Green construction is the newest trend
Green construction or sustainable building refers to a structure and the process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle. The process starts from sitting the design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and until demolition. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.
Sustainable or green building design and construction is the opportunity to use our resources more efficiently, while creating healthier and more energy-efficient homes. Although there is no magic formula, success comes in the form of leaving a lighter footprint on the environment through conservation of resources, while at the same time balancing energy-efficient, cost-effective, low-maintenance products for our construction needs. In other words, green building design involves finding the delicate balance between construction building and the sustainable environment.
The built environment has a vast impact on the natural environment, human health, and the economy. By adopting green building strategies, we can maximize both economic and environmental performance. Green construction methods can be integrated into buildings at any stage, from design and construction, to renovation and deconstruction. However, the most significant benefits can be obtained if the design and construction team takes an integrated approach from the earliest stages of a building project.
Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment. Listed below are the benefits of green building.
Environmental benefits
- Enhance and protect biodiversity and ecosystems
- Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
- Improve air and water quality
- Reduce waste streams, pollution and environmental degradation
- Conserve and restore natural resources
Economic benefits
- Reduce operating costs
- Create, expand, and shape markets for green product and services
- Improve occupant productivity
- Optimize life-cycle economic performance
Social benefits
- Enhance occupant comfort, health and improving employee productivity
- Heighten aesthetic qualities
- Minimize strain on local infrastructure
- Improve overall quality of life
Many people do not know rigid and blown foamed insulation is made of plastics or that the use of plastics in building and construction often uses less energy and creates less greenhouse gas per application than traditional materials. A similar concept of this is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally.
Other related topics on this include sustainable design and green architecture. Sustainability may be defined as meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Green building does not specifically address the issue of the retrofitting existing homes but also helps in reducing global warming.
A Life Saving Handbook
Individual life’s safety is the most important aspect that every construction company should give priority. It should be remembered that people’s lives are the main concern. Safety first before profits! If you are a construction worker and applying for a job, this should also be your main concern if the company provides you safety in the work site. You should not only concern with your paycheck that you may receive. Construction work is prone to accidents. Thus, a handbook must be given to give guidelines for every worker so that injuries or fatalities may be prevented. What are the important points that should be provided in a handbook? You may consider the following:
- Basic Rules for Safety. This includes providing guidelines to construction workers as to personnel safety measures, onsite safety measures, machine safety measures and the like. There are basic safety measures that are necessary like putting up safe scaffolding and fences, protective gears (for eyes, head and etc.), fire safety measure, equipment and electricity, waste managements, and may be personal hygiene be included. These are basic but can cause injuries to anyone.
- Safety Rules Implementation. Rule should be implemented accordingly. This should not be done for the sake of fulfilling government authority’s requirements. This may also include possible consequences of violations of rules both by the company and the employee. Rules should be in accordance with what is promulgated by the government agency that covers construction industry.
- Insurance Coverage. Despite the safety rules and guidelines being implemented, sometimes you cannot really avoid accidents. Construction Company should provide insurance for their workers both for minor and major accidents. This might also include medical health and life insurance coverage.
- Management Team Support System. This will includes the responsibility of the company in providing specific safety trainings to its workers. This training aims to educate workers for the importance of putting safety as their priority. This may also include important steps to do in case of accidents or emergency.
A management team support system also includes monitoring and inspections on a regular basis. Management personnel should see to it that all the safety measures are implemented accordingly.
As an applicant to a construction company, these are the considerations that you may have to look at. A company that gives priority on the welfare of their workers is of great advantage on your part and the company itself. There are other important things that are included in a construction safety manual or handbook that I have not mentioned here. A handbook can be in detail from using a small tool to operating heavy equipment, from laying the foundation of a building to its finishing touch and many more. The point here is having a safety handbook or manual is very important.
Quality Control and Safety Concerns in Construction
Quality assurance is an essential mechanism for ensuring that the construction process takes place within the framework of a quality management system. Quality control and Construction Safety represent increasingly important concerns for project managers.
This suggests that quality assurance defines the organization structure, tasks and duties for implementing quality management. On the other hand safety during the construction project is also influenced in large part by decisions made during the planning and design process. Some designs or construction plans are inherently difficult and dangerous to implement, whereas other, comparable plans may considerably reduce the possibility of accidents.
