Assignment Sample on BUIL1059 Managing within Sustainable Built Environments
Introduction
The business case study focuses mainly on the infrastructure and sustainability of the building situated in Dundas Street, London (Alwan et al. 2017). It further states the mechanisms that can bring sustainability into the building. It further notes how the redevelopment of the building will spur up the infrastructure and facilities. The buildings that were built in the 1970s require updated facilities and maintenance for the improved living of their tenants. With the advancement of technicalities in all aspects of living, alteration and modifications of buildings have become essential for a sustainable life. The business case focuses on the redevelopment of the structure, considering the policies and practices in the UK. It also states the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies in this aspect. It further recognizes the benefits and drawbacks of the measures implemented for the redevelopment (Alwan et al. 2017). It states the financial mechanisms for implementing sustainability and recommends steps that can be adopted.
Current UK policy and practice
“The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government’s planning policies for England and how they are to be applied”. The framework provides for planning that can be applied to develop or redevelop buildings or parts of buildings. This framework provides for all the requirements necessary for the redevelopment and instructs on the planning of housing and all other developments (Misopoulos et al. 2019). The framework must be considered before any actions. The framework provides for “achieving sustainable development, making plans, decision-making, and developing sufficient supplies of homes, building a strong, competitive economy, promoting safe and healthy communities and ensuring vitality of town centres”.
Besides that, the National Planning Policy Framework provides sustainable transportation, high-quality communications, proper land utilization, and other necessary resources. These policies must be considered for every criterion of planning and redeveloping (Cammelli and Stanfield, 2017). The redevelopment of the building situated in Dundas Street, London, should be implemented considering the framework. Land and planning laws, policies and practices should be implemented to introduce sustainability by redeveloping the building. The U.K. policies and procedures for the redevelopment of a building should be implemented to plan any modifications or alterations. The framework provides for regulations and guidelines to be applied for any housing or planning for development.
CSR policies
According to Oyedokun et al. (2018), “Corporate social responsibility (CSR) poses a wider perspective to organizational performance and accountability, based on all those business actions which affect people, their communities, and their biophysical environment”. Corporate Social Responsibility provides measures to promote sustainability and reduce toxicities in the environment. CSR policies are implemented to reduce carbon footprints, initiate more charity work, invest in fair trading products in the market, create investments in environmentally friendly businesses, and improve labour policies. Redeveloping a building instigates several expenses, which requires various labour, resources and raw materials. CSR helps achieve all these factors more efficiently (Dentchev and Bozhikin, 2018).
CSR provides a broader perspective regarding understanding and implementing the policies for sustainable construction. As stated by Rose and Stegemann (2018), “CSR reflects the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society which, in order to be met, an integration process of social, environmental, ethical, human rights tor concerns into core business operations and strategy should be in place, in close collaboration with organizational stakeholders”. CSR broadens the social, economic and environmental aspects concerning sustainability in the construction industry (Dentchev and Bozhikin, 2018). It provides for closer inspection and implementation of these three dimensions, including social, economic and ecological in developing a building.
Identification and estimation of benefits and drawbacks of various measures
Sustainable development
As stated by Nasir et al. (2017), “Achieving sustainable development means that the planning system has three overarching objectives, which are interdependent and need to be pursued in mutually supportive ways”. The three objectives are economic, social and environmental. The financial objective helps build a strong economy that is competitive and responsive. It ensures the availability of sufficient land in the proper place to promote growth, productivity and innovation. The social objective helps in supporting healthy communities and ensures that an adequate range of homes is available for all generations (Ajayi and Oyedele, 2017). It also fosters futuristic developed homes and supports the health and culture of several communities. The environment objective protects and improves natural and historical lands and ensures improvement in biodiversity by “minimizing waste and controlling pollution”. These objectives are considered and implemented while redeveloping a building to promote sustainability.
