Phoenix strongly believes in sustainable development and protection of environment. As part of the CSR through Phoenix foundation it undertakes many sustainable activities to improve the environment including afforestation, tree plantation, and maintenance of public gardens etc. Phoenix takes environment enhancement seriously and shall endeavour to do everything within its sphere of influence to protect and enhance the environment, for the future.
Environment protection & sustainability can be achieved in two ways and both are mutually exclusive and complement each other.
The first way is to use sustainable materials/products, sustainable design, energy efficient operations as part of the design of the building. This step will influence the way the building is operated and maintained, and the benefits are long term in nature. Most of it is covered by targeting platinum rated buildings as the only way to construct a building. Sustainability has been covered in detail in the next section.
The second part of construction stage. During construction stage the company should take certain positive actions and should not do certain negative actions concerning heath of the environment in which it operates. The following section describes the dos and don’ts during construction stage [1] .
On a global scale, the construction industry is responsible for about 50% of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, 20-50% of all-natural resources consumed and 50% of all solid waste produced, some of which occurs during the construction phase of the building's life cycle, causing many environmental impacts. The growth of the construction industry and its subsequent environmental impacts highlight the importance of the need for sustainable construction processes and actual ways to manage measures of sustainability. Greater recognition within the architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry of the increase opportunity to influence the sustainability of project outcomes could lead to significant sustainability improvements in the AEC industry.
The construction process itself causes different environmental impacts. Bulk materials, water and electricity among other resources of various types and origins are consumed on construction sites during the different production activities and by the temporary facilities. These activities generate solid waste and particle emissions causing a concern with soil contamination, air and water pollution and soil erosion. Noise emission is also an important issue, as the construction site activities temporarily increase noise pollution, and are often set in the urban environment.
Therefore, the environmental impact of construction has become of high relevance. However, the identification and monitoring of these environmental impacts have to date received little attention. It is very important to predict what the environmental impacts of construction are and identify how they can be prevented before starting an activity. Furthermore, many of the impacts can be controlled and mitigated by the project management team during the design and pre-construction of a building thus improving the sustainability of the construction phase of a building.
However, there is a lack of knowledge on the available solutions, technologies and procedures involved with the employment of sustainable practices on construction sites. It is necessary to know the legislations, resources and minimum conditions required to deploy solutions after performing a technical and economic feasibility study based on the particularities of the construction site, specific production activities, logistics, financial constraints and human resources. In addition, there is a need to develop tools for measuring and monitoring the implementation of sustainable practices on site during the execution phase.
Suggestive environmental good practices in construction sites
The different environmental assessment methods for sustainable buildings present a series of good practice guidelines to be applied during the construction phase. The General Managers are advised to create their own methodologies and strategies to enhance the Environmental quality at site.
However, TISS will bridge between project sites in understanding possible design approaches are brought to standardisation to minimise revisions and alterations in approved development Gateway documents.
The environmental aspects related to resource consumption involve material resources, energy efficiency and waste management. Those aspects related to resource consumption can be reduced through rational resource use, coordinated and modular design principles and adopting practices that reduce material losses and selecting materials, products and construction systems with low environmental impacts and low embodied energy considering its whole life cycle process. The generation of waste products during the different site production activities can be reduced through adequate planning and management. The waste can potentially be valorised as a raw material or energy source.
Waste, air pollution, and water and soil pollution are environmental aspects related to Emissions and Waste. Best practices and technologies, aimed at controlling particle emissions during the different construction site activities, can be adopted to minimize risks from air pollution on the occupational health of site workers and the neighbourhood. Wastewater produced during site activities can also cause groundwater contamination and natural watercourse pollution, and therefore requires wastewater management plans that control infiltration and surface run-off.
The interface with external environment is another important aspect and may involve urban and environmental quality, noise pollution and visual pollution. The distress and annoyances, resulting from site traffic and machinery arising directly or indirectly from the production activities, cause visual and noise pollution Possible visual and noise pollution from the construction project and the effects on the local climate should be investigated.
It is also important to control the intrinsic quality of the construction site, such as health and safety, temporary installations and innovation. The impacts caused on the health, safety and welfare of site workers should be controlled and must also be considered by installing appropriate collective and individual protections during the different activities. Improvements on the internal air quality, comfort and environmental performance of temporary facilities may also be required. In addition, innovative technologies can provide significant improvements on the performance of site equipment and temporary facilities.
Following are some the suggestive measures for overall environment enhancement at site;