Achieving Sustainable Building Maintenance through Optimizing Life-Cycle Carbon, Cost, and Labor: Case in Hong Kong
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 140, Issue 3
Abstract
The need to maintain an ever-increasing building stock especially in developed economies is growing. This study provides a computational framework to find the optimal solution for sustainable building maintenance. The methodology is composed of two major steps. First, the authors evaluate the life-cycle carbon emission, cost, and labor requirements of a project, which embody important environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainable building maintenance. Second, the authors develop an optimization model to identify the optimal portfolio of materials that would minimize three sustainability objectives including carbon emission, cost, and labor deployment in their respective turns one at a time. By testing the model with seven scenarios in a case study, the authors demonstrate how this typical case project could significantly improve its sustainability objectives from environmental, economic, and social perspectives. This optimization methodology is generic. It can be readily applied to other new and nonresidential projects of varying scales and in circumstances with a different set of decision criteria. Finally, policy suggestions are proposed to promote sustainable building maintenance in Hong Kong.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the reviewers for their comments and suggestions. This study is funded by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Project Reference Number: B-Q22V or RGC Number PolyU 5142/10E).
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 140 • Issue 3 • March 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 30, 2013
Accepted: Nov 19, 2013
Published online: Jan 6, 2014
Published in print: Mar 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Jun 6, 2014
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