Selecting Globally Sustainable Materials: A Case Study Using Choosing by Advantages
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 142, Issue 2
Abstract
Design teams must make numerous decisions in building design, including choosing materials. Lately, they have become more concerned about the social and environmental effects of their choices, in addition to the economic constraints. These concerns, in addition to the increasing offerings of construction materials and products and the engagement of more stakeholders, make decisions more complex. As decision complexity increases, so does the need to systematically use sound decision-making methods. However, in practice many decisions are made without a formal method or discussion, thereby often generating conflict and waste in the design process. Further, even if practitioners are looking for better decision-making methods, the literature does not provide enough support for them to choose the best method for this context. This research fills the literature gap and provides a systematic approach as well as practical advice for decision makers by demonstrating the application of a method, called choosing by advantages (CBA). CBA creates transparent and collaborative environments in which to make decisions. To illustrate the use of CBA, this paper provides a detailed example of choosing materials, in this case ceiling tiles, in a commercial interior design project considering global supply chain issues. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by illustrating how to use CBA for (1) integrating multiple perspectives, (2) identifying relevant sustainability factors, (3) making transparent trade-offs, (4) documenting a decision rationale, (5) separating value from cost, (6) organizing location-dependent factors, and (7) incorporating supply chain issues. CBA is a method worth adding to the toolbox of design teams determined to chose globally sustainable materials.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This paper was supported in part by gifts made to the Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL). P. Arroyo was also supported by a CONICYT Ph.D. fellowship from the Chilean government and from the Center for Sustainable Urban Development CEDEUS (FONDAP N15110020). The authors would like to thank Erin Cubbison, Kirsten Ritchie, and designers from Gensler San Francisco for their support in this case study. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of P2SL, CONICYT, CEDEUS, or Gensler.
References
Aguado, A., del Caño, A., de la Cruz, M. P., Gómez, D., and Josa, A. (2012). “Sustainability assessment of concrete structures within the Spanish structural concrete code.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 268–276.
Akadiri, P. O., Olomolaiye, P. O., and Chinyio, E. A. (2013). “Multi-criteria evaluation model for the selection of sustainable materials for building projects.” Autom. Constr., 30, 113–125.
Ariaratnam, S., Piratla, K., Cohen, A., and Olson, M. (2013). “Quantification of sustainability index for underground utility infrastructure projects.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., A4013002.
Armstrong. (2012). “Optima ceiling panels, high performance fiberglass, environmental product declaration.” 〈http://www.armstrong.com/common/c2002/content/files/72527.pdf〉 (Mar. 19, 2013).
Arroyo, P. (2014). “Exploring decision-making methods for sustainable design in commercial buildings.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA, 222.
Arroyo, P., Tommelein, I., and Ballard, G. (2012). “Deciding a sustainable alternative by ‘choosing by advantages’ in the AEC industry.” Proc., 20th Annual Conf. Int. Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 20), San Diego.
Arroyo, P., Tommelein, I. D., and Ballard, G. (2013). “Using ‘choosing by advantages’ to select tile from a global sustainable perspective.” Proc., 21st Annual Conf. Int. Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 21), C. T. Formoso and P. Tzortzopoulos, eds., Fortaleza, Brazil, 309–318.
Arroyo, P., Tommelein, I. D., and Ballard, G. (2014a). “Comparing AHP and CBA as decision methods to resolve the choosing problem in detailed design.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 04014063.
Arroyo, P., Tommelein, I. D., and Ballard, G. (2014b). “Comparing weighting rating and calculating vs. choosing by advantages to make design choices.” Proc., 22nd Annual Conf. Int. Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 22), B. T. Kalsaas, L. Koskela and T. A. Saurin, eds., Oslo, Norway, 401–412.
ASTM. (2012a). “Standard test methods for evaluating properties of wood-base fiber and particle panel materials.” ASTM D1037-12, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2012b). “Standard test method for resistance to growth of mold on the surface of interior coatings in an environmental chamber.” ASTM D3273-12, West Conshohocken, PA.
Bakhoum, E. S., and Brown, D. C. (2012). “Developed sustainable scoring system for structural materials evaluation.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 110–119.
Balali, V., Zahraie, B., and Roozbahani, A. (2012). “Integration of ELECTRE III and PROMETHEEII decision making methods with interval approach: Application in selection of appropriate structural systems.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 297–314.
Ballard, G. (2000). “Positive vs negative iteration in design.” Proc., 8th Annual Conf. Int. Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 8), Brighton, U.K., 17–19.
Belton, V., and Stewart, T. J. (2002). Multiple criteria decision analysis: An integrated approach, Kluwer Academic, MA, 372.
Cariaga, I., El-Diraby, T., and Osman, H. (2007). “Integrating value analysis and quality function deployment for evaluating design alternatives.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 761–770.
