Buildings consume up to 40% of the total global energy. By the year 2030, the consumption is expected to increase to 50%. In Malaysia, buildings consume a total of 48% of the electricity generated in the country. Commercial buildings consume up to 38,645 Giga watts (GWh) while Residential buildings consume 24,709 Gwh. Demand for electricity in the country is expected to rise from 91,539 GWh in the year 2007 to 108,732 GWh in 2011. By the year 2020, the energy demand in Malaysia is expected to reach 116 Million tons of oil equivalents (Mtoe). Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in the country has increased by 221% ,which lists the nation at 26th among the top 30 greenhouse gas emitters in the world. Literature studies indicate more than 50% of this energy is used in buildings for occupants comfort (air conditioning and refrigeration). Energy consumptions by residential occupants can be minimized if energy usage is considered. This paper aimed at reviewing some literatures on energy consumption in the residential buildings in Malaysia and suggests ways of improving the energy usage by the occupants.
No abstract
Green highway is a highway project that has been designed and constructed with the sustainability requirements and global standard. Basically, green highway is one of the major parts for sustainable concept where three major aspects are addressed which are economic, social and environment. The main focus for economic aspect is to increase profitability by making more efficient use of resources especially material, improve the quality of life by fulfilling the nation’s need for social aspect while protecting the environment from the impact of CO2 emission and using of natural resources efficiently for the purpose of environment aspect. Therefore, it is important for highway stakeholders to incorporate sustainable criteria in their projects. The implementation of sustainable concept in highway needs to be evaluated by green highway rating tool assessment. Thus, the purpose of this study is to establish a tool to assess and certify a green highway in Malaysia. The data for this study was obtained through group discussion with highway experts and questionnaires that were distributed to identify the sustainability factors. Then the data were analyzed using factor analysis method. The findings of this study indicated that, there are five major sustainable factor which are Sustainable Design and Construction Activities, Social and Safety, Energy Efficiency, Environmental and Water Management and Material and Technology that are included in the development of green highway rating system.
Construction labor productivity is critical to the success of the industry. It is thus, important for the estimation and scheduling of construction project. However, most of the traditional construction firms have no accurate data on labor productivity. Therefore, this paper aims to identify through literature review those factors that affect labor production rate and evaluate their effects on the performance of the industry. The research made use of the 44 returned questionnaires from the contractors firms. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) to compute the mean score for each factor. These factors were subsequently ranked based on the mean score value.The results of the analysis has shown that, based on the management level factors “lack of motivation and incentive, lack of equipment, disruption of power and water supply and inspection delay” are the most significant factors affecting labour productivity each with mean score values of 0.79, 0.44, 0.38 and 0.35 respectively. Also based on the site level factors “lack of adequate skillful worker with specific scope of work” at site, delay in material supply, weather, access to the site, crew size and communication problems between foreign and local staff are the top six most significant factors affecting labour productivity each with the mean score values of 0.77, 0.75, 0.75, 0.66, 0.61 and 0.53 respectively. Similarly, all the respondents seem to have agreed in their perception on the severity of factors affecting labour productivity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.