ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF STAKEHOLDERS AWARENESS OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF STAKEHOLDERS AWARENESS OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

(A CASE STUDY OF ABUJA)

ABSTRACT

This research work assesses the level of Nigeria construction industry stakeholders’ awareness of sustainable design and construction and to enlighten the stakeholders in the construction industry on green building construction. The selected stakeholders are the client, architect, builder, quantity surveyor, civil engineer, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, planner, and geo-surveyor. This study seeks to find out whether the above named stakeholders from selected construction industries in Abuja, Nigeria are aware of sustainable design and construction and also to find out the feasibility of sustainable design and construction in Nigeria. The study intends to identify through a theoretical research how the stakeholders from Nigeria construction industry can help create awareness, advice Nigeria and determine whether national building codes cover areas on sustainable design and construction. The data for this research was collected through administration of questionnaires and one on one interview with the selected stakeholders for primary data collection and collection of the secondary data was through already existing internet materials, journals, publications, thesis and notes which were well referenced. It was obtained that majority of the stakeholders were aware of sustainable design and construction as shown in table 4.4 with a higher frequency of 43 (53.8%) while a frequency of 1 (1.2%) of the respondents were obtained in table 4.4 not to be aware of the processes involved in the design and construction aspect of sustainability.  It was also obtained from table 4.12 with a frequency of 46 (57.5%) that Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is more recognized rating system for sustainable design by the stakeholders while the other four rating systems (CASBEE, GBTool, BREEAM, and HK BEAM) are not well recognized by the stakeholders and that sustainable design and construction can provide healthier, conducive and friendly environmental as obtained from table 4.29 with a percentage of 52.5% than the conventional method of construction as analyzed in table 4.25 to 4.29. It was recommended that stakeholders in Nigeria construction industry should develop a complete set of sustainable design and construction performance indicators with suitable metrics that will help in delivering a good sustainable design.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of Study

Green building can be described as the utilization of environmentally responsible methods of optimizing the efficient use of resources such as energy and water, to maintain a healthy land, water and air quality throughout the building life cycle. According to Bourdeau (1999), the first definition of “Green Building” was proposed by Charles Kebert in 1994, during the first international conference on sustainable construction in Tampa, Florida. Kebert stated that “sustainable construction is the creation and responsible management of a healthy environment based on resource efficiency and ecological principles”. Green building is also a structure designed to meet certain life cycle based objectives so that the building can be designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological and resource efficient manner. Dietz (2001) also suggested that sustainability (green building) could be thought of as increasing much of human welfare while reducing environmental impact.

According to Freed (2008), the first truly green buildings dated from 1^st A.D. These were the stone dwellings of the Anasazi Indians (Meinhold, 2009: online). The best examples of these buildings appeared around the 700 A.D. and consisted of apartment-house-style villages which had beautiful stone masonry. Freed (2008) mentioned that the reason for considering those buildings as green buildings was that the Anasazi understood the sun and heating, natural ventilation, and how to capture water, while the only materials used were stone, mud and wood. It is important to note that the ‘Anasazi buildings’ were completely free of toxins and were healthy. Over the last decade, green buildings have come to be known as buildings that are designed and constructed with emphasis given to environmental, social and economic priorities. Most importantly, building green emphasizes long-term as well as short-term performance (Horman, Riley, Lapinski, Korkmaz, Pulaski, et.al. 2008).

Practicing green measures and embracing the concept of Green Building is one of the ways that can enlighten an individual on how the earth can survive longer in a sustainable way. In the workplace, for example, employees are seeing the advantages of working in improved environments which equates to working in a sustainable building. Employers also recognize the effects of working conditions as it will have a trickle-down effect within the workplace, especially, in the productivity of staff. Leaders can play an influential or even decisive role in how people act. Over the last two decades, as a global concern, the literature talked about the missing link between architectural education and professional practice (Elnachar, 2010).

Sustainable construction is derived from a broad concept of sustainable development, and terms such as, “ecological building”, “appropriate building” and “sustainable architecture” are used to describe “green building”. In the report of the World Commission on the Environment and Development, Brundtland (1987) defined the term as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”.  Mbamali (2005) conceptualized sustainable construction in the context of extending sustainability concept to building and construction activities and this defines the responsibility of the construction industry in attaining the state of sustainability.

Population growth and housing development have many impacts on the environment and on quality of life of the people. However, sustainability is concerned with the social economic and environmental impact of creating a usable environment. Adebayo (2002) describes construction sustainability as “building practices that can be utilized in the long term without causing damage to the environment”. It is a process of maintaining the balance between the demands of people for quality life and what is ecologically possible and which all could reasonably aspire.  The green building approach applies a project life cycle cost analysis for determining the appropriate up-front expenditure and saves operating costs over the life of the building.

Construction has significant impacts on the natural environment (Hendrickson and Horvath, 2000). Currently, buildings consume approximately 50 percent of the world’s resources. To reduce this demand, the role of sustainable education needs to be examined (Adegbile, 2011). The current effort is focused on reducing the energy intensity of buildings through the use of insulating materials, low energy lighting and natural ventilation, and not potentially hazardous toxic materials. Biomass resources available in Nigeria include fuel wood, agricultural waste and crop residue, sawdust and wood shavings, animal dung/poultry droppings, industrial “effluents/municipal solid waste (Sambo, 2009).  Many professionals have accepted Devan Sidjic’s challenge to address the issue of green urbanism Guy and Moore (2005).

Sustainability is becoming an important focal point from global construction perspective. In the western countries, such as the United States of America, the construction industry is growing sustainability ethic based on the principles of resources efficiency, health and productivity as stated by Gottfried (1996). In Nigeria, sustainable construction and sustainability issues have not received sufficient attention and awareness (Adebayo, 2002; Dahiru, 2005; and Dania, 2007). This raises the question as to the role that tertiary institutions can play in creating a more sustainable future.

To date, stakeholders often do not reach a consensus about potential benefits; environmental and social priorities do not have the same weight as financial priorities and they have misconception about the green premium being much higher than it really is (Turner, 2008). This project proposes to assess the level of stakeholders’ awareness towards green building construction in Nigeria construction industry. Awareness can be raised amongst stakeholders in the workplace who are taught about the need to conserve water and instilling the next generation with an environmental consciousness at a very early age.

 1.2. Statement of Problem   

Nigeria as a country depends mostly on crude oil and electricity for its energy fulfillment. Even though, the consumption of electricity actually declined by 13.4% between 2002 and 2006, the overall or total electricity consumption showed a marginal increase of 1.8% from 5.63GWh in 2002 to 7.47GWh in 2006 (Sambo, 2009). Professional bodies in Nigeria have been conducting series of seminars and conference, to boost the awareness and the adoption of the principles of green construction and sustainable design by the stake-holders in Nigeria. Despite the fact that professional bodies are creating awareness, the awareness level is still low and ineffective. For instance, professional bodies like the NIQS (Nigeria institute of the quantity survey) is not pierce to be as engaged as it could, with just 14% of quantity surveyors agreeing that it was sufficiently active and visible in green building (Wanipo, 2012).”

The methods by which green building can be put in place have seriously been overlooked by stakeholders in Nigeria. The proposed study will check the level at which these stakeholders in the construction industry are actually aware of green building design and construction that would lead to building sustainability in Nigeria.

 1.3. Justification of the Study

The knowledge of green building design and construction is the beginning of a new era for the country. The fast increment in the number of population within the city of Abuja and the demand for completed buildings/structures within little time, which brought about the research on the “Level of Stakeholders Awareness on Sustainable Design and Construction” to check whether Green construction is feasible to Nigeria in order to carter for the populace and their demand for a completed healthy buildings/structures within little time as compare to the conventional means of building construction.

It is feasible to apply Green construction principles in Nigeria, and it will also add a considerable solution to Nigeria’s energy challenges such as the challenge of connecting most rural areas to national grid for its energy use. Green construction is also considered essential in the practice of green architecture and environmental sustainability both in urban and rural societies in Nigeria. The need has arisen for a sustainable world and Nigeria cannot be left behind. Developing an awareness of green building construction is a necessity for stakeholder. Education of leaders and stakeholders can assist in facilitating the development and adaptation of sustainable buildings in Nigeria.

The creation of awareness about the importance of green construction as a sustainability process for structures would probably increase the demand of sustainability. Professional bodies are into the implementation of green construction and the stakeholders need to train and apply its mode of execution on site.

Therefore, this study seeks to add to other bodies of knowledge which makes this study to be carried out and so as to embark on a program that would build up their knowledge of its construction in order to adopt it within the Nigeria Construction industry.

1.4. Aim and Objectives 

1.4.1 Aim

This research is aimed at assessing stake-holders level of awareness of green building in the construction industry of Nigeria, to enlighten the participants in the construction industry on green building construction. The stake-holders include owners, investors, developers, architects, engineers and facility managers.

 1.4.2 Objectives

 The specified objectives of the research are:

1. To identify the stakeholders in the Nigerian construction industry.
2. To identify determinants of awareness of green building construction
3. To assess the level of stakeholders’ awareness of green building in Nigeria.
4. To examine the feasibility of green construction in Nigeria.
5. To determine whether National Building Codes cover areas on design and construction of green building in Nigeria.

