Sustainable Business Practices in Construction

This assignment requires the analysis of sustainable business practices within the construction industry. The focus is on three key areas: energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste management. Students are tasked with examining how these practices can be implemented to improve environmental sustainability and enhance a company's brand image. The report utilizes examples from a hypothetical company named Sunselect Property Group and draws upon relevant academic research and industry best practices.

Business Report
Sustainable Business Practices
R Running head: Business Report 1

Business Report 2
Executive Summary
The purpose of the report is to make recommendations on how to improve the sustainable
practices of the organisation practicing construction related operations and processes. The
company has not kept pace with developments in sustainable building and its reputation is
suffering as a result. The report will highlight several ways by which it can achieve increased
sustainability and can improve its image. The key highlights of the report will be related to
sustainable practices for energy efficiency, reduced water consumption and waste management
practices.

Business Report 3
Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Findings & Discussions...................................................................................................................3
Conclusion & Recommendations....................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

Business Report 4
Introduction
In the construction sector, the issues related to waste management, water consumption and
energy conservation are increasing with a rapid rate and it is one of the most concerned subjects
for the researchers, companies, governments and other various institutions. There is an essential
and vast need to overcome these issues and have sustainable practices to provide the individuals
with affordable, energy efficient housing which can help in building sustainable living. The
report will present a few key sustainable practices that can help the organisation to have
sustainable construction.
Findings & Discussions
For enhancing the brand image of the organisation and to provide the individuals with
affordable, energy efficient housing, the organisation, Sunselect Property Group is planning to
implement and take use of ‘The Greenfields Development’ project to promote sustainable living.
There are three main aspects in which the project will have its key focus i.e. energy efficiency,
waste minimisation in the construction process and reducing water consumption.
Sustainable practices related to energy efficiency
The key aim of the project, ‘The Greenfields Development’ is to have zero emission and zero
energy for reducing the use of energy in the housing sector. For this, the company will take use
of the energy consuming appliances that are most sustainable in nature and have been analysed
on the basis of the results of long term monitored consumption. The other key aspects such as the
greenhouse gas emissions and the energy consumption level will also be measured of the
resources so that the overall results can be attained and the most best feasible and sustainable
resource can be taken use for achieving increased sustainability (Saman, 2013). It has been
analysed by the researchers that by taking sue of the energy-efficient designs there can be
reduced the energy consumption in the building process by as much as fifty percent. There will
be practices that will help in bridging the gap in both communication and technology, the
Greenfields Development will be helpful as it will work on LEED standards that stand for
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Zuo and Zhao, 2010). The professionals will
be trained and certified under this program so that it can be ensured that there are tiling place

Business Report 5
construction process and operations on set standards as well as there can be effecting measuring
of the sustainability of operations and building construction. The key emphasis of LEED will be
on indoor environmental quality, selection of the materials, energy efficiency, water savings and
sustainable site development (Yeheyis, et al., 2013).
Sustainable practices related to waste minimisation in the construction process
The sustainable methods associated with ‘The Greenfields Development’ for the waste
minimisation in the process of construction is reducing the consumption of the resources. It will
help in taking use of less number of resources for construction for reducing the waste that occur
due to the unnecessary use of more number of resources. The second aspect is reusing the
resources which will help the organisation in saving the additional costs imposed on the purchase
of new resources and tools for their implementation (Kareem, Asa and Lawal, 2015). In this
project there will be applied life-cycle costing which is a system that will help the organisation in
tracking and accumulating the total cost associated with the use of the resources in regards with
the planning, support cost, acquisition and design related costs. After analysing the costs and
revenues of various resources, there will be selection of the most suitable option so that wastes
can be reduced and increased level of revenues can be generate. Other key sustainable practices
that can offer a sustainable construction to the company includes elimination of the toxics from
the material, taking sue of recyclable resources and having enhanced focus on the quality of the
materials to be used so that less waste is there and increased productivity can be attained (Yates,
2013).
Sustainable practices related to reduced water consumption
To achieve the aim of reduced water consumption, the processes and the operations will work
under the standards of LEED as it has several norms and guidelines to save the environment and
attain environment sustainability through keratin level of decrease in the consumption of water in
the construction process.

Business Report 6
(Source: Robichaud and Anantatmula, 2010)
There will be taken use of a green construction project management that will be based upon the
LEED standards that will first analyse the market and environmental needs then evaluate
ecological benefits in terms of water consumption. The company will have design on the basis of
the analysis drawn so that there can be efficient water and waste management practices. There
will be offered sustainable education to the professional so that in minimum consumption
improved results can be attained and in the close out there will evaluate whether the goals of
reduced water consumption have been achieved or not or there is a need of m pre focused
strategies (Robichaud and Anantatmula, 2010).
Conclusion & Recommendations
The report concludes that if Sunselect Property Group takes use of the mentioned and discussed
sustainable practices in its construction operations and processes then it can result in increased
use of methods that are energy efficient, helps in reducing the amount of water consumption in
the construction building practices and waste minimisation. The report states that all such
measures and working on ten standards of LEED, the organisation can improve its brand image
in the public as there will be attained increased level of environment sustainability atht will help
SPG to have increased customer base and governmental support for its future pupations. The
recommendations which can be provided to the company is that they must select the resources

Business Report 7
and materials that are extremely sustainable and energy efficient and the selection must be made
after effective evaluation of number of alternatives so that the waste can be reduced and
consumption of water can be minimized (Edwards and Naboni, 2013).

Business Report 8
References
Edwards, B.W. and Naboni, E., 2013. Green buildings pay: Design, productivity and ecology.
Routledge.
Kareem, W.A., Asa, O.A. and Lawal, M.O., 2015. Resources Conservation and Waste
Management Practices in Construction Industry. Arabian Journal of Business and Management
Review (Oman Chapter), 4(7), p.20.
Robichaud, L.B. and Anantatmula, V.S., 2010. Greening project management practices for
sustainable construction. Journal of Management in Engineering, 27(1), pp.48-57.
Saman, W.Y., 2013. Towards zero energy homes down under. Renewable energy, 49, pp.211-
215.
Yates, J.K., 2013. Sustainable methods for waste minimisation in construction. Construction
Innovation, 13(3), pp.281-301.
Yeheyis, M., Hewage, K., Alam, M.S., Eskicioglu, C. and Sadiq, R., 2013. An overview of
construction and demolition waste management in Canada: a lifecycle analysis approach to
sustainability. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 15(1), pp.81-91.
Zuo, J. and Zhao, Z.Y., 2014. Green building research–current status and future agenda: A
review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 30, pp.271-281.