Investigating Green Construction Technology and Environmental Planning

This report delves into the impacts of green construction technology and environmental planning on sustainable urban development, investigating both the advantages and the obstacles hindering its adoption. The study emphasizes the use of environmentally friendly innovations in building construction, aiming to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions from the construction industry. The research identifies key challenges, including a lack of awareness, management issues, inadequate technology, and high costs associated with green technologies. Data was collected through questionnaires administered to stakeholders. The findings highlight a growing awareness among government and private sector stakeholders regarding green energy utilization, although the implementation of green building technologies remains low. The cost of green technology is identified as the primary barrier, while construction and contract management have a lesser impact. The report recommends strategies to subsidize costs, thereby promoting the adoption of green technology for sustainable construction and development. The report also covers literature review on benefits, green building construction and the environment, challenges, and factors promoting the adoption of green technology. Methodology, results and analysis, discussion and conclusion are also included in the report.

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INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF GREEN CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY AND
ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT
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Abstract
This paper investigated the impacts of green construction technology and environmental
planning for sustainable urban development. Also, the challenges that are hindering the
embracing of green construction are investigated. The green building technology take in the use
of environmental friendly innovations on the construction of building with an aim of saving on
energy and mitigating carbon emissions resulting from construction industry. The challenges
hindering the green technology adoption include the lack of awareness, management, and
inadequate technology in addition to high costs of the green technology.
The study involved the use of questionnaires to obtain information from various stakeholders
regarding the identified challenges. The study shows that currently the government and the
private company stakeholders are conscious about the use of green energy in environmental
conservations. However, the utilization of the green building technologies is very low. Also, the
cost of the green technology is the main challenge in the adoption of the green technology while
management of construction and contracts has little impact. It is suggested that various remedies
should be undertaken to subsidize the cost in order to enhance the adoption of green technology
for sustainable construction and developments.

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Table of contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................5
Background Information..........................................................................................................................5
Problem statement..................................................................................................................................7
Research Objectives.................................................................................................................................7
Main Objective........................................................................................................................................7
Specific Objectives.......................................................................................................................................8
Research questions..................................................................................................................................8
Importance of the Study..........................................................................................................................8
Literature Review.....................................................................................................................................9
Benefits of using green technology..........................................................................................................9
Green Building Construction and the Environment.................................................................................9
Green Buildings and Energy...................................................................................................................10
Challenges Hindering Adoption of Green Technology in the Construction Industry..............................11
Economics (Costs and Time)..................................................................................................................11
Technology (Lack of Technical Skills).....................................................................................................12
Lack of Awareness.................................................................................................................................12
Construction and Contract Management..............................................................................................13
Utilization of Green Technology to Promote Sustainable Development................................................14
Good Health and Wellbeing...................................................................................................................14
Affordable and Clean Energy.................................................................................................................14
Decent Works and Economic Growth and life cycle analysis.............................................................15
Green concrete vs standard concrete....................................................................................................16
Clay material..........................................................................................................................................17
Grass crete material...............................................................................................................................18
Wood, timber-Crete material................................................................................................................18
The Sustainable Cities............................................................................................................................19
The Climate Action.................................................................................................................................19
Factors Promoting the Adoption of Green Technology.........................................................................20

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The Availability of Knowledge on Green Technology.............................................................................20
Green Building Technology Implementation Capability.........................................................................21
The Management Support for the Green Technology...........................................................................22
The Availability of Interest on the Green Technology............................................................................23
The Government Policies and Incentives...............................................................................................23
The suitable types of green technology.................................................................................................24
Methodology.........................................................................................................................................27
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................27
Data Collection......................................................................................................................................27
The Current State of Green Technology................................................................................................27
Challenges Hindering the Green Energy Adoption.................................................................................27
Results and Analysis and Discussion......................................................................................................28
The Current State...................................................................................................................................30
Challenges of the Green Technology Adoption......................................................................................30
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................34
References List.......................................................................................................................................35

