Guidelines for environmentally sustainable building practices at the design stage for office buildings
Abstract
The aim of the study was to provide empirical evidence on what defines environmental
sustainability at the design stage for the built environment as a basis for developing
guidelines for Environmentally Sustainable Building Design Practices (ESBDP) for
office buildings. The specific objectives were: to assess the awareness of Ghanaian
building consultants on environmentally sustainable building design practices; to identify
the critical components of environmentally sustainable building design practices; to
identify the need for the adoption of environmentally sustainable building practices at the
design stage; and to propose guidelines for the implementation and attainment of
environmentally sustainable building designs practices. It employed the mixed research
method including literature review, interview and questionnaire survey. Data collected
were analyzed using Content Analysis, Mean Score Ranking, Confirmatory Factor
Analysis (CFA)and Relative Importance Index (RII). The results of the study revealed
that there is awareness among the construction professionals on the concept of
environmentally sustainable building practices at the design stage. It further revealed that
environmentally sustainable building practices at the design stage have five major
components namely: energy efficiency and conservation, water efficiency and
conservation, materials conservation, waste reduction, reuse and recycling and humane
adaptation. Moreover, it was discovered that the implementation of environmentally
sustainable design practices in the construction industry commencing at the design stage
is driven mainly by the need to preserve the environment and its resources, ensure the
safety and well-being of occupants and the need for value for money. In addition, it
proposed the following guidelines for the implementation of environmentally sustainable
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building design in the construction industry. These include building regulations should be
updated to include standards of environmentally sustainable building design practices;
environmentally sustainable building design practices should be inculcated into the
tertiary education curriculum for the building sector; the principles for ESBDP should be
passed into law and made a statutory requirement; professional bodies must have
environmentally sustainable design policies to be adopted by their members on all their
building projects; and consultants should continue to educate their clients on the need for
environmentally sustainable building design practices. Hence, the study recommends
that, clients should be briefed on the benefits of ESBDP to help them understand and
make informed decisions during the design stage of the building. It is further
recommended that future research should focus on environmentally sustainable building
practices at the construction stage thereby examining the implementation of the design
components whether sustainable practices integrated at the design stage are fully
operational and functional.
Description
A thesis presented to the Department of Building Technology, College of Art And Built Environment in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy.