The US construction industry annually experiences a relatively high rate of fatalities and injuries; therefore, improving safety practices should be considered a top priority for this industry. Modular/prefabricated building construction is a construction strategy that involves manufacturing of the whole building or some of its components off-site. This research focuses on the safety performance of the modular/prefabricated building construction sector during both manufacturing and on-site processes. This safety evaluation can serve as the starting point for improving the safety performance of this sector. Research was conducted based on Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated accidents. The study found 125 accidents related to modular/prefabricated building construction. The details of each accident were closely examined to identify the types of injury and underlying causes. Out of 125 accidents, there were 48 fatalities (38.4%), 63 hospitalized injuries (50.4%), and 14 non-hospitalized injuries (11.2%). It was found that, the most common type of injury in modular/prefabricated construction was 'fracture', and the most common cause of accidents was 'fall'. The most frequent cause of cause (underlying and root cause) was 'unstable structure'. In this research, the accidents were also examined in terms of corresponding location, occupation, equipment as well as activities during which the accidents occurred. For improving safety records of the modular/prefabricated construction sector, this study recommends that future research be conducted on stabilizing structures during their lifting, storing, and permanent installation, securing fall protection systems during on-site assembly of components while working from heights, and developing training programmes and standards focused on modular/prefabricated construction.
Facility location methods play a crucial role in specifying the optimum location options for various types of facilities. A question that arises is what makes a facility location decision a sustainable one? Facility location, also known as location analysis, is a known concept in the literature, but sustainable facility location is not. This requires appropriately defining the concept and framing the problem in order to address the relevant issues. Facility location models in the existing literature do not effectively include all the requirements of sustainable development. This paper serves as a discussion of the current literature concerning the sustainability aspects of the location problem. The aim is to conduct a comprehensive literature review to identify the characteristics of the sustainable facility location problem and propose a framework for classification of sustainability characteristics. The study shows that the location literature has steadily progressed toward considering not only economic but also social and environmental criteria in location decisions; but that many steps remain to be taken toward developing location models that integrate all three aspects of sustainability into decision making. The main motivation for the current study is to provide a foundation from which issues of sustainable development can be built into facility location and siting models.
Anthropogenic emissions have a significant effect on Earth’s atmosphere and contribute to changes in the global climate. These emissions and their impacts need to be tracked in order to understand their potential consequences and to be able to determine how these impacts can be eliminated or reduced by changes in methods, behaviors, and tools. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions generated by an entity over a specific time period or lifecycle. Developing a consistent and clear approach to determining the sources and quantities of these emissions is important due to the emerging demand to account for carbon impacts. Unfortunately there are very few approaches that can accurately estimate and track carbon to determine the climate change impacts of organizations, businesses, and activities. In this paper we propose an approach to carbon footprinting in which the amount of one or more types of carbon gas emissions can be estimated. We propose that by adapting cost estimation standards to carbon footprinting practices, a standard approach can be developed, thus providing a clearer and more focused approach to carbon footprinting. In this study, we have adapted the cost estimation standard of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). This adaptation results in a new methodology for carbon footprint quantification that provides more clarification and robustness to carbon footprinting processes. By breaking down the whole process into three key steps, i.e., inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs, and by introducing relevant steps to take, the methodology can function as a guideline for carbon footprinting studies.
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