Quality control and safety instructions should be planned at the design and planning stages of the project. Contractors, architects and engineers must work together, called conformance, to come to agreement on what’s possible on paper versus the real world. Quality expectations and requirements should be noted in the contract documents, all approved plan specs and shop drawings.
Weak quality control leads to defects or failures in constructed facilities thus result in very large costs. Even with minor defects, re-construction may be required and facility operations impaired. Increased costs and delays are the result. In the worst case, failures may cause personal injuries or fatalities.
Accidents during the construction process can similarly result in personal injuries and large costs. Indirect costs of insurance, inspection and regulation are increasing rapidly due to these increased direct costs. Good project managers try to ensure that the job is done right the first time and that no major accidents occur on the project.
Any defects in a construction project are a loss of revenue for the construction contractor. Defects must be corrected before you can move on to the next phase of the project. Injuries are more than just a loss of revenue. Injuries can derail an entire project and cause the company to miss deadlines when your best workers can’t work.
Therefore as a conclusion Quality Control and Safety is one of the essential things that need to take in to consideration in a construction site. Safety issues should be covered and instructions should be conveyed to everyone in the construction site before the project gets underway.
The Industry of Construction
Construction is the most unsafe land-based work sector. In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Outlying it from being a single activity, large scale construction is a deed of human multitasking. Normally, the job is managed by a project manager, and supervised by a construction manager, design engineer, construction engineer or project architect.
This industry’s activities include the building of new structures, including site preparation, as well as additions and modifications to existing ones. It also includes maintenance, repair, and improvements on these structures.
Construction usually is done or coordinated by general contractors, who specialize in one type of construction such as residential or commercial building. They take full responsibility for the complete job, except for specified portions of the work that may be omitted from the general contract. Although general contractors may do a portion of the work with their own crews, they often subcontract most of the work to heavy construction or specialty trade contractors.
Based on research the construction industry employed 936,000 people in 2006-07, representing 9% of the Australian workforce. Construction sites have particular hazards that create risks not only for the construction worker, but also for members of the public. People working in the construction industry are more than twice as likely to be killed at work as the average worker.
Construction is a high-risk activity, which must be managed from procurement, through the design process and to the end of the construction stage. Everyone involved in a building project must appreciate their role, from client, project supervisor design process, designer, project supervisor construction stage, contractor and employees.
For the successful execution of a project, effective planning is essential. Those involved with the design and execution of the infrastructure in question must consider the environmental impact of the job, the successful scheduling, budgeting, construction site safety, availability of building materials, logistics, and inconvenience to the public caused by construction delays and bidding, etc.
In general, there are three types of construction:
- Building construction
- Heavy / civil construction
- Industrial construction
Each type of construction project requires a unique team to plan, design, construct and maintain the project.
Technological advances are rolling out almost daily. Most construction projects followed a detailed sequence of work. With a timeline schedule a new building can be up and running in just a couple of months, this depends on the specified time plan of the construction company coupled with the advances of technology.
Inside the building site, construction is in high gear. Ultimately, the process involved with any construction project are the same. A construction manager must know the scope of the project; have decision makers in place and plan early for the future.
Long Lasting Career for New Generation
After several years in the university, newly graduates from college are now faced to one of the hardest part of their life; to find a job. According to many, finding the right job is the completion of the race. The answer to anyone’s goal, but actually it is just the beginning of a long and tiring trail. It’s just you went up to a different phase of your life, a higher level of a ladder that needs to be reached. The next thing to think about is; what kind of job you need to look for though this should be taken into consideration long before you took a college course.
One of the careers that could probably last for centuries is the construction industry. Profession specialist noted that construction will always be needed since technology evolves. As it advances, new ideas are emerging thus new furniture and fixtures are being created, new building styles are being invented. Many new professionals wanted to put up new houses, offices and new buildings. Also the multiplication of the population is a factor.
If you are concerned about your future financially and professionally, careers in the construction business are some of the best choice available to you. The need for new structures, roads, buildings, houses, furniture, cabinets among others won’t stop.
As the income of most families’ increases, the need to acquire personal properties has increased. Others upgraded or renovated what they have previously owned. New buildings needed for offices and other rental purposes have also increased in numbers. These things and more are the basic consideration in settling on jobs in the construction world.