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Introduction
Background Information
Urban areas face a series of issues and difficulties because of their great expansions resulting
from massive population growths, which expands weight on the available infrastructure and
consequently the exhaustion of the natural resources (Weber and Sciubba 2019). Accordingly,
the sustainability idea came up to address these difficulties and guide urban advancement, to
guarantee the resource sustainability and minimize environmental issues (Siedentop & Fina
2014).
Utilizing present day technologies can decrease a considerable amount of problems facing the
urban areas and guide the path of transformation of these urban areas into sustainability (Rice
and Hancock 2016). These technologies help urban communities to accomplish a suitable way of
life and simultaneously keep a green environment and resources. Innovations are used to make
various forms of production increasingly proficient, discovering answers for different dangers
that may influence the capacity of urban areas to contend, for example, the utilization of land and
urban transportation systems (Aliyu and Amadu 2017, Chen 2014). Also, the management of
wastes, the air quality, social legacy of urban areas, urban transportation systems (Wu, Zhao and
Ma 2019), reasonable vitality, agricultural activities, current building materials and designs and
feasible water utilization are among the features increasing urban competitiveness (Hu 2015).
These strategies are known as green technologies which are the structures to help make urban
areas reasonable and give occupants a decent personal satisfaction (Fu, Xiao and Wu 2017). For
instance in bigger and valued urban areas, the technological advances into urban development
plan strategies has improved a significant number of the serious issues. Previously, technology
has not been as significant as it is currently relied on in the urban planning for the achievement
of sustainability.
Right now, there are more difficult challenges facing urban areas and technology is needed not
only for the solution of technical challenges revolving around water, energy and construction
materials but also in the development of urban infrastructure such as transportation and
communication systems and housing in line with the green technology and sustainable

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developments (Broere 2016).
Green technologies are inventions that are very friendly to the natural environment that
frequently include the efficient energy for production, reusing and use of inexhaustible resources.
(Jonas and Littig 2015). It is known that green technologies lessen waste and contaminants, asset
utilization and increment the productivity of administrations in the city or urban areas. There are
different techniques of green innovation that can be fused into the spatial planning procedure to
help find better approaches to accomplish sustainable developments by diminishing the negative
effects of different monetary and human activities on the ecosystem and environment as a whole.
For instance, advancing green cars can upgrade access to administrations and help diminish
contamination levels and wellbeing disparities of the city's populace; the utilization of treated
wastewater in open water and green nurseries help to lessen by and large water utilization. Urban
communities should take a gander at round advancement models that reuse water and waste and
produce vitality in them, with the goal that sewage can be utilized, for instance, to develop fish,
plants or reused strong waste to make methane. These activities help to minimize the harmful
ecological effects improve the city's scene and improve personal satisfaction.
Structures, vitality, and transport are the biggest wellsprings of CO2 emanation and through plan
procedures and advancements to improve building development, urban vehicle proficiency, and
innovation to produce vitality, water the board and waste administration, the measure of outflows
can be diminished. Contingent upon the green advancements, this will diminish the pace of
vitality and normal assets utilization. There are four eco-advancements that might be used by city
organizers and different callings the urban arranging and structure:
Environmental Technologies envelop an expansive scope of innovations identified with vitality,
water, and waste, while Information Technologies that incorporate a wide scope of PC based
equipment and programming and ecological detecting advancements for social affair of natural
information. Geographic Information systems accommodate the capacity, change, control, the
board, perception, refreshing, questioning, and detailing in related databases of geo-referenced
information in an unthinkable configuration, and joins the Urban Information System that
encourages land use investigations, the planning of advancement and ecological plans, and so on.
At last, Communication Technologies are utilized for the exchange of ecological information,
data, learning, and choices in wired or remote situations.

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These green innovations are one of the most significant and powerful devices for accomplishing
practical improvement in urban communities by adding to the greening of monetary,
administration and urban segments and safeguarding common assets since they empower
organizers to pick the best pathways to limit the negative impacts of advancement and amplify
the advantages.
Problem statement
The world is confronting numerous natural and monetary issues coming about because of fast
urbanization and over-abuse of accessible assets just as because of the sensational increment of
the populace and relating increments in the quantity of urban areas. Mechanical and modern
improvement assumes a major job in these issue. The development business produces the best
natural effects among the various enterprises. Green structure plans and principles are created to
improve building activity vitality and typified vitality efficiencies, and limit vitality and
squanders (Kwok et al., 2011). Green structure practices can assume a key job in accomplishing
maintainability in the development business (Chatterjee, 2009).
Research Objectives
Main Objective
The main objective of this research is to investigate the impact of green construction technology
and environmental planning for sustainable urban development

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Specific Objectives
Research questions
1. What are the real benefits of using green technology?
2. What are the factors or challenges hindering adoption of green technology in the
construction industry?
3. Does utilization of green technology promote sustainable development in the construction
industry?
4. How can adoption of green technology in the construction industry be promoted or
improved?
5. What are the most suitable types of green technology?
Importance of the Study
This study researches the environmental sustainability of structures and how its evaluation can
be improved by utilizing the various building green technologies. By looking at some current
structural environmental appraisal plans and the development of the green building technologies
in the individual areas, it is believed that better comprehension of their interrelationship can be
gotten and viable procedure to incorporate them can be created for environmental sustainability.

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Literature Review
Benefits of using green technology
The benefits of green energy can broadly be looked at in terms of cost savings, environmental
benefits and other benefits that arise from the adoption of the green energy in various parts of the
world. The costs savings advantages are associated greatly with the energy savings in building
constructions while the environmental benefits arise from the use of techniques that help in the
reduction of CO2 emissions (Soni 2015).
Construction of buildings by use of various green technologies such as the use of green
techniques in ventilations, the installation of solar thermal water heating systems in new
buildings and the use efficient building insulation methods significantly saves energy costs in the
operation of the buildings. The techniques that are employed in the green ventilations include the
design for open spaces and natural airflows in the buildings. This eliminates the need for the
traditional electric powered ventilation systems thus mitigating the energy costs initially realized.
The installation and use of the solar thermal water heating systems greatly cuts the energy costs
(electricity) consumption in residential buildings. Though the initial installation costs are high,
the operation costs are very small thus and benefits are realized within short periods because of
zero costs in water heating services.
The use of green technology in the construction of buildings employs a number of techniques
that are very friendly to the environment therefore reducing the negative impacts of such
developments to the environment. Building materials are made from recycled products including
wastes while the temperature in the buildings are controlled using green roofs thus reducing the
carbon emissions from the overall structure into the natural environment.
Green Building Construction and the Environment
The continuation of the earth can only be guaranteed through sustainable development which
eventually results into healthy living conditions of the earth’s organisms. Currently, the entire
world is faced with serious climatic changes which has resulted into shortage of natural resources
and energy (Hsieh et al., 2011).According to Al-Kaabi et al. (2009), many nations have adopted
the use of green technology especially in the construction of buildings with the aim of preserving
the natural resources and sustaining the environment in the urban areas. Sustaining the
environment is all about the reducing the extent of environment degradation resulting from

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current development activities so as to pass a cleaner environment to the next generations in the
face of the earth (Kamana & Escultura, 2011).
Studies reveal that the construction industry is responsible for a big percentage of greenhouse
gases that are emitted into the atmosphere The industry has realized a ponderable expansion over
the recent past years and is expected to continue to rise over the coming years therefore the need
for control of emissions both from the construction process and the general operations of
buildings (Wu and Low,2010).The various environmental indicators are normally used in the
assessment of the environment impacts from construction activities and consequently used in the
making of relevant decisions.
The assessment of such environmental indicators requires the incorporation of a number of
disciples and stakeholders including engineers, architects and the environmentalist with the
development of tools for evaluation of the effective of the technology in the building designs.
The methods and sustainability parameters of assessments are also expected to provide
frameworks for the design of buildings that minimize the environmental impacts resulting from
construction activities. It is important to note that the environmental and climatic changes have
serious impacts on the performance of buildings and the occupants of such buildings including
high temperatures and low work performance respectively.
A number of regulations are put in place by nations or regions to regulate the construction
industry especially in building so as to align to the used of green technology for environmental
sustainability. In Europe, there are regulations making it mandatory for use of green technology
for new buildings including the Net-Zero-Energy-Buildings regulations 2018-2020. Generally,
the reduction of carbon emissions from buildings and the general construction industry by the
adoption of the green technology is a great benefit to the environment.
Green Buildings and Energy
Generally, the green technologies in buildings are aimed at reducing the consumption of energy
in the operation of the buildings. Studies show that the lot of energy is consumed by the
traditional buildings in their day-today operations. The remedy for eradication of these issues
will be the use of green building technologies .One of the noteworthy element in the idea of
green building technology is utilizing renewable or sustainable power source. Solar and wind
based energy are irregular energy sources, so these sources must be joined with different storage

