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This paper aims to contribute a new way to carry out outcome mapping (OM) for corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects based on three elements: the lifecycle of the CSR project, its stakeholders and sustainability outcomes. To develop this new OM, CSR projects in the mining industry are analyzed to discover their economic, environment and societal impacts.

A multiple-case study approach is used. Data were collected through direct observations and documents, and complementary attitudinal feedback was also obtained from interviews with community, government and industry leaders.

Mapping the CSR project lifecycle, stakeholders and sustainability outcomes simultaneously generate a better approximation of the real impact of the projects that are analyzed. Each stage of the lifecycle reveals new sustainability outcomes for each stakeholder.

This paper provides a new approach to OM and therefore provides a new way to assess CSR projects.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a set of lifecycle-based indicators to describe material eco-efficiency of buildings normalized per unit of gross floor area (GFA), and at verifying feasibility of their calculation for building materials and components, based upon four case studies. The paper also examines the effects that discrepancies between two carbon footprint accounting methods (embodied CO₂ (ECO₂) vs embodied CO_2e) have on communication of environmental performance of selected materials.

The lifecycle assessments (LCAs) were performed through LCA support platform SimaPro 7.3. Data for materials/components production cycle modeling were collected from primary and secondary data from national literature or adapted from Ecoinvent database. Embodied energy, ECO₂, blue water footprint (bWF), non-renewable content and volatile organic compound emissions (VOCe) indicators were calculated from lifecycle inventory (LCI) outputs, while embodied CO_2e was calculated using CML 2001 v.2.01 impact assessment method.

Obtained results suggest that a core database comprised of 12 materials and components – cement, ceramic blocks, steel rebar, sawn timber planks, PVC tubes, plywood, PVC conduits, roof steel structure, roundwood, ceramic tiles, hydrated lime and adhesive mortar – provides a very reasonable description of a building's embodied energy (99.63 percent), embodied CO_2e (97.50 percent), bWF (96.26 percent), non-renewable content (97.53 percent) and VOCe (95.38 percent) profiles. Except for bWF of cement and concrete, substantial reductions in the metrics’ values captured environmental advantages of partially substituting ground granulated blast furnace slag (ggbs) for clinker Portland.

The disclosure of embodied energy and carbon, as well as of other environmental performance data at whole-building level (per unit of GFA) pointed out in this paper, allows comparability and helps to establish performance goals and benchmarks and to guide policy decisions. Following a coordinated methodological outline, future works are expected to evolve to gradually constitute a LCI database that enables the use of the proposed metrics and of LCA as decision-making tools in the building sector.

Steel and reinforced concrete are among the most common structural materials used in the construction industry. Cost and the speed of construction have been usually the main criteria when selecting a building’s structural system, whereby the environmental impact of the structural material is sometimes ignored. Availability of an easy-to-use tool for environmental assessment of the structural alternatives could encourage this evaluation in the decision making. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an automated tool for the environmental assessment of the on-site construction processes of a building structural system, which calculates the energy consumption and carbon emissions of the structural system as a parameter for comparison.

This assessment tool is implemented using a building information modeling (BIM) platform to extract structural elements and their key attributes, such as type, geometrical and locational data. These data are processed together with a productivity database to calculate machine hours, and then predefined energy and carbon inventories are used to assess the energy consumption of the structural system in the erection/installation stage.

This assessment tool provides an automated and easy-to-use approach to estimate energy consumption and carbon emissions of different structural systems that are modeled in a BIM platform. The results of this tool were within the ranges reported by the available studies.

This research project presents a novel approach to use BIM-based attributes of the structural elements to calculate the required efforts, i.e. machine hours, and assess their energy consumption and carbon emissions during construction processes.

This paper is based on a study of six similar buildings built in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1971, which were in urgent need of renovation. A life cycle profit analysis shows how four competing concepts were evaluated to find a financially viable renovation concept; additionally, the environmental impacts of these renovation concepts using a life cycle assessment are presented.