Construction profession offers variety of jobs for different level of education. You could be in the management department; handling people projects and finances. The people in-charge in the planning department on the other hand are what they call “the starters” in the construction business. They asses, plan, budget and propose the projection and length of completion of the particular project. Laborers or masons are the ones given the responsibility of the most physical tasks.
In the middle of deciding what’s best profession for you? One of the many jobs in the construction world is just waiting for you to choose.
Pedestrian safety by fencing off the perimeter
Generally a fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. It is distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction.
While a perimeter fence is any kind of demarcation that marks off the boundary of the property by enclosing it in some way. There are several different types of perimeter fence. They may be used for privacy, safety or security, or as an element of landscaping.
Many construction sites are within close proximity to areas where the public operate, requiring rules and safety procedures which are equally as vital as for the construction workers on site. Before any work commences site inspections must be conducted by trained workers.
This is important because many accidents, fatalities and at worst death happen inside and outside the construction site each year. These incidents could have been avoided through proper safety application and awareness of on-site safety procedures.
As for a construction site safety is the main concern. Construction sites require a precise amount of care and vigilance from workers and pedestrian in terms of health and safety. Fencing off a construction site is vital to public safety, and keeping all work inside the perimeter is equally as important.
If hazards are kept inside a fenced location, pedestrians may remain safe. When transferring and lifting heavy materials to deposit on the site, the cranes should not move the material over any space that is not blocked off.
If movement of load will be required regularly the vicinity should be blocked to the public. In case anything falls from the crane no third party will be injured and accidents will be avoided.
Strong consideration should be given to closing off one lane of the street to traffic if pedestrians need to be diverted off of the sidewalk at a site location. This permits the outside curb lane for motorists to be used as the exchange pedestrian circulation route.
It is easier and quicker for vehicles to find an alternate route than pedestrian’s especially those with vision, cognitive, or mobility impairments. Therefore people you pass by should be informed through signs.
Construction contractors should also ensure that supervisors, contractors, and workers at the site are sensitized to the potential pedestrian conflicts that may occur.
In this way, they can be alert to changing hazards and conditions that might impact pedestrian safety and provide any assistance that pedestrian may require.
Key People in Construction
One of the flourishing businesses in the world is construction. It is spreading its wings, in fact a wide range of variety of opportunities are becoming available as the community or the country needs more buildings and other infrastructure to meet the demands of development and growth. If you are in search of or starting a career in construction, here is the list of some position you’d be interested in.
Laboring
Laborer is somebody who performs his work activities with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor. It is considered the lowest rank in construction. These people are those who use their physical body most of the time. Most of the people who landed on this category are those who did not earned a degree but just undergone on the job training and or apprenticeship.
Project management
A Project Manager is the key person in a construction, he must have and the knowledge and experience of organization all at the same time the core factor in a construction, the assets; which include all the people involved in the project and the necessary equipments. Time is another; the Project Manager must identify the length of time a project has to be done, what to do accordingly and the possible completion. Money or budget is one of the crucial factors he should supervise, from the very beginning of the project a budget has to be identified, allocated and planned. These things must be administered and handled carefully. A good project Manager must see to it not to neglect any of these if he wants to make it in the winning side.
Estimating and contract administration
This is planning the project wholly from the very beginning to the finishing point. This task is beyond the responsibility of the Project Manager. It is an undertaking where a projection and the progression is taken into documentation to assure the project’s success. By the person in-charge, he must see to it that a quality project is delivered to the client at the expected time within the range of the proposed budget.
The above positions are all important in the construction. No member shall perform alone detached from the other. They must work together as one with interconnected aim; to make the project successful. Each may differ from physical contribution, range of salary and benefits, but if any member is lacking, no project will be accomplished.
The Present and the Future of Construction Industry
There are people who just perform their responsibility because they need to, for the sake of finishing what has to be done; others do it because they are enjoying what they do. Considering a work not just a job but a career will bring your performance to the next level. Career has something to do with a future in relation with what you do.
People who are involved in the construction industry have a great career ahead of them. Though many seem to look down on this kind of job, still they are one of the most looked-for whenever people would want to ma a development out of what they have now.
