Understanding the key risks in construction projects in China

With a rising tide of adoption of recycled aggregate (RA) for construction, investigation on ways to improve the quality of RA has been overwhelming. The adoption of RA brings benefits including savings in the limited landfill spaces and the use of natural resources. However, the poorer quality of RA often limits its utilization to low grade applications such as sub-grade activities, filling materials and low grade concrete. The major reason that affects the quality of RA is the large amount of cement mortar remains on the surface of the aggregate, resulting in higher porosity, water absorption rates and thus a weaker interfacial zone between new cement mortar and aggregates, which weakens the strength and mechanical performance of concrete made from RA. This paper attempts to study three pre-soaking treatment approaches; namely ReMortarHCl, ReMortarH2SO4 and ReMortarH3PO4 in reducing the mortar attached to RA. The results show that the behaviour of RA has improved with reduction in water absorption, without simultaneous exceeding the limits of chloride and sulphate compositions after the treatment. This work has also compared the compressive strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity of concrete made from the approaches, which shows marked improvements in quality when compared with those using traditional approaches.

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Removal of cement mortar remains from recycled aggregate using pre-soaking approaches

The drivers for contractors' green innovation: an industry perspective

https://www.iris.sssup.it/retrieve/handle/11382/103840/398/JCLP1980.pdf

Is an environmental management system able to influence environmental and competitive performance? The case of the eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) in the European union

In recent years, sustainable development strategy for enterprises has become an important issue around the globe. There are four management systems (i.e. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, and SA 8000) that can help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to create sustainable competitive advantages. In view of the fact that the shortage of resources - time, personnel, as well as money - rules most SMEs, this paper proposes a novel hybrid model for selecting optimal management systems under resource constraints, and illustrates the practical application of such a model through an example. This model first applies the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach to construct interrelations among criteria that organizations require. The second step is to obtain the criterion weights through ANP. Lastly, ANP is integrated with a zero-one goal programming (ZOGP) model to obtain optimal alternatives with desired organizational benefits by fully utilizing limited resources. The purpose of this study is to present an integrated approach that could cope with the interdependencies among various criteria and deal with the constraints on resources, and to demonstrate how to select management systems for phased implementation. Therefore, the main contribution of this paper is to enhance the capacity of SMEs to effectively address the challenge of sustainable development through a novel model of prioritizing available management systems.

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/6112.pdf

Selecting management systems for sustainable development in SMEs: A novel hybrid model based on DEMATEL, ANP, and ZOGP

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/6021.pdf

Towards implementation of ISO 14001 environmental management systems in selected industries in China

The rapid growth of the Chinese economy sparked off a great volume of construction activities, but the damage caused by construction activities to the environment is indisputable and has alerted some large Chinese construction firms to seek effective environmental management. The ISO 14000 series offers a framework for managing construction operations to improve environmental performance. To discover the conditions of implementation of ISO 14000 in the construction industry, a structured questionnaire survey was conducted whose results show that the major motivation for implementing the system was to seek entry to the international construction market. Other motivations include standardization of the environmental management procedures for internal operations, obtaining social recognition, gaining confidence from clients and a better corporate image, enhancing the environmental awareness of subcontractors, and cleaner sites as a result of better housekeeping. However, some obstacles remain along the path, such as the financial burden, poor rates of return for most firms, low environmental awareness, and inadequate legal enforcement. Based on the analysis and discussion, the paper concludes that the government should take the lead in encouraging training, providing financial support, and improving the legal framework to promote ISO 14000 for the Chinese construction industry.

Z. M. Deng

Papers

Towards implementation of ISO 14001 environmental management systems in selected industries in China

ISO 14000 and the construction industry: survey in China

Discussion of "ISO 14000 and the Construction Industry: Survey in China,"