1.5. Research Questions 

From the above research objectives, the following research questions will be sourced out.

1. What is the level of stakeholder awareness in Nigeria regarding sustainable design and construction?
2. What are the available standards and organizations that are responsible for green building construction in Nigeria?
3. Will it help the ongoing building performance evaluation at a macro level in Nigeria to support Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program evaluation to inform policymakers and other LEED stakeholders?
4. What is the need for green construction in Nigeria and how feasible is it to Nigeria economy?

 1.6 Need for the Study

The decision to build a green building that will be compatible with the environment is made early in the design process. Making a commitment to build green and establishing firm environmental objectives for the project is one of the problems and must be dealt with as early as possible because opportunities for incorporating green technologies and design solutions become less and less available and increasingly costly to implement as the project design and construction process progresses. This early decision helps to maximize the overall success by incorporating the green potential, minimize redesign, and ensuring the economic viability of the green elements of the building project. Ideally, the decision to build green should be made before the site is selected, as many of the green criteria are affected by site characteristics and some sites are inappropriate for certain eco-friendly and energy sustainability projects.

 1.7 Methodology

An assessment of the stakeholder level of awareness about the design and materials used for the construction of green building will be based on the following:

1. Personal observation and/or administration of questionnaires to relevant people concerned
2. Data gathered from relevant authorities concerned.
3. Review Information from related journals and textbooks.
4. Review the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Building (LEED-EB) criteria on green building design and construction.

1.8 Scope and De-limitation of the Study

1.8.1 Scope

The scope of this research work proposes to assess adequately the level of stakeholder awareness towards green building construction in Abuja, Nigeria based on green building criteria. Low development in the construction of green buildings in the country when carrying out this research work has hinder the collection of data thereby relying on data/information from  relevant professionals in the field, journals, related textbooks, internet and related reports.”

“1.8.2 De-limitation

As a result of time factor and other considered factors, this research work will be limited to the level of stakeholder awareness on green building construction in Abuja, Nigeria.

1.9 Definition of Terms

This part of this chapter consists of definition of some terms that are relevant to green buildings as they used in this study.

1.9.1 Orientation of the Building: The orientation of the building has to be considered according to the sun position as the picture shows, the house has to be designed in such a way that the sun heats the house in cold season, but during the hot time the windows should be in the shade in order to keep it cool. The size of the windows has to be wide enough to let cool breeze come in. The sun-impact on the windows and facades

1.9.2 Integrated Design Process: Building a green building is not just a matter of assembling a collection of the latest green technologies or materials. Rather, it is a process in which every element of the design is first optimized and then the impact and interrelationship of various different elements and systems within the building and site are re-evaluated, integrated, and optimized as part of a whole building solution.”

1.9.3 Building Envelope: This consists of structural materials and finishes that enclose space, separating inside from outside. This includes walls, windows, doors, roofs, and floor surfaces. The envelope must balance requirements for ventilation and daylight while providing thermal and moisture protection appropriate to the climatic conditions of the site. Building Envelope design is a major factor in determining the amount of energy a building will use in its operation.

1.9.4 Sustainable Development: This is the challenge of meeting growing human needs for natural resources, industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and effective waste management while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the natural resource base essential for future life and development. This concept recognizes that meeting long-term human needs will be impossible unless we also conserve the earth’s natural physical, chemical, and biological systems.

1.9.5 Life-Cycle Cost Analysis: This is an increasingly accepted analytical method that calculates costs over the “useful” or anticipated life of an asset—reveals that low up-front expenditures, though easier to finance at building inception, can result in much higher costs over the life of a building or system.

1.9.6 Sustainable Site Design: Environmentally sound site selection and design are evolving processes that integrate local needs with the existing natural environment and pre-existing infrastructure. Designers of local government projects should be especially aware of such issues as access to the site by public transportation, impact of development on the surrounding community, and inclusion of public amenities, such as recreational green space.

1.9.7 Passive Solar Design: this is a broad term used to encompass a wide range of strategies and options resulting in energy-efficient building design and increased occupant comfort.

1.9.8 Day Lighting: This is the practice of bringing light into a building interior and distributing it in a way that provides more desirable and better-quality illumination than artificial light sources. This reduces the need for electrical light sources, thus cutting down on electricity use and its associated costs and pollution.

“1.9.9 Photovoltaic (PV) Technology: This is the direct conversion of sunlight to electricity using semi-conductor devices called solar cells.”

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