The construction industry plays a crucial role in providing basic infrastructure and shelters to society as well as stimulating demand for other sectors with which it has direct and indirect linkages (Durdyev and Ismail 2016). However, the construction practices that have been implemented across the globe have led to severe depletion of natural resources, economic instabilities and loss of cultural heritage (Kibert 2013). It has been reported that the impact of construction practices across the globe accounts for 40% of atmospheric emission, 42% of energy use, 30% of raw materials use, 25% water use, and 25% of waste generation (Zolfani et al. 2018). These problems have become more severe, given the rapid urbanization and growth in population, particularly in developing countries (Durdyev et al. 2018b). As such, these severe effects of the construction industry have attracted the attention of national governments and forefront construction players (Martek et al. 2019). SC defined as "ability to create and operate a healthy and resource-conscious built environment" (Kibert 2013) was first introduced to mitigate the building sector's detrimental impact on the environment. Consequently, significant changes have been experienced in project delivery methods (Kibert 2013). SC was initially perceived to be concerned only with environmental protection (Sev 2009

No abstract

In the lead-up to the Paris climate change conference, the majority of the UN Member States submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions on carbon emissions reduction to be met by 2030. Kazakhstan is no exception. The government made pledges and, therefore, has to adapt its national policies and regulations to meet the set ambitious goals. In this regard, the role of residential building sector is of the utmost importance due to its significant share in the country’s energy consumption and carbon emissions profile. Thus, this study presents the types of residential buildings available and assesses how far they are from meeting the green building (GB) indicators set in various certification schemes and standards. This would help in suggesting practical steps to improve the sustainability levels of the residential building stock of Kazakhstan. This study collected a robust set of data on existing residential buildings in Astana, chosen as a case study location, classified them and, based on a developed checklist, evaluated their performance compared to GB standards. The study has found that old buildings tend to have a rather poor level of sustainability, whereas the sustainability of new buildings depends on the class of the building—steadily increasing from economy to premium class in all categories of the checklist. A detailed analysis of the results has led to the development of recommendations on how each type of building should be improved to meet the GB standards.

The role of buildings in the context of addressing the consequences of climate change and the energy deficit is becoming increasingly important due to their share in the overall amount of green house gas (GHG) emissions and rapidly growing domestic energy consumption worldwide. Adherence to a sustainability agenda requires ever-increasing attention to all stages of a building′s life, as such approach allows for the consideration of environmental impacts of a building, from design, through construction stages, until the final phase of a building′s life—demolition. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most recognized and adopted models for the evaluation of the environmental performance of materials and processes. This paper aims to perform an LCA of four different types of residential buildings in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The assessment primarily considered embodied energy and GHG emissions as key assessment indicators. Findings suggest that the operational stage contributed to more than half of the GHG emissions in all the cases. The results of the study indicate that there is a dependence between the comfort levels and the impact of the buildings on the environment. The higher the comfort levels, the higher the impacts in terms of the CO2 equivalent. This conclusion is most likely to be related to the fact that the higher the comfort level, the higher the environmental cost of the materials. A similar correlation can be observed in the case of comparing building comfort levels and life-cycle impacts per user. There are fewer occupants per square meter as the comfort level increases. Furthermore, the obtained results suggest potential ways of reducing the overall environmental impact of the building envelope components.

No abstract

New Zealand faces a housing shortage with construction struggling to meet demand. Structurally insulated panels (SIPs) have been demonstrated internationally as a method of construction which could reduce construction time frames, improve the standard insulation in housing, as well as reduce the amount of waste generated on construction sites. However, anecdotal evidence shows that the SIPs’ adoption is lacking, which is, perhaps, attributed to its industry-wide acceptance level. Thus, in this study, the construction stakeholders, such as architects/designers, builders, territorial authorities and homeowners were targeted to shed light on current status of SIPs use, benefits offered and any barriers inhibiting its industry-wide implementation. This was done through a survey, which was designed to understand the construction stakeholders’ experience levels regarding SIPs use in New Zealand as well as their opinions about any problems associated with the SIPs adoption. Although the stakeholders were happy with the thermal performance offered by SIPs, the results indicate that lack of familiarity and understanding are one of the main barriers to the widespread use of SIPs in New Zealand. Moreover, proper training and clear design information are reported to be crucial to make the building and consenting processes efficient, which will ultimately improve the cost-effectiveness. Despite the barriers (to SIPs adoption) documented by stakeholders, the common belief is that SIPs offer wide-range of benefits to improve performance of the built environment; hence, the stakeholders expressed their willingness to design/build/recommend SIP homes. It is hoped that the findings of this study will guide the industry practitioners in investing their efforts in wider adoption of SIPs in New Zealand.

Cost-effective and environmentally responsible ways of carbon fiber-reinforced composite (CFRP) recycling are increasingly important, owing to the rapidly increasing use of these materials in many industries such as the aerospace, automotive and energy sectors. Product designers need to consider the costs associated with manufacturing and the end-of-life stage of such materials to make informed decisions. They also need to understand the current methods of composite recycling and disposal and their impact on the end-of-life costs. A comprehensive literature review indicated that there is no such tool to estimate CFRP recycling costs without any prior knowledge and expertise. Therefore, this research paper proposed a novel knowledge-based system for the cost modelling of recycling CFRP that does not require in-depth knowledge from a user. A prototype of a cost estimation system has been developed based on existing CFRP recycling techniques such as mechanical recycling, pyrolysis, fluidized bed, and supercritical water. The proposed system has the ability to select the appropriate recycling techniques based on a user’s needs with the help of an optimization module based on the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Estimating recycling costs has taken into consideration various factors such as different material types in different industries, transportation, and dismantling costs. The developed system can be employed to support early-stage designers and decision-making stakeholders in terms of understanding and predicting recycling costs easily and quickly.

Buildings account for nearly 40% of the end-use energy consumption and carbon emissions globally. These buildings, once built, are bound to be utilized for several decades if not longer. The building sector, therefore, holds a significant responsibility for implementing strategies to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions and thus contribute to global efforts directed toward mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. This paper presents an overview of the effect of building orientation on energy consumption in buildings for the extreme cold weather conditions in Astana (capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan), with temperature ranging between −35 and +40 °C. Passive design features coupled with integration of renewable energy technologies have been identified for the next generation of buildings in Astana. The specific nature of the work is intentional; it is a continuing attempt to generate relevant know how that has direct relevancy to Astana's system approach to energy conservation to meet its extreme winters. Simulations allowed assessing how changing certain input variables can impact the overall energy consumption of the considered object. The simulation results have shown that orientation of a building can significantly affect the energy usage rate. In fact, the building rotation has justified the initial assumptions that building orientation affects its energy consumption. The South and North facing directions are found to be the most energy efficient (initial orientation is 35 degrees toward the North-East). These findings have been confirmed by the separate calculations based on the local and international standards and codes. Keywords: energy, low energy design, passive solar heating and cooling, extreme weather conditions and energy consumption.