Some of the products of the construction industry are houses, apartments, hotels, industrial units, buildings, schools, highways, overpass connection bridges among others. Carpenters were most of the time called for repairs, developing an existing infrastructure or starting a new one.
It is a fact that the working condition of the construction workers are not that comfortable, they are exposed to different kinds of weather without any protection at times. And there are risks to be injured due to the fact that there are open to the elements of harmful equipments.
Though the mentioned conditions are in fact visible, many still wanted to be in a construction job. It may not be that glamorous profession but the invitation it gives to the people who wants to develop a career is very strong. Additional factor is the fact that a mastery or PhD is not required in this field.
Preparation are available as well as on the job training to those who wished to be a construction worker, though skill are sometimes taught in the school or training center, a few developed some of their knowledge on the job itself, they were able to discover how to do particular designs or make things better. Income or salaries vary on the expertise they possess. As they acquire more skills, the higher salary they receive and of course a reputation was able to build.
Job prospect and opportunities are available as the population grows and the possibilities of the older generation of the workers leaving their job. So there will be more employment in this industry. We may conclude that this trade will never have its conclusion but will flourish more as quality of life grows.
Using Resources Wisely in Construction
Construction does not always mean building new roads, houses, buildings or any kind of infrastructure. Sometimes it means repair, add-ons or recycles. We know how economy works nowadays, prices of almost every material are going high if not speeding up. As many earth lovers are pushing the green project, many things were discovered that can be recycled if not re used. This idea does not only save money but help the environment as well.
From the very beginning of any project, there are materials that seemed to be destined to be wasted. When raising a building; a peripheral has to be covered either with galvanized house-top or woods. Its purpose is to ensure that materials are secured from burglars, and to set the area according to the plan. An outline made of wood or steel are set up to serve as delineate for the proposed building or structure. It is also done to serve as a diagram for the building.
To accomplish what’s needed to be done in the upper level a temporary ladder must be situated for the workers so they can carry out what’s intended to be done. These temporary ladders are mostly made of wood or steel.
There are construction companies who just throw away or burn these materials they used temporarily. While most people in majority of the countries around the world are doing their best to promote the green project, businesses that are into construction industry should do their part. Instead of treating materials used temporarily as waste, these can be reused and recycled. Since wood can be painted and redecorated, it is advised to use it again purposely not only to save fund for the company but to help the environment as well. In fact there are construction companies who are starting to do this nowadays. Somehow we need to consider what’s ahead of us so we know how to take care what we have now with our hands. It will also our fate that will be affected, if we will not use our resources wisely, time will come that these resources will come to an end.
The pros and cons of a construction worker
If you or someone you know is considering a career in the construction industry be sure you know what you’re getting into. This isn’t an easy job and skills are required to be a part of the undying world of construction.
The Positive aspect
As a construction worker you benefit from the ability to leave work at work and enjoy a satisfying personal life. You are going to get off work relatively early compared to traditional office-based careers.
Once your job is over, your loyalty can shift from your employer to your family. You can expect to be on the freeway heading home anywhere from 1 pm to 2:30 pm every day.
You may be asked or compelled to work overtime hours, but these sacrifices are generally voluntary and well-compensated. A worker with a defined skill can generally find employment elsewhere.
As a construction worker, you are going to get paid extremely well. This is especially true if you join a local union and graduate from their apprenticeship program. Union workers are always the top paid construction workers when directly compared with their non-union counterparts.
Another thing is that you don’t have to wear a suit and tie to work, there’s no need for gel and stylish hairdos. There are some aspects of construction that are absolutely fantastic. Seeing new buildings and meeting new people every day of week is one. It is also a rewarding feeling that when you pass by the building you can say that “I was part the construction team of this building.”
The Negative aspect
It’s true; you do leave work exceptionally early every day as a construction worker. On the flip side, it means you are getting up extra early every day, anywhere between 3:30 am and 5:30am.
Construction sites are dangerous. You might step through an unseen hole on a roof and falling twenty feet to a concrete slab below. However there are safety precautions that should be made and construction sites administrator are aware of it.
In a construction site you are going to get dirty every day, so you will need to wear rugged clothing and construction boots.
There are a lot of positive aspect in becoming a construction worker, and just as many negative aspects. Though, the bad didn’t out-weigh the good. Still it is a clean and honest way of making a leaving.