Angela Acree Guggemos

Colorado State University | CSU · Department of Construction Management

To date, few contractors have been involved in performance-based contracts (PBCs) for road construction and maintenance projects where they have to use lifecycle cost (LCC). The main drawback for using the LCC approach is the LCC assumptions used to address projects under high risk for contractors such as PBCs where the contractors are more than li...

Although construction management (CM) programs in higher education are fairly young, graduates from over 100 CM programs in the United States enjoy nearly 100% placement rates and some of the highest salaries of students with bachelor’s degrees. However, CM programs are faced with several challenges, including: the negative image of the constructio...

This paper presents an intensive survey of literature focused on the different aspects of fracking as related to the environment, economy, energy security and sustainability and establishes an understanding of the economic benefits and negative impacts of fracking on the environmental sustainability. The paper is also suggesting the use of all of t...

In the U.S., about 50% of total CO2 emissions stem from the built environment (e.g., building construction, operation [heating, lighting, cooling], and end-of-life) (EPA 2012). Improving the performance and efficiency of the built environment offers the largest and least cost GHG mitigation option of any sector of the global economy (IPCC 2007). Sc...

Contractors have been the main risk bearers in most road construction and maintenance projects, especially when they are working under higher-risk delivery systems such as Performance Based Contracts (PBC), where the contractors are more likely to be responsible for both the construction and maintenance of the road for a certain warranty period. Th...

Making U.S. infrastructure more sustainable by reducing long-term infrastructure costs is a stated goal of the U.S. EPA. A case study of a small development in northern Colorado used both life-cycle cost (LCC) and environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) to better exemplify how this goal might be attained and also provide environmental benefits. B...

The use of porous pavement allows water to drain into an aggregate storage layer beneath the pavement for temporary storage as it percolates into the aquifer below. When using this system in a parking lot application, the need for curb and gutter to channel the stormwater into a nearby retention basin is eliminated, as is the retention basin itself...

While the structural steel industry has made commendable progress to improve its efficiency and reduce its environmental impacts over the years, room remains for improvement, particularly in the fabrication and erection of structural steel during construction. The purpose of this research is to determine the potential benefits of including the stee...

Risk Management has been one of the most developed and researched areas due to its inherent importance as a factor of any construction project success. A significant output of the risk management process is the risk response which determines the success and the effectiveness of the risk management process. This work is a part of a larger research s...

Risk Management has been one of the most developed and researched areas due to its inherent importance as a factor of any construction project success. A significant output of the risk management process is the risk response which determines the success and the effectiveness of the risk management process. This work is a part of a larger research s...

The need to evaluate wastewater treatment systems for their application to sustainable neighborhood design has become increasingly important in the last few years. New advances in wastewater treatment, called community-scale technology, indicate it may be possible for small communities to manage their own wastewater. This case study used the "tripl...

Population growth requires increases in supporting infrastructure and nowhere is this more important than in the provision of water supplies to support new residential development. The use of greywater (GW) systems in residential applications provides promise for more efficient use of existing water supply systems while new sources are brought onli...

To support population growth, a viable fresh water supply, supporting water and wastewater treatment infrastructure, and electric capacity is needed. Historically the answer to growing demand was to build more reservoirs, however; viable potential sites are not plentiful. In addition, infrastructure for water supply and treatment is difficult, expe...

Purpose In the Poudre School District of Northern Colorado, USA, Fort Collins High School (FCHS) and Fossil Ridge High School (FRHS) have similar square footages, mechanical systems, and architectural capacities. While FRHS (built 2005) is leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED)‐Silver and Energy Star (2009) certified, FCHS (built 1995...

Typically the selection of a residential heating system focuses on first costs rather than the economic or environmental life cycle consequences. The use of life cycle assessment and life cycle cost methodologies in the design phase provide additional criteria for consideration when selecting a residential heating system. A comparative case study o...

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) project in Golden, Colorado used an integrated design process in an effort to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. To support the sustainability goals of the project, the structural engineers incorporated the reuse of oil and gas piping as structural columns. LEED, however, does not address specific issues...

The use of greywater for residential toilet flushing could decrease freshwater demand considerably if adopted nationally. Before this is done, a full understanding of the estimated environmental and economic impacts for greywater systems is needed. New and retrofit residential systems were studied using life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle co...

Construction of commercial buildings consumes significant amounts of energy and produces lots of emissions and waste. Where should environmental improvement efforts be focused during design and construction? The Construction Environmental Decision-Support Tool allows designers and industry practitioners to quantify energy use, emissions, and waste...

Office buildings are thought to be significant sources of energy use and emissions in industrialized countries, but quantitative assessments of all of the phases of the service life of office buildings are still quite rare. In order to enable environmentally conscious design and management, this paper presents life-cycle assessments of newly constr...

The life-cycle of a commercial building includes: raw materials acquisition and manufacturing, construction, use, maintenance, and end-of-life. To date, environmental research has focused on the energy use, environmental emissions, and waste generation associated with creating building materials and operation during the building use phase. Environm...

In order to create an environmentally-conscious building, the environmental impacts of the entire service life must be known. Life-cycle assessment (LCA), which evaluates the impacts from all life-cycle phases, from "cradle to grave," is the best method to achieve this goal. In this paper, LCA is used to quantify the energy use and the environmenta...

Buildings use large amounts of materials and produce much waste. Some building materials are recycled, but most become waste. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies require producers to be responsible for their products after their useful life. The basic drivers of EPR are reduced pollution and resource and energy use over a product's life...

To get a systematic assessment of a commercial building's environmental performance, the impacts that occur throughout the different stages of a product's life-cycle (raw materials acquisition and processing, manufacturing, use, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life) need to be identified and quantified. The environmental impacts that occur durin...

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) are used in construction to increase communication and team efficiencies while working toward a win-win project delivery outcome. Within the IPD framework there are core and secondary stakeholders. Core stakeholders are the owner, design team, and the constructor. Secondary s...

Project funded by: KL&A, Paxton & Vierling Steel, LPR Construction, Haselden Construction, and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Department of Construction Management & Institute for the Built Environment ii Executive Summary This study seeks to identify and evaluate opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts of structural...

Thesis (Ph. D. in Engineering-Civil and Environmental Engineering)--University of California, Berkeley, Spring 2003. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 266-287).