradle to Grave” (the whole building life cycle), which lack of specified boundary conditions [23].

Furthermore, there are four sources of GHGs emission in construction of buildings, which are; the manufacture and transportation of building materials, energy consumption of construction equipment, energy consumption of processing resources and disposal of construction’s waste [22].

In general, the GHGs emitted from six sources as the following:

i. Transportation of building materials;

ii. Fuel combustion of construction equipment;

iii. Electricity used of construction equipment;

iv. Electricity used of processing fresh water and

sewage;

v. Fuel combustion of transportation of construction

waste;

vi. Embodied GHGs emission of manufacture of

building materials before transporting to construction

sites.

E. Carbon Emission in the Malaysian Construction Industry

In the worldwide, the building construction yearly consumes three billion tonnes of raw materials and produces 10% to 40% of solid waste stream in all countries [24]. In the United States, 70% of electricity consumption of buildings, 39% of energy use, 30% of waste output and 12% of all potable water consumption [25]. On the other hand, statistics show that in Malaysia, the buildings account for about 20% of the production of GHGs that comes in third after transportation 27% and industries 21% [26]. The materials used in buildings, which consist mainly of fossil fuels. Thus, displace million tonnes of CO2 emissions during mining and consume more energy [27].

In addition, Malaysia is ranked the 30th

in the world for the countries that have the largest amount of GHGs emission as shown in Fig. 4. In addition, 24% from the total CO2 comes from the construction industry in the country [28].

Furthermore, buildings are responsible for more than one third of total energy uses and associated GHGs emissions in society, both in developed and developing countries.

Figure 4. CO2 emission of the world

F. Construction Industry and Sustainability: The Malaysian Perspective

Sustainable development is the act of balancing the fulfillment of human needs and results in protection of the environment. These needs can be met not only in the present, but also in the future.

The World Committee on Environment and Development, or more popularly known as the (Brundtland Commission) set up by the United Nations General Assembly and clearly defined the sustainable development as development that ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’[29].

The construction industry is reflected by the progress of sustainable development fundamentals; which are social, economic and environmental factors. Therefore, it’s necessary for developing countries like Malaysia to have the ability in assessing sustainability of their construction projects by using a combination of environmental, social and economic factors [30].

In addition, cost, time and quality are the outcome of any project’s performance [16]. Although the construction industry is considered important for the progress of a society [8]; [31] but at the same time, the attention should be almost for protecting the environment and to reduce harming gases in order to achieve sustainability goals.

To achieve sustainability, it is required to minimize pollution and waste production, which itself is inadequate [32]. Professionals in the construction industry have made negative environmental impacts of construction projects [33]. The Malaysian context CIB report has introduced steps to reduce environmental impact during construction phases.

Many challenges associated with building and construction sector. This sector provides sufficient shelter for all citizens and holds great importance to all human activities as well as ecological and environmental aspects. For example, sustainable design considers a building’s environmental

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implications holistically, starting from the planning process to the building’s deconstruction at the end of its useful life [34]. Therefore, a proper planning is important during the design phase of construction projects and must consider all of the environmental aspects in order to reduce their related impacts. For example some studies also show that people who lived and worked in buildings that do not provide outdoor views have a higher risk of running into health problem [35].

Many projects destroy our natural resources and natural areas by affecting their microclimates. For instant, the ecosystem may be affected by heat generated from road surfaces and buildings, which is commonly referred to as the heat island effect [36]. A sustainable building also considers how the building will affect the environment through its deconstruction [37]. Furthermore, providing a sustainable building is not only to mitigate all environmental impacts but also to produce buildings that exist harmoniously with their natural surroundings and bring benefits to their occupants.

MITIGATION OF CARBON EMISSION

A. Carbon emission assessment tools in the Malaysian Construction Industry

Since the 1970s, the Malaysian construction industry provides a variety of measures in order to achieve sustainability goals, which have been introduced in polices for all development plans, for example, the five-year development plans, which outline the government policies toward vision 2020. In addition, the Malaysian government has introduced some of energy efficiency measures like, guidelines for buildings in improving their energy efficiency, road systems’ improvement, the construction of both light rail and electrical systems. Even more strategies were adopted such as environmental regulations, planning and land uses in order to increase the intention of public awareness toward protection of the environment.

