Analysis of Construction Material-related Risks in Green Building Projects in India

Abstract

Green building projects are gaining importance in India due to the awareness and movement towards sustainability. Risks associated with construction of green buildings are to be investigated and addressed appropriately as the demand for sustainable construction grows.
One of the key requirements in achieving sustainable construction goals is to select appropriate sustainable building materials to encourage the consumption of recycled and renewable materials, preferably manufactured by local facilities with durable profiles. Three billion tons of raw materials, which correspond to 40-50% of the total flow in the global economy, are used in the manufacturing of building products and components worldwide each year. It is important to consider use of appropriate sustainable materials whenever possible. Sustainable materials have the characteristics of less embodied energy as well as lower emissions. It has been reported that the use of local and recycled building materials offers the advantage of reducing CO2 emissions, producing healthier buildings, while strengthening the local economy.

There are several systems such as GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) that are used for certification of green buildings. These systems refer to fulfilment of certain requirements for certification. Despite minor variances in requirements of certification systems, all include deployment of sustainable materials and resources. Also, the contribution of using sustainable materials to the final score of a certification system is significant. Hence, it is important to look into the material-related risks associated with green buildings, which will improve the delivery of green building projects that in turn contribute to sustainable construction in India. The major objective of this study is to identify the importance, frequency and severity of the material-related risk factors that may affect cost and time performances of green projects.

An extensive literature review was carried out to identify the material-related risk factors associated with green buildings and the major risks which impact the cost and time performance are identified and classified. A nation-wide study among the stakeholders of green building projects using questionnaire survey has been conducted to identify the critical risks that impact the time and cost performance of such projects. It has been observed that the designer-related and contractor-related risk factors were identified to be contributing to risks that have higher impact on cost and time. Unfamiliarity with the new products has been found to be the most frequently occurring risk related to sustainable materials. Negligence of constructability in green designs, Unfamiliarity with the specifications required by green projects, and Negligence of material waste in green designs are the top three risks that severely impact the time and cost performance of green building projects. Having identified these critical risks, it is helpful for the designers, contractors and suppliers to plan suitable mitigation strategies in order to minimise the impact of these risks.

Full text

Analysis of Construction Material-related Risks
in Green Building Projects in India
V. Paul C. Charlesraj and Manju Suresh C.
Associate Professor & Program Director
RICS School of Built Environment, Delhi NCR

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Presentation Outline
►Sustainable/Green Construction; Risk Management
►Research Methodology
►Data Analysis, Results & Discussion
►Summary & Conclusions

Sustainable/Green Construction
►Construction industry has negative impacts on the environment
►consumes nearly 70% of generated energy
►Consumes 17% water resources
►generates nearly 50% of the waste disposed in landfills
►brings about approximately 35% of carbon dioxide emission
►Global Warming; Water Shortage; Rapid exploitation of natural resources; pollution
►Sustainable Design, Construction and Operations
►Green Buildings
Castro-Lacouture, D., Sefair, J. A., Flórez, L., Medaglia, A. L., Optimization
Model for the Selection Materials Using a LEED-Based Green Building Rating
System in Colombia, Building and Environment, 44(2009), 1162-1170.

Green Buildings
►Green building is the practice of using processes and technologies which are
environmentally friendly and energy efficient throughout the building's lifecycle from siting
to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction.
►Can reduce the energy consumption by 20% - 30%, water usage by 30% - 50% and
significantly reduce waste generation by extensive recycling
►Benefits
►Better air quality
►Low electricity consumption
►Enhanced productivity
►Enhance daylight
►Superior health & well-being
►Protection of bio-diversity and ecosystem
►LEED, BREEAM, DNGB, CASBEF, Green Star, IGBC,
GRIHA
Anuj Puri (2018) Go Green - The Mantra for Sustainable Living,
<http://www.anujpuri.com>

Green Buildings in India
►India ranks only second after the U.S. in terms of the number of green technology projects
and built-up area.
►As of September 2017, more than 4,300 projects with an approximate 4.7 billion sq.ft.
of built-up area registered for green technology
►Estimated to double by 2022 at 10 billion sq ft, valuing around USD 35-50 billion, driven by
increasing awareness level, environmental benefits and government support
►Significant contribution by construction materials to
►Project cost
►Green rating criteria
►Need for assessment of material-related risks
Anuj Puri (2018) Go Green - The Mantra for Sustainable Living,
<http://www.anujpuri.com>

Very Relevant Literature
Polat et al. (2017)
►Studies the importance, frequency and severity indices of the risk factors that may affect
cost and time performances of green projects in Turkey
►Identified 25 factors that may affect cost and time performances of green projects
►Questionnaire survey (33 questions) among contractors, designers and consultants
involved in green projects
►Ranking –Importance Index/Frequency Index/Severity Index
►The most frequently occurring risk factors
►“unfamiliarity with the waste management system”
►“unfamiliarity with the specifications required by green projects”
►“unfamiliarity with the new technologies required by green projects”
►The most severe risk factor “negligence of constructability in green designs”
►“design-related” and “contractor-related” factors
Polat, G., Turkoglu, H., and Gurgun, A. P. (2017). “Identification of
Material-related Risks in Green Buildings.” Procedia
Engineering, 196, 956–963.

