Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission of Construction Equipment at Construction Sites: Field Study Approach
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 145, Issue 9
Abstract
Construction operations of construction equipment generate significant greenhouse gas emissions including carbon emissions and diesel exhaust emissions. While improving operational efficiency of construction activities implemented by construction equipment could result in significant emission reduction, there is still a lack of practical knowledge on the impact of operational adjustments applicable in real-world operations. The objectives of this study are to identify common inefficiency of real-world construction equipment activities and quantify emission saving potentials from operation-level adjustments of construction activities. In order to achieve the goals, three construction sites were used as case studies to identify common sources of excessive emissions on construction sites as well as possible opportunities for their reduction. As the means of quantifying potential gas emission reduction, a simple method that estimates equipment cycle time and can be easily replicated in practice is introduced. It was found from the case studies that a typical problem on a construction site is unnecessary idling of equipment. In addition, findings of this study indicate that the integration of careful planning on construction equipment activities with appropriate equipment selection could contribute to the reduction of carbon gas emissions as well as savings of construction cost. It is envisaged that this study contributes to the body of knowledge by (1) providing new findings in common inefficiency of construction operation in construction sites through field studies, and (2) quantifying the potential gas emission reduction with the simple method.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information about the Journal’s data-sharing policy can be found here: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001263.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2016R1A6A3A03010355).
References
Ahn, C., S. Lee, F. Peña-Mora, and S. Abourizk. 2010. “Toward environmentally sustainable construction processes: The US and Canada’s perspective on energy consumption and GHG/CAP emissions.” Sustainability Mol. Diversity Preserv. Int. 2 (1): 354–370. https://doi.org/10.3390/su2010354.
Ahn, C. R., and S. Lee. 2013. “Importance of operational efficiency to achieve energy efficiency and exhaust emissions reduction of construction operations.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 139 (4): 404–413. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000609.
Ahn, C. R., P. Lewis, M. Golparvar-Fard, and S. Lee. 2013. “Integrated framework for estimating, benchmarking, and monitoring pollutant emissions of construction operations.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 139 (12): A4013003. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000755.
CalEPA-ARB (California Environmental Protection Agency—Air Resources Board). 2008. “New idling limits for owners, operators, renters or lessees of in-use off-road diesel vehicles.” Accesssed May 1, 2018. https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/ordiesel/guidance/idling.pdf.
Caterpillar. Caterpillar Performance Handbook. 2010. 40th ed. Peoria, IL: Caterpillar.
CECE (Committee for European Construction Equipment). 2014. “The voice of the European construction equipment industry.” Accesssed May 1, 2018. http://www.europeandemolition.org/newsstand/files/the-voice-of-the-european-construction-equipment-industry/attachment/cece_barometer_2013_12_summary.
CEMA and CECE (European Agricultural Machinery and Committee for European Construction Equipment). 2011. “Reducing emissions from mobile machinery.” Accesssed May 1, 2018. http://www.cema-agri.org/publication/cece-cema-position-co2-emissions-mobile-machinery.
EC (European Union). 2018a. “Road transport: Reducing emissions from vehicles.” Accesssed May 1, 2018. https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/vehicles_en#tab-0-0.
EC (European Union). 2018b. “What is the EU doing about climate change.” Accesssed May 1, 2018. https://ec.europa.eu/clima/citizens/eu_en.
Ecoscore. 2018. “How to calculate the emission level from the fuel consumption?” Accesssed May 1, 2018. http://ecoscore.be/en/info/ecoscore/co2.
Facanha, C., and A. Horvath. 2005. “Environmental assessment of logistics outsourcing.” J. Manage. Eng. 21 (1): 27–37. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(2005)21:1(27).
Gallivan, F. 2010. Greenhouse gas mitigation measures for transportation construction, maintenance, and operations activities. San Francisco: AASHTO.
Hong, T., C. Ji, M. Jang, and H. Park. 2014. “Assessment model for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions during building construction.” J. Manage. Eng. 30 (2): 226–235. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000199.
Ji, S., C. R. Cherry, M. J. Bechle, Y. Wu, and J. D. Marshall. 2012. “Electric vehicles in China: Emissions and health impacts.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 46 (4): 2018–2024. https://doi.org/10.1021/es202347q.
Johnson, K. C. 2013. “Hybrid off-road equipment in-use emissions evaluation.” California: California Air Resources Board. Accesssed May 1, 2018. https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aqip/offroad_hybrid.htm.
Kim, B., W. Jang, and D. Lee. 2015. “Analysis of the emission characteristics of earthwork equipment.” KSCE J. Civ. Eng. 19 (1): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-014-0679-8.
Kim, B., H. Lee, H. Park, and H. Kin. 2012. “Greenhous gas emissions from onsite equipment usage in road construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 138 (8): 982–990. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000515.
Lee, K., S. Tae, and S. Shin. 2009. “Development of a life cycle assessment program for building (SUSB-LCA) in South Korea.” Renewable Sustain. Energy Rev. 13 (8): 1994–2002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2009.01.002.
Lewis, P., M. Leming, and W. Rasdorf. 2012. “Impact of engine idling on fuel use and emissions of nonroad diesel construction equipment.” J. Manage. Eng. 28 (1): 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000068.
Lippiatt, B., and A. Boyles. 2001. “Using BEES to select cost-effective green products.” Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 6 (2): 76–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02977841.
MacKay, D. J. C. 2009. Sustainable energy: Without the hot air. Cambridge, UK: UIT Cambridge Ltd.
NCTCOG (North Central Texas Council of Governments). 2018. “Locally enforced idling restrictions from NCTCOG.” Accessed May 1, 2018. https://www.nctcog.org/trans/quality/air/for-everyone/engine-off-north-texas.
Nunnally, S. W. 2010. Construction methods and management, 8 ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Ortiz, O., J. C. Pasqualino, G. Diez, and F. Castells. 2010. “The environmental impact of the construction phase: An application to composite walls from a life cycle perspective.” Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 54 (11): 832–840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2010.01.002.
Sandanayake, M., G. Zhang, and S. Setunge. 2016. “Environmental emissions at foundation construction stage of buildings–Two case studies.” Build. Environ. 95: 189–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.09.002.
Suh, S., and B. Lippiatt. 2012. “Framework for hybrid life cycle inventory databases: A case study on the building for environmental and economic sustainability (BEES) database.” Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 17 (5): 604–612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-012-0393-z.
Trani, M. L., B. Bossi, M. Gangolells, and M. Casals. 2016. “Predicting fuel energy consumption during earthworks.” J. Clean. Prod. 112 (part 5): 3798–3809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.027.
UNEP-SBCI (United Nations Environment Programme—Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative). 2018. “Sustainable buildings and construction initiative: Information note.” Accesssed May 1, 2018. https://business.un.org/en/documents/10372.
USGBC (US Green Building Council). 2014. “Clean construction.” Accesssed May 1, 2018. http://www.usgbc.org/credits/sspc75.
Volvo Construction Equipment. 2018. “Cut down fuel consumption with engine auto shut down.” Accesssed May 1, 2018. https://www.volvoce.com/trinidad-tobago/en-us/paramount/services/volvo-services/fuel-efficiency-services/engine-auto-shut-down/.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 145 • Issue 9 • September 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 7, 2018
Accepted: Feb 7, 2019
Published online: Jul 10, 2019
Published in print: Sep 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Dec 10, 2019
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.