An investigation into how mitigating environmental management issues can encourage sustainable construction of 21st Century

Abstract

"The reason for this study is to investigate how environmental management issues can encourage sustainable construction of the 21st century. The purpose of this dissertation is to find possible solutions so that negative impacts on the environment can be mitigated with the help of environmental management. Concerns about environmental issues have been growing since the caveman times as the negative impacts where being noticed such as climate change, deforestation, pollution, global warming and ozone layer depletion. This is a major concern because as humans we want to live life and not have to worry about the environmental state of the planet, or worry whether generations from now if the planet will even be habitable because of global warming and the climate change. This study was conducted because environmental issues are a huge subject now especially because of the effects we are seeing therefore, finding a solution to mitigate as much environmental issues as possible in the construction industry is for the better, as this will encourage sustainable construction in the 21st century. The methodology applied to this study was quantitative analysis, with the chosen method of online questionnaire survey. The data collection and analysis was conducted once the online questionnaire survey was carried out. The main finding in this study is current issues in the construction industry and how big of a part they play. This research paper allows us to see what the construction industry is doing wrong in terms of environmental management so
that the errors can be found to improve it. Some of the main conclusions that are highlighted in this research are the use of ISO 14000 being used in every construction industry because it is one of the main environmental management systems used today. With the procedure of review and improvement, environmental management can benefit the construction industry greatly. Another conclusion is that construction activities during the pre-construction stage are found to be the major attribute towards air emissions as gathered from the data collection. Conclusions and any recommendations made will be supported in full by discussion in the overall dissertation. Key words: environmental issues; environmental management; mitigation; solution and sustainable construction.