Sustainable development has its benefits and drawbacks set in different aspects and approaches (Ajayi and Oyedele, 2017). However, it has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of redevelopment too. The benefits are lower negative impacts on the environment, and sustainable development provides for a better and improved environment required to have a better future. Using sustainable measures for the redevelopment of a building ensures a safer and improved future; it also provides less harm to society and the environment as a whole. The drawbacks of sustainable development are cost which is the main disadvantage. While implementing sustainable development, measures taken or processes implemented are formally tried to be more economical; however, sustainable products are of higher cost (Nasir et al. 2017). It also lacks any assurance or guarantee, making it challenging to implement these measures as it increases requirements for constant updates.
Plan making
Planning for implementing any modification of a building is considered an essential part of any construction. According to Stanitsas et al. (2021), “Sufficient and up-to-date plans should provide a positive vision for the future of each area; a framework for addressing housing needs and other economic, social and environmental priorities; and a platform for local people to shape their surroundings”. However, the planning should be made to obtain sustainable development and contribute to its achievement. The plan-making policies must be clear and not replicate the policies of any other framework (Rose and Stegemann, 2018).
The benefits of plan-making are, planning reduces the possibilities of any arising uncertainties. It helps initiate and develop more innovation and productivity (Hay et al. 2018). Planning improves the quality of work; it benefits in achieving faster progress in the redevelopment or development of a building. The drawbacks of plan-making are a lack of data that can be relied on. The planning process can often be time consuming and expensive which is not affordable in all scenarios. However, to redevelop a building, planning must be considered and implemented.
Decision-making
Decision-making is a process that is often considered for implementing any strategy of all aspects. It is considered to play a vital role in the operations and management of all industries. As stated by O’Neill and Gibbs (2020), “Decision-makers at every level should seek to approve applications for sustainable development where possible”. The process of decision making eases the process of any operations or constructions. The benefits of decision-making are, the process helps in understanding the different perspectives of one decision and is beneficial to sort out the most accurate decision. It enforces faster and efficient growth in the view of a project. The drawbacks of decision making are inconsistent decisions. Decision making lacks consistency which can be difficult when implementing a decision into the process (Mohamed et al. 2017).
Meeting climatic, coastal and flooding changes
Climatic, coastal and flooding changes are destructive and adapting to their changes becomes essential for the survival of a project of construction. Redevelopment of a building means considering all the factors that can damage the sanctity of the place or restrict it from any further development (O’Neill and Gibbs, 2020). Considering all the possible risks and managing them is considered an essential part of planning any redevelopment of a building. The benefits of considering these risks are avoiding any occurring crisis, which could cause considerable damage to the building if not managed. The occurrence of any problem or dangers can be previously analyzed, and its management can be evaluated to avoid any unexpected loss to the building. The main drawback of risk management is, when the risk is not analyzed accurately, its management can cause even more damage to the building than perceived (Mohamed et al. 2017).
Conserving and improving the natural and historic environment
According to Oyedokun et al. (2018), “Planning policies and decisions should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment”. Planning policies must contribute to preserving the historical importance of a monument or a building. Constructions or redevelopments of a building should not destroy the historical and instincts of the place; instead, it must implement strategies to improve them. Conserving and enhancing the historical and natural environment contributes to its reputation, name and value; it verifies its identity. The benefit of such conservation is, increase in historical importance and significance of the place. The drawback is several policies and restrictions on redeveloping a building with rich history and culture (Ajayi and Oyedele, 2017).
Sustainable mineral uses
Several kinds of minerals are used for the redevelopment of a building. As stated by Misopoulos et al. (2019), “it is essential that there is a sufficient supply of minerals to provide the infrastructure, buildings, energy and goods that the country needs. The minerals are a finite natural resource, and can only be worked where they are found; best use needs to be made of them to secure their long-term conservation”. The limitation of available resources and minerals are restricting over use. However, several construction projects are also entitled to preserve the sustainable mineral for better and futuristic use. The benefits of such conservation are improved and more availability of sustainable minerals, expectation of an improved environment with its usage and implementation of sustainable development in the redevelopment of the building (Cammelli and Stanfield, 2017). The drawback being, the limited availability of minerals does not practically assure any futuristic availability and can even lead to the extinction of sustainable minerals.
