Assignment Sample on RESE1134 Research Methods

Introduction

It has been observed that in the modern era there is a huge importance of energy efficient bundling in the European countries as energy efficient building plays an essential role in protecting the environment of the countries. In this project proposal several objectives, project method and project timeline will be discussed which is extremely essential to design the project in an effective way.

Working title

Impact of energy efficient building on the Environmental factor in the European countries

Aim

The main aim of the project is to analyze and evaluate the advantages of energy efficient building in European countries as the environmental benefits of energy efficient building will be also incorporated in the study.

Objectives and research questions

1. To analyze the environmental benefits of energy efficient building in European countries

• According to this objective in this project proposal the main advantages of energy efficient building will be evaluated as the literature review part will also analyse the way to design an energy efficient building in a country.

2. To understand a proper way to design an energy efficient building in European countries.

• Considering these objectives it may be argued that how to design an energy efficient building in the European countries and what kind of construction equipment will be needed to design an energy efficient building in an effective way?

3. To recognize the way to maintain the cost effective approach in constructing an energy efficient building in a country.

• How to maintain the cost effectiveness in designing an energy efficient building?
• What is the relationship between the environment pollution and the construction of energy efficient buildings in European countries?
• What are the essential environmental considerations which need to be maintained in constructing an energy efficient building?
• What are the main implications of energy efficient building in mitigating the air and noise pollution in a country?

4. To understand the importance of innovative and creative thinking and technological advances in designing an energy efficient building?

• What is the role of technological supremacy in constructing a perfect energy efficient building in a nation?
• What is the role of the government in influencing the construction sector of a country to develop a proper plan in constructing energy efficient buildings?
• What is the significance of renewable energy sources in making an energy efficient building in European countries?

5. To understand and identify the importance of green and sustainable building materials in designing a proper energy efficient building in a country?

• How does the government of a European country help and support the construction sector of a country in constructing an energy efficient building?
• What are the positive implications of green construction material in constructing an energy efficient building in the European Continent?
• What are the main risk factors which a construction sector may face in making an energy efficient building

Hypothesis

The following research method will follow a null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis and the null hypothesis will address that failing to focus on this given research topic will bring negative effects on the environment. On the other hand, the alternative hypothesis will talk about the positive impact the energy efficient buildings may have on the environment and through this research, the significant hypothesis this research will follow may be determined.

Rationale

It needs to be mentioned that buildings and infrastructures are one of the main drivers of leaving negative impacts on the environment, since these buildings are known to be a major cause of significant carbon emission across the globe. The concept of carbon emission and its negative impacts on the environment has always been a matter of grave concern over the years and every nation is taking significant steps to remove its carbon footprint. Most of the countries that are part of the European continent, such as the UK, France are mostly developed nations and unfortunately the amount of carbon the buildings and infrastructures of these countries emit have become a significant matter of concern. According to research, approximately 40% of primary energy and 36% greenhouse gasses are emitted by the buildings in the European countries, which make the European building sector one of the largest users of energy (D’Agostino et al., 2019).

Along with that, it has also become a serious issue for the contemporary market, when every country is working towards eradicating the negative effects of climate change by taking relevant measures as well. Therefore, the European countries are also taking relevant measures, especially for its housing sector and making the buildings energy efficient in order to avoid leaving a negative impact on the environment. In the year 2014, the European Commission had adopted an initiative called Communication on Resource Efficiency Opportunities within the building sector and it recognised the need for a similar approach within the continent to examine the building’s environmental performance (Lavagna et al., 2018).

It needs to be mentioned that, since buildings consume a lot of energy, taking effective measures to make those energy efficient may be regarded as one of the most significant steps taken by the European countries. Several countries within the European countries have come up with relevant policies and decreasing the amount of energy consumption of these buildings will contribute a lot to reducing overall carbon emission as well. For instance the 2011 Carbon Plan is a project through which the UK may be able to meet its target to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses by almost 80% between the year 1990 and 2050 (Refer to appendix 1). Furthermore, the energy efficient buildings may also reduce the emission of other greenhouse gasses that also leave severe negative impacts on the environment. Thereafter, by making the buildings energy efficient the negative effects of the greenhouse gas may also be reduced to a large extent. Energy efficient buildings also use renewable energy and that further reduces the negative impacts of climate change, since renewable energy is sourced from the earth’s natural sources, such as sunlight, rainwater and more. On the other hand, the energy efficient buildings within European countries also help to save water to a great extent and that is also a beneficial factor in the wake of water crises across the world.

Therefore, this research will be conducted in order to throw light on the significant impacts that energy efficient buildings have on the environment. Buildings that are made in conventional ways are responsible for a copious amount of energy consumption thus, the research will also address the negative impacts of non-energy efficient buildings on the environment as well to further prove the relevance of these buildings.

