Subject: Thesis of Construction Management

Topic:  Green Technology in Construction Industry Comparing Australia vs India

Requirments:

– Summative assessment task 1

1.

Outline Thesis Brief description of assessment task As an individual student, provide a full outline of the research project that demonstrates the feasibility of the research project. Detail of student output For the written thesis Inquiry Pathway 3000 words (+/-10%) are required, not including appendices and bibliography.

This task assesses your achievement of these Unit Learning Outcome(s) ULO1: Demonstrate an understanding of the relevance and context of the research topic

ULO2: Organise and carry out a research method appropriate to the project and the timeframe

ULO3: Identify and critically analyse the existing knowledge related to the topic

ULO5: Professionally communicate their research This task assesses your achievement of these Graduate Learning Outcome(s) GLO1: Through the demonstration of an understanding of the relevance and context of the research topic

GLO2: Through the professionalism in communication and presentation

GLO3: Through the demonstrated capacity to identify and obtain key sources, data, themes, issues, authors, debates, frameworks or theories related to the research.

GLO4: Through the demonstrated capacity to critically analyse the existing knowledge related to the research topic

GLO6: Through the demonstrated ability to organise and carry out a research method appropriate to the project and the timeframe

– Summative assessment task 2

2.

Developed Thesis Brief description of assessment task .As an individual student provide a developed research project that demonstrates: an understanding of the relevance and context of the research topic; research methods appropriate to the project; a positioning of their research relative to the existing knowledge; and professional communication. Detail of student output For the written thesis Inquiry Pathway 8000 -10000 words are required, not including appendices and bibliography.

This task assesses your achievement of these