Cubbison, E., Ruggles, R., and de Viterbo, B. (2012). “Product selection for interior design.” Gensler, San Francisco.
Fischer, M., and Adams, H. (2011). “Engineering-based decisions in construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 751–754.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). “Making organization research matter: Power, values and phronesis.” Handbook of organization studies, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 370–387.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2011). “Case study.” Handbook of qualitative research, N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln, eds., 4th Ed., Sage, Thousand Oaks, 301–316.
Grant, E. (2007). “A decision-making framework for vegetated roofing system selection.” Ph.D. dissertation, Architecture and Design Research, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blacksburg, VA, 300.
Guitouni, A., and Martel, J. M. (1998). “Tentative guidelines to help choose an appropriate MCDA method.” Eur. J. Oper. Res., 109(2), 501–521.
Hartmann, T. (2011). “Goal and process alignment during the implementation of decision support systems by project teams.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 1134–1141.
International Living Future Institute. (2012). “Living building challenge 2.1.” 〈https://ilbi.org/lbc/LBC%20Documents/lbc-2.1〉 (Dec. 4, 2012).
Kabir, G., Sadiq, R., and Tesfamariam, S. (2014). “A review of multi-criteria decision-making methods for infrastructure management.” Struct. Infrastruct. Eng., 10(9), 1176–1210.
Keeney, R. L., and Raiffa, H. (1976). Decision with multiple objectives: Preferences and value tradeoffs, Wiley, New York.
Koga, J. (2012). “Choosing by advantages sound decision making.” CBA Workshop Module 1 and Module 2, San Francisco.
Koskela, L., and Tommelein, I. D. (2009). “The economic theory of production conceals opportunities for sustainability improvement.” Proc., 17th Annual Conf. of the Int. Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 17), Y. Cuperus and E. H. Hirota, eds., Taipei, Taiwan, 295–304.
Nguyen, H. V., Lostuvali, B., and Tommelein, I. D. (2009). “Decision analysis using virtual first-run study of a viscous damping wall system.” Proc., 17th Annual Conf. Int. Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 17), Y. Cuperus and E. H. Hirota, eds., Taipei, Taiwan, 371–382.
Oehlberg, L., Shelby, R., and Agogino, A. (2010). “Sustainable product design: Designing for diversity in engineering education.” Int. J. Eng. Educ., 26(2), 489–498.
Pan, W., Dainty, A., and Gibb, A. (2012). “Establishing and weighting decision criteria for building system selection in housing construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 1239–1250.
Parrish, K., and Tommelein, I. D. (2009). “Making design decisions using choosing by advantages.” Proc., 17th Annual Conf. of the Int. Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 17), Y. Cuperus and E. H. Hirota, eds., Taipei, Taiwan, 501–510.
Reza, B., Sadiq, R., and Hewage, K. (2011). “Sustainability assessment of flooring systems in the city of Tehran: An AHP-based life cycle analysis.” Constr. Build. Mater., 25(4), 2053–2066.
Rodriguez-Nikl, T., and Brown, C. (2011). “Sustainability: Complexity, regulations, and decisions.” Vulnerability, uncertainty, and risk: Analysis, modeling, and management, ASCE, Reston, VA, 222–229.
Rogers, M. (2000). “Using ELECTRE III to aid the choice of housing construction process within structural engineering.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 18(3), 333–342.
Roy, B. (1974). “Criteres multiple set modelisation des preferences: l’apport des relation de surclassement.” Revue d’Economie Politique, 84(1), 1–44.
Saaty, T. L. (1980). The analytic hierarchy process: Planning, priority setting, resource allocation, McGraw-Hill, New York, 287.
Suhr, J. (1999). “The choosing by advantages decision making system.” Quorum, Westport, CT, 293.
Tam, C., Tong, T., and Wong, Y. (2004). “Selection of concrete pump using the superiority and inferiority ranking method.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 827–834.
Thanopoulos, T. (2012). “Lean decision making and design management for sustainable building systems and controls: Target value design, set-based design, and choosing by advantages.” M.E. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
U.S. Green Building Council. (2009). “LEED 2009 for new construction and major renovations rating system.” 〈http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/Archive/General/Docs5546.pdf〉 (Feb. 13, 2013).
U.S. Green Building Council. (2013). “LEED v4 for BD+C: New construction and major renovation.” 〈http://www.usgbc.org/sites/default/files/LEED%20v4%20User%20Guide_Final_0.pdf〉 (Jan. 3, 2014).
World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). “Our common future.” Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 400.
Yin, R. K. (1994). Case study research: Design and methods, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 171.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 142 • Issue 2 • February 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 7, 2015
Accepted: Jun 9, 2015
Published online: Aug 20, 2015
Discussion open until: Jan 20, 2016
Published in print: Feb 1, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.