In addition, GBI has been developed by Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) and the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia (ACEM) [38]. It is a profession driven initiative to lead the Malaysian property industry towards becoming more environmental friendly. Also to construct a green buildings that can provide energy and water savings, a healthier indoor environment, better connectivity to public transport and the adoption of recycling and greenery in their projects is intended to promote sustainability in the built environment and raise awareness among developers, architects, engineers, planners, designers, contractors and the public about environmental issues [39].

The construction industry development board of Malaysia

(CIDB) developed a new standard assessment tool, which

known as “Green PASS” in order to estimate the carbon

emissions from building construction works through a

building’s life cycle. The building life cycle defined within this

standard covers; pre, during and post construction stages, with

carbon emissions divided into embodied carbon and

operational carbon. These provisions are applicable to new and

existing buildings, its involves three stages of assessment for

new and existing building categories such as Landed housing,

stratified housing, public building and special public building.

The assessment approach compares the carbon emissions

from a baseline with the carbon emissions based on strategies

for carbon reductions in order to quantify the actual carbon

abatement achieved then the procedures will lead to final

Green PASS diamond rating, as shown in and Fig. 5 [40].

Figure 5. Assessment approach of Green PASS

B. Carbon Emissions Calculator for Malaysian Construction

Industry

Carbon emission calculator is a tool that will enable any users to key-in their life style applications for example; what the type of the car they are driving, their homes size and their travelling whether by train or plane [41]. By entering these information through the calculator application, it generally gives a rough estimation of their carbon footprint by adding all amount of CO2 or CO2e when other GHGs included or recorded in particular activity.

In general, in term of construction industry, there are very few types of carbon emission calculators that can be available online or in a form of separate sheets such as Excel software; these programmed separate sheets calculators can be downloaded from the internet. Some of these calculators are complicated and user-friendless. The types of the materials available in these calculators are different in term of Malaysian scope and there is a gap of analysis functionalities. In addition, the general materials used in the Malaysian construction industry the unit of measurement are in m

3,

which may differ from those in Kg and tonne measurement [42].

Researchers in Malaysia developed the latest carbon footprint calculator, which can calculate the amount of carbon emission for construction materials within construction companies. In addition, the construction firms can easily calculate their projects’ carbon emission and other activities in order to determine the carbon emission average per area of any building projects. By using the guidance of this calculator, better and informed decision in-term of materials selection can be made in reducing carbon emission level.

This developed calculator is equipped with case- based reasoning functionalities, which can retrieve (similar projects), reuse of the project’s solution, revise and retain the new solution from the database. As shown in Fig. 6, there is interaction between the database (case-base), system and users [43]. The cycle starts off with users identifying there new

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projects to be compared with case base then retrieves the similar cases for better selection. After the selection of specific project, users reuse the case and revise it through the carbon emission calculator. Lastly, the system will retain the new case with its revised possible solutions.

Figure 6. Case-Based Reasoning Model

C. Proposed Construction Cost and Carbon Emission Model

The idea of developing a new model is to quantify the carbon emission from the building construction materials and to develop a new framework based on construction cost and carbon emission from construction projects through the utilizing of the latest Malaysian carbon footprint calculator.

As shown in Fig. 7, there are three main phases under the framework of the construction cost and CO2 emission best practices. The first one is the input phase, which includes three main steps, namely types of construction projects (conventional and sustainable design), estimation of CO2 emission and calculation of construction cost per area.

Figure 7. Construction-Cost and CO2 Emission Model

All the data generated will be input into the process phase which will identify the relationship between construction cost and carbon emission through an optimization process in order

to identify the most optimal solution of the projects options. Lastly, the final output phase will enable the decision makers to identify their projects categories and select the best practices for their projects in term of cost, resource options and environmental impacts.

CONCLUSION

The Construction industry is considered as a major contributor to environment. This includes the depletion of non-renewable resources, destruction of mother lands and creation of health and safety problem, both relating directly and indirectly to the people involved within this industry. In addition, the world is facing the challenges of global warming and climatic changes issues. Furthermore, the Malaysian construction industry introduced various measures to meet sustainability goals such as GBI and Green PASS to mitigate the carbon emissions from building and construction projects.

The developed Malaysian calculator can calculate the carbon emission level from building projects if it has been used effectively. Thus, there is a necessity to utilize this calculator for further carbon emission reduction in the Malaysian context. In Addition, the aim of developing the construction cost and carbon emission model could help in identifying low-carbon project options that have the potential to make carbon savings during the design and earlier phases of construction projects. The development of this model could also lead to identify the materials selection during construction of buildings by promoting building energy efficiency materials and the use of renewable sources of energy.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to thank the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) for providing the facilities and finance.

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