Consideration of financial mechanisms and incentives for the implementation of ‘sustainability’ measures
According to Oyedokun et al. (2018), “The financial sector holds enormous power in funding and bringing awareness to issues of sustainability, whether by allowing for research and development of alternative energy sources or supporting businesses that follow fair and sustainable labor practices”. Implementing sustainability measures means installing light bulbs and other electric facilities which are more eco friendly. Sustainable products, though eco friendly, are not commitment worthy as they require a lot of modification and alteration which will eventually increase the cost of electricity (Stanitsas et al. 2021). With higher prices, the rent and maintenance costs of the tenants will also increase.
The community hall and the parking space of the building require ample energy and with implementation of sustainable resources, their maintenance requirement and cost will increase with time. However, with adequate planning and efficient decision making, the performance of sustainable energy can be adopted (Cammelli and Stanfield, 2017). Preserving sustainable resources and embracing power that can be contained has been considered in several redevelopments of buildings.
Recommendation
It can be recommended that:
- Perseverance and implementation of sustainable energy is considered beneficial in construction, however, its constant requirements of updates and high cost can be a problem in its adoption. Economical power that is also eco-friendly can be adopted.
- Valid policies and practices of The National Planning Policy Framework must be followed while developing a building. Sustainable development measures are often expensive as they help in less consumption of energy which results in an increase of rent of the tenants and also increases the maintenance charges of the building as a whole.
- Adoption of more economical resources can be done to keep the building from being diminished due to increased affordability. Sustainable measures can be adopted but to an extent which will keep the expenses of the building in check.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that sustainable development measures are essential to be adopted to develop a building. The business case of building situated in Dundas Street, London depicts the importance of sustainable actions and why it should be developed. The study further states the benefits and drawbacks of several dimensions, including planning, decision making, sustainable resources, risk management of coastal, climatic and flooding changes and conservation and improvement of historic and natural environment. The study analyzes how the implementation of sustainable resources will affect the cost and energy consumption of the building and further recommends measures that can be adopted to implement sustainable energy.
References
Ajayi, S.O. and Oyedele, L.O., 2017. Policy imperatives for diverting construction waste from landfill: Experts’ recommendations for U.K. policy expansion. Journal of cleaner production, 147, pp.57-65.
Alwan, Z., Jones, P. and Holgate, P., 2017. Strategic sustainable development in the U.K. construction industry uses Building Information Modelling through the framework for strategic sustainable development. Journal of cleaner production, 140, pp.349-358.
Cammell, S. and Stanfield, R., 2017. Meeting the challenges of planning policy for wind microclimate of high-rise developments in London. Procedia Engineering, 198, pp.43-51.
Delchev, N. and Bozhikin, I., 2018. Discovering a Wilderness of Regulatory Mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility: Literature Review. Economic Alternatives, (2), pp.145-174.
Hay, R., Samuel, F., Watson, K.J. and Bradbury, S., 2018. Post-occupancy evaluation in architecture: experiences and perspectives from U.K. practice. Building Research & Information, 46(6), pp.698-710.
Mitropoulos, F., Manthou, V. and Michaelides, Z., 2019. Environmental and Social Sustainability in the U.K. Construction Industry: a Systematic Literature Review. European Journal of Economics and Business Studies, 5(1), pp.100-115.
Mohamed, M., Pärn, E.A. and Edwards, D.J., 2017. Brexit: measuring the impact upon skilled labour in the U.K. construction industry. International journal of building pathology and adaptation.
Nasir, M.H.A., Genovese, A., Acquaye, A.A., Koh, S.C.L. and Yamoah, F., 2017. Comparing linear and circular supply chains: A case study from the construction industry. International Journal of Production Economics, 183, pp.443-457.
O’Neill, K. and Gibbs, D., 2020. Sustainability transitions and policy dismantling: Zero carbon housing in the U.K. Geoforum, 108, pp.119-129.
Oyedokun, T.B., Dunse, N. and Jones, C., 2018. The Impact of Green Premium on the Development of Green-labeled Offices in the U.K. Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, 10(1), pp.81-108.
Rose, C.M. and Stegemann, J.A., 2018. From waste management to component management in the construction industry. Sustainability, 10(1), p.229.
Stanitsas, M., Kirytopoulos, K. and Leopoulos, V., 2021. Integrating sustainability indicators into project management: The case of the construction industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 279, p.123774.
