Sustainability during Construction: Process and Actions

Construction sustainability is the construction phase implementation of practices, strategies, and actions that address current and future environmental, social, and economic needs, while considering capital project safety, quality, cost, and schedule. Current literature on capital project sustainability focuses almost exclusively on the early concept planning and design phases. This research gap on sustainability in the construction phase shows the need for information, support tools, and guidance in this area. To fill this knowledge void, Research Team 304 identified 54 unique actions that project teams can take during construction to enhance overall project sustainability. The team classified, gauged, and modeled these construction phase sustainability actions (CPSAs) to allow a project team to implement them strategically.

In order to simplify the CPSA selection process, the research team created an implementation work process, a spreadsheet-based CPSA screening tool, and additional in-depth guidance for two selected CPSAs. The team also identified both input- and output-oriented construction sustainability metrics. Implementation Resource 304-2, A Framework for Sustainability During Construction, presents these support tools within a framework for integrating sustainability actions throughout the project construction phase. To make the CPSA screening tool more accessible to field practitioners, the team produced it in two formats: 1) the Excel®-based workbook format; and 2)  a Web “app” tool format. Collectively, these tools will help project teams assess strategy, study implementation, and suggest quantifiable metrics for the construction phase of all their capital projects.