Code
Risk Factor
D
Design factors
D1
Inexperience of designers in green projects
D2
Limited creativity and innovation in green designs
D3
Negligence of constructability in green designs
D4
Negligence of material waste in green designs
D5
Slow response to change orders
M
Material related factors
M1
Lack of clear definition of green building material
M2
Long approval process of green building materials
M3
Low performances of electrical/mechanical/installation systems
M4
Need
for alternative water and energy systems in green buildings
M5
Need
for special storage conditions for green building materials
M6
Poor quality of green building materials
M7
Uncertainty
of long-term performances of green building
materials
S
Supply related factors
S1
Inflation
in green building material prices due to huge demand
S2
Limited number of green building material suppliers
S3
Long distance to green building material suppliers
S4
Long lead time of green building materials
S5
Long quotation time for green building materials
S6
Need
for importing green building material from foreign market
S7
Need for working with new suppliers
Code
Risk Factor
C
Contractor related factors
C1
Difficulty
in finding experienced workers who can work in green
projects
C2
Unfamiliarity with the new construction methods
C3
Unfamiliarity with the new products
C4
Unfamiliarity
with the new technologies required by green projects
C5
Unfamiliarity
with the specifications required by green projects
C6
Unfamiliarity with the waste management system
O
Newly identified factors( Miscellaneous)
O1
Additional cost for releasing products and materials
O2
Delays
in resolving issues and problems related to materials
O3
Higher investment cost on materials
O4
Inaccurate quotation/estimations

Importance/Frequency/Severity Index
where
n1 is number of respondents who answered
“always”
n2 is the number of respondents who
answered “almost always”
n3 is the number of respondents who
answered “often”
n4 is the number of respondents who
answered “sometimes”
n5 is the number the of respondents who
answered “rarely”
where
n1 is number of respondents who answered
“Very High Important”
n2 is the number of respondents who
answered “High Important”
n3 is the number of respondents who
answered “Important”
n4 is the number of respondents who
answered “Low Important”
n5 is the number the of respondents who
answered “Very Low Important”

Details of the Study
►Sample includes Engineers, Architects, Designers, Suppliers or Contractors who have
worked on green projects
►Convenient Sampling
►Questionnaire Survey
►Reused the instrument of Polat et al. (2017)
►Introduced four new factors
►20/75 responded
►20 valid responses are used for analysis
►Cronbach Alpha - 0.776
50%
20%
20%
10%
Respondent distribution
General contractor
Consultant
Designers
Sub contractors

Data Analysis, Results & Discussion
Frequency Index
Code
Risk Factor
Frequency
index
Rank
C3
Unfamiliarity with the new products
0.56 1
D3
Negligence of constructability in green
designs
0.54 2
C5
Unfamiliarity
with the specifications
required
by
green projects 0.54 3
D4
Negligence of material waste in green designs
0.52 4
O3
Higher investment cost on materials
0.52 5
M6
Poor quality of green building materials
0.32 27
S7
Need for working with new suppliers
0.32 28
S2
Limited number of green building material
suppliers
0.28 29
Design
Material
Supply
Contractor
Others

Impact on Schedule
Code
Risk Factor
Frequency
index
Importance
index
Severity
index
Rank
D3
Negligence of constructability in green
designs
0.54 0.72 0.39 1
C5
Unfamiliarity
with the
specifications
required
by green projects 0.54 0.58 0.31 2
D4
Negligence of material waste in green
designs
0.52 0.60 0.31 3
M6
Poor quality of green building materials
0.32 0.50 0.16 26
S2
Limited number of green building
material suppliers
0.28 0.54 0.15 27
S7
Need for working with new suppliers
0.32 0.46 0.15 28
M3
Low performances of electrical
/
mechanical/ installation
systems 0.34 0.42 0.14 29
Design
Material
Supply
Contractor
Others

Impact on Cost
Code
Risk Factor
Frequency
index
Importance
index
Severity
index
Rank
O3
Higher investment cost on materials
0.52 0.70 0.36 1
C5
Unfamiliarity
with the
specifications
required
by green projects 0.54 0.66 0.36 2
M4
Need
for alternative water and
energy
systems
in green buildings 0.48 0.70 0.34 3
S5
Long quotation time for green building
materials
0.36 0.50 0.18 26
S4
Long lead time of green building materials
0.34 0.52 0.18 27
S7
Need for working with new suppliers
0.32 0.54 0.17 28
S2
Limited number of green building
material suppliers
0.28 0.54 0.15 29
Design
Material
Supply
Contractor
Others

Relationships among Frequency & Impact on
Schedule and Cost Performance
Co
de
Risk Factor
Frequency
index
Rank
Importa
nce
index
Severity
index
Rank
Importa
nce
index
Severity
index
Rank
C3
Unfamiliarity with the new products
0.56 10.54 0.30 7 0.50 0.28 4
D3
Negligence of constructability in green designs
0.54 20.62 0.33 4 0.72 0.39 1
C5
Unfamiliarity
with the specifications required
by
green
projects 0.54 30.66 0.36 2 0.58 0.31 2
D4
Negligence of material waste in green designs
0.52 40.60 0.31 6 0.60 0.31 3
O3
Higher investment cost on materials
0.52 50.70 0.36 1 0.50 0.26 7
D5
Slow response to change orders
0.48 80.66 0.32 5 0.54 0.26 9
M4
Need
for alternative water and energy systems
in
green
buildings 0.48 90.70 0.34 3 0.52 0.25 12
C4
Unfamiliarity
with the new technologies
required
by
green projects 0.48 11 0.54 0.26 14 0.56 0.27 5
ScheduleCost
Design
Material
Supply
Contractor
Others

Summary & Conclusions
►Attempted to assess the material-related risks in green building projects in India
►Frequent Risks
►Most - Unfamiliarity with the new products, Negligence of constructability in green designs,
Unfamiliarity with the specifications required by green projects
►Least - Poor quality of green building materials, Need for working with new suppliers, Limited
number of green building material suppliers
►Negligence of constructability in green designs impacts Schedule severely
►Cost is greatly impacted by Higher investment cost on materials and Unfamiliarity with the
specifications required by green projects
►Limitations
►Limited sample size and responses; generalisation
►Compare with the results from Turkish study

Thanks for your
Attention.
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