Construction Sustainability involves the processes, decisions, and actions during the construction phase of capital projects that enhance current and future environmental, social, and economic needs while considering project safety, quality, cost, and schedule. Most of the currently available published literature and advances in project level sustainability practices have focused on the early Concept Planning and Design phases of capital projects. Knowledge of sustainability practices during the Construction phase of capital projects is still in the early development stages and is highly fragmented; information regarding the selection, assessment, and implementation of construction sustainability solutions has remained largely unavailable or underdeveloped. Moreover, capital project owners and constructors increasingly seek practical guidance and resources to better integrate and evaluate sustainability decisions and actions within project construction services. The dearth of research on effective sustainability practices during the construction phase suggests that higher levels of sustainability attention and effort are needed in this area, in addition to the creation of support guidance and tools. To fill this gap in knowledge, this research has identified 54 unique actions that project teams can apply during construction to enhance the overall sustainability of their project. These construction phase sustainability actions (CPSAs) have been cataloged, characterized, and evaluated to facilitate their consideration and implementation by project teams. To further support the selection process and implementation of these actions, the research team developed a high-level strategic work process, a spreadsheet-based CPSA Screening Tool, and additional in-depth guidance for three CPSAs. In addition, both input- and output-oriented construction sustainability metrics have been developed and identified. Equipped with the findings from this study, owners and construction contractors will be better prepared to implement sustainability actions during the construction phase of capital projects. / text

Recognized as one of the main obstacles to sustainable development, climate change is caused and accelerated by the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated from all energy end-user sectors. The building sector alone consumes around 40% of all produced energy worldwide. Reducing this sector’s energy consumption has therefore come into focus as one of the key issues to address in order to meet the climate change challenge.Implementing sustainable construction practices, such as LEED, can significantly reduce the building’s energy and water consumption. Prescribing these practices may however encounter several barriers that can produce other than intended results. Since the beginning of 2008 Dubai mandates a LEED certification for the better part of all new constructions developed within the emirate, nevertheless the success of this regulation is debatable.This thesis identifies the barriers the introduction of the sustainable construction practices in Dubai faced and analyses the reasons why the regulatory and voluntary policy instruments were not effective in dealing with these barriers. Understanding these barriers as well as the merits and weaknesses of the policy instruments will help future attempts to introduce sustainable construction practices.To put the research into context a literature review of relevant printed and internet sources has been performed. In order to further understand the barriers the construction market in Dubai faced, qualitative observational research methods have been used. In addition the input of different key stakeholders with unique knowledge of the construction market was deemed to be necessary. Finally, for purposes of verification, the research relied on quantitative methods using different databases that provide detailed information about construction projects in the United Arab Emirates.The thesis concludes that several barriers, such as a) financial, b) market related, c) behavioral and organizational, d) political and structural, d) technical and e) information barriers hindered the introduction of sustainable construction practices in Dubai. Furthermore the introduced policy mechanisms were not effective in providing clarity on the scope of the policies and environmental goals, failed to provide financial incentives to investors or developers and considered only weak enforcement mechanisms.As a final outcome the thesis presents a number of suggestions that should increase the number of LEED certified projects. These suggestions include changes in the current regulations, the introduction of new policy mechanism such as a building code and major changes to the energy policy such as the correction of the utility prices and the liberalization of the energy market.