Four renovation concepts are compared to find the most appropriate concept, namely, minimalist, code-compliant, low-energy and low-energy plus vertical extension concepts. The methods used for comparison are life cycle profit analysis and life cycle impact assessment; the methods used for data gathering included site visits, interviews, document study, co-benefits study and energy simulation.

The findings show that vertical extension supported the energy-efficient renovation of the buildings and that the combination of low-energy and the vertical extension had the highest return on investment and the lowest environmental impact. The selected concept for renovating the remaining five buildings combined was the low-energy plus vertical extension. Additional benefits from vertical extension include more apartments in central locations for the housing company, a wider variety of apartment layouts and a wider range of tenants. Drawbacks include increased use of infrastructure, green space and common appliances, as well as gentrification.

This study shows how a vertical extension can financially enable an energy-efficient renovation and further lower its environmental impact. Benefits and drawbacks of densification are also highlighted to better understand the implementation of vertically extending a building.

The primary aim of this paper is to develop a reference model for measuring corporate sustainability that can be used by organizations to integrate sustainability measures into their current performance measurement system, helping them to embed sustainability into daily activities and to forge a sustainability culture. A secondary intent is to present a critical analysis of some well‐known sustainability measurement initiatives, showing their strengths and shortcomings.

The approach employed to develop the reference model described in this paper is a qualitative analysis of the complementarity, shortcomings and strengths of eight well‐known sustainability measurement initiatives alongside an extant corporate sustainability literature review.

The research carried out has found that there is not a single initiative analyzed that tackles all sustainability issues and in fact there is no consensus around what should be measured and how. The main divergences are related to the following aspects: different criteria are applied by the initiatives to classify issues between dimensions; same impacts are evaluated at different levels of a cause‐effect relationship continuum by the same initiative; disagreement about the groups of stakeholders a company should engage and assessing the company impacts that should be taken into account (direct only or those of its whole value chain). Moreover, the way in which most initiatives measure sustainability performance is not the most adequate to embed it into the performance measurement systems, since they evaluate sustainability via presence of management practice and employ absolute values indicators rather than result‐oriented measures and ratio indicators that are more adequate for internal decision making. In this context, a sustainability measurement model was developed that is more comprehensive, objective and value‐oriented, constituting an attempt to shed light on these problems.

The major limitation is the fact that the proposed model does not provide any guidance to select the sustainability key issues for an organization to be integrated into its current performance measurement system. It mainly provides a very comprehensive set of sustainability issues and measures that could be used.

This paper sheds light on some sustainability measurement current challenges – lack of consensus of what should be measured and how – and sustainability embedment into daily activities. Academics will find it useful in their research efforts since it presents a broad review of sustainability concepts as well as an analysis of strengths and shortcomings of all and each sustainability initiative focused. Practitioners will also find it useful as a tool to better understand the sustainability concept, to start measuring sustainability performance, to integrate it in, as well as to evaluate, their current performance measurement systems.

The increasing urgency to address climate change in construction has made green construction (GC) and sustainability critical topics for academia and industry professionals. However, the volume of literature in this field has made it impractical to rely solely on traditional systematic evidence mapping methodologies.

This study employs machine learning (ML) techniques to analyze the extensive evidence-base on GC. Using both supervised and unsupervised ML, 5,462 relevant papers were filtered from 10,739 studies published from 2010 to 2022, retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Key themes in GC encompass green building materials, construction techniques, assessment methodologies and management practices. GC assessment and techniques were prominent, while management requires more research. The results from prevalence of topics and heatmaps revealed important patterns and interconnections, emphasizing the prominent role of materials as major contributors to the construction sector. Consistency of the results with VOSviewer analysis further validated the findings, demonstrating the robustness of the review approach.

Unlike other reviews focusing only on specific aspects of GC, use of ML techniques to review a large pool of literature provided a holistic understanding of the research landscape. It sets a precedent by demonstrating the effectiveness of ML techniques in addressing the challenge of analyzing a large body of literature. By showcasing the connections between various facets of GC and identifying research gaps, this research aids in guiding future initiatives in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse project risks in Ghana’s real estate construction industry in terms of likelihood of occurrence, severity of impact and controllability.

A quantitative research approach was used in this study to address the research objective. The study population consisted project managers, architects, surveyors and contractors from 17 members of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) in Ghana. Random stratified sampling technique was used to select 97 participants from these firms. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data, whereas descriptive statistics were used to present findings.

All risks identified have some level of likelihood of occurrence, extent of severity of impact and controllability. Market risks, technical risks and environmental risks are more likely to occur. Market risks, technical risks and environmental risks had the highest severity of impact. Financial risks, market risks, managerial risks and technical risks are the most controllable. Among all risks, environmental risks are the direst because they have high likelihood of occurrence and severity of impact but very low controllability. Real estate construction firms (developers) are therefore expected to prioritize remedy of environmental risks.

The study is based on self-reported perception of project parties on the likelihood, severity of impact and controllability of real estate project risk factors. Firms outside of GREDA were not included in the survey. Therefore, generalisation of these risk factors for the entire construction industry should be done with caution.

The research results show that Ghanaian real estate developers are aware of the existence of the risks which impact on the performance of the industry. To effectively and efficiently manage these risk factors, project parties must understand the likelihood of occurrence, severity of impact and controllability of the risk factors, as well as individual firm’s responsibilities and capabilities to manage them. Such knowledge helps project managers to prioritise risks in managing them in the face of scarce resources. From an academic research perspective, the paper contributes to a conceptual risk assessment framework for the real estate industry.

The paper’s main contributions relate to the introduction of real estate construction sector-specific factors to project risk management modelling.

The contemporary manufacturing organizations recognize the importance of lean manufacturing as a tool to eliminate wastes, streamline processes and improve value addition. On the other hand, such organizations also focus on the development of ecofriendly products and processes. In this context, lean manufacturing concepts provide a pathway for attaining sustainable benefits. This paper aims to present the state of art review on lean and sustainable manufacturing.

A total of 80 research papers on lean and sustainable manufacturing from various perspectives have been reviewed and their contributions are being presented. The perspectives include origin, definition, decision-making, performance measurement, product development and application for both lean and sustainable manufacturing.

Findings from the literature prove that both lean and sustainable manufacturing systems aim at improving the organizational performance and provide both operational and sustainable benefits. Also based on the studies, it has been found that integrated lean sustainable manufacturing system can be defined as a system that creates value for the customers by eliminating wastes consistently and adopting processes that are ecofriendly, economically viable and safe for the employees to produce green products that enhance the social performance.

The present review considers the papers on lean and sustainable manufacturing based on certain perspectives. Peer-reviewed journal articles, and books are only being considered and reviewed. Articles and information from dissertation thesis, unpublished working papers and conference proceedings were excluded. In future, the study can be enhanced by considering more such perspectives that reflect the ideology and applicability of the selected themes. The practical perspectives of lean and sustainable manufacturing and their integration are also being presented.

This paper presents a review of lean and sustainable manufacturing and provides insights from different perspectives. The scope for their integration is also discussed. The contributions are original.

Various approaches have emerged to assist practitioners in making more informed decisions in highway construction projects. However, industry practitioners are still using subjective ways to make decisions. Also, researchers have developed tools and techniques with similar objectives. Lack of information on what has been developed might lead to those issues. Therefore, this paper aims to review trends of evolution, pinpoint strengths and gaps in the literature and identifies potential future directions for decision-making research in highway construction projects.

A systematic review was conducted on published articles on decision-making in highway construction projects using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) technique.

The analysis of 101 articles revealed that existing decision-making research in highway construction projects targets improvements in four areas: feasibility, conceptual, detailed scope and detailed design. The four areas consist of sixteen subthemes that are detailed in this study. In addition, most research involved developing decision support tools and systems as well as decision-making models, techniques and frameworks. Lastly, several research areas have emerged, such as adding more decision criteria including those with uncertainties, expanding existing decision-making models into decision support systems, benchmarking decision criteria between different sample populations and exploring inter-and intra-relationships between decision criteria.

This paper provides an overview of existing research on decision-making in highway construction projects. Also, it reveals research gaps in the body of knowledge to point out directions for future research. Finally, industry practitioners can use the findings to develop strategies for effective decision-making processes.