Research methods

In order to gather the most relevant and sufficient information on the topic, the following research process will use the approaches of both primary and secondary data collection methods, which suggest that the research will be executed on a mixed method basis. The research process will take 45 weeks and a day to complete and along with that, the methods that will be used for this research are interviews and surveys for primary data collection. For the secondary data collection all the data will be sourced from various indirect sources that are available on the internet, such as multiple books, articles and journals from Google Scholar to complete this research process with utmost efficiency. The primary data collection will be conducted over a period of 9 weeks and the interviews and surveys will be held simultaneously to have access to significant data at the same time without any delay.

The interviews will be conducted with several building developers who are gravitating towards making more energy efficient buildings to find out different aspects related to making such projects and the surveys will be conducted with the help of the general public. Interviews are extremely helpful in generating relevant data and the authentication of the information also increases as it comes from direct sources and so are surveys as it helps to retain more perspectives of people irrespective of gender and age. In accordance with research, an authentic and reliable protocol developed for interviews is one of the most relevant and crucial steps to obtain a sufficient amount of data of premium quality, however, developing a significant interview protocol is not an easy task (Yeong et al., 2018).

The survey questionnaire will focus on understanding people’s views on the concept of energy efficient buildings and the way it may be helpful in reducing the negative impacts of climate change as well. However, both these approaches of primary data collection are quite time consuming and expensive to some extent as well and on the contrary the secondary data collection is easier to conduct in comparison. The information taken from indirect sources are easily available on the internet and that makes secondary data collection more cost-effective and not so time consuming, however, as the information comes from indirect sources, questions about its authentication still remain. Lastly, it may be stated that the research will be conducted in a qualitative manner, since qualitative studies focus more on context, significantly interpretive and uses several methods that are respectful towards the participant’s humanity as well (Marshall and Rossman, 2014).

Key ethical issues

In this research proposal there are several ethical issues which may harm the final outcome of the research and for that reason the ethical consideration needs to be maintained during the research. Moreover, research ethics play a crucial role in designing the proper value and principles for the entire research process as if any interviewees feel uncomfortable then the research process needs to provide final compensation to the research participant (Harper et al., 2021). In this research process primary data will be collected through interview and survey as informed consent needs to be maintained for the interview and survey process or else it may ruin the final result of the research. Trust may be considered as one of the main research issues in modern day research as trust needs to be maintained during the conduction of research for the research participants (Crane and Broome, 2017).

It is the duty of research process not to leak the personal opinion of the research participants whole any kind of data leakage may be extremely harmful for the optimum outcome of th research, Secondary data  will be also used in that research process as it is immensely essential to collect only relevant and legal information even though the unethical collection of data may affect the research results. Confidentiality and anonymity are the prime ethical issues of a research process that are the prime responsibilities of the research process to design an effective strategy in understanding the way to maintain the Confidentiality in every phase of the research (Surmiak, 2018). Bias results of the research is immensely harmful for the research process as it is not be able to evaluate the environmental impact of energy efficient building in the European continent. It needs to be noted that the leakage of personal data of research participants may create an adverse impact on the research process and for that reason the personal data of the interviewees needs to remain unanimous.

Project timeline

Figure 1: Project timeline

(Source: Self-created)

References

Crane, S. and Broome, M.E., 2017. Understanding ethical issues of research participation from the perspective of participating children and adolescents: a systematic review. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 14(3), pp.200-209.

D’Agostino, D., Parker, D. and Melia, P., 2019. Environmental and economic implications of energy efficiency in new residential buildings: A multi-criteria selection approach. Energy Strategy Reviews, 26, p.100412.

Harper, L., Herbst, K.W. and Kalfa, N., 2018. Ethical issues in research: Human and animal experimentation. Journal of pediatric urology, 14(3), pp.287-288.

Lavagna, M., Baldassarri, C., Campioli, A., Giorgi, S., Dalla Valle, A., Castellani, V. and Sala, S., 2018. Benchmarks for environmental impact of housing in Europe: Definition of archetypes and LCA of the residential building stock. Building and Environment, 145, pp.260-275.

Marshall, C. and Rossman, G.B., 2014. Designing qualitative research. Sage publications.

Surmiak, A., 2018, September. Confidentiality in qualitative research involving vulnerable participants: Researchers’ perspectives. In Forum: Qualitative social research (Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 393-418). Freie Universität Berlin.

Yeong, M.L., Ismail, R., Ismail, N.H. and Hamzah, M.I., 2018. Interview protocol refinement: Fine-tuning qualitative research interview questions for multi-racial populations in Malaysia. The Qualitative Report, 23(11), pp.2700-2713.