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gadgets. While batteries or potentially super capacitors are a perfect decision for transient energy
stockpiling, regenerative hydrogen-oxygen power devices are a promising contender for long
haul storage of energy. A green structure energy framework should comprise of sustainable
power source, the storage systems and proper managements, where the assortment of sources and
gadgets for storage can be overseen appropriately (Jiang and Rahimi-Eichi, 2009).
The Kyoto convention invited the developed nations to diminish the ozone harming substance
discharges by at least 5% to handle environmental and climate changes. A portion of the
proportions of the governments to accomplish this objective are to encourage the green
technology in new building developments in fulfilling low energy criteria. This will result into
efficient energy use in buildings, the development of concepts for sustainability and renewable
energy sources promotion. Also, various countries are providing incentives to the citizens that
are adopting the green technologies in the construction of buildings. Such incentives include the
tax discounts by the governments to the citizens.
Challenges Hindering Adoption of Green Technology in the Construction Industry
The environmental problems most important issues in the construction industry and must be
clearly addressed for sustainable construction and developments in urban areas. The faster
economic growths rapid urban developments are major contributors of the problems that are
currently experienced in the construction industry and energy conservations in buildings (Zhang
et al. 2014).Also, the higher population densities in conjunction with the unavailable reusable
sources are among the factors causing the challenges towards the adoption of green construction
technology (Liu, et al, 2012).In general ,the various challenges that are hindering the full
adoption of green construction are categorized into four including the economic ,management
awareness and technology.
Economics (Costs and Time)
The cost efficiency forms the main factor of concern during the decision making process for the
implementation of a green construction technology (Meryman et al., 2014) .The projected extra
costs on the utilization of a green construction strategy also hinders their adoption (Ofori, et al,
2013).The control of costs of equipment still remains the biggest challenge in many countries
like China in the development of green construction technologies. There is a significant increase

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in the initial cost of equipment necessary for the green technologies such as the energy and water
saving devices (Liu, et al, 2012).
Time is a very important factor in the construction projects which heavily relies on the project
schedules to avoid delays which could otherwise lead to extra costs of the project. The delays
heavily affects the reputation of the companies and contractors involved in the construction
projects therefore things that may cause such delays like solar installations are highly avoided.
This means that the integration of the green construction elements in buildings as well as their
structural integrity must be examined in details to avoid unnecessary delays in construction
projects (Hwang, et al, 2013).
Technology (Lack of Technical Skills)
Sometimes the general design of a structure such as the architectural appearance of a building are
affected by the incorporated green construction technique. This may not affect the general
function of the building but the aesthetic appearance are of great concern to the clients or owners
of the construction project. The regulations that have been set on general aesthetics of a building
pose a lot of challenges to the engineers during the adoption of the green construction technology
which results into the degradation of the general aesthetic tic appearance of the building. This
means that there is need for the establishment of appropriate technology that can ensure the
incorporation of the green construction techniques into building without affecting the
appearances especially in the urban areas.
It is important to note that for successful accomplishment of the green construction, modern
equipment, materials and technology must be put in place. The performance uncertainty of the
equipment and technology and sometimes the materials significantly affects the adoption and the
efficiency of the green construction technology (Shi et al. 2013).A number of number of
countries like Australia are still in the process of establishing the appropriate green technology
and the necessary specifications for full adoption in the implementation of green construction
techniques in the construction industry. Also, a lot of technological misunderstandings and gaps
still exist in green construction industry, this makes the inadequate green technologies to be a
main barrier in green construction for sustainable developments in urban areas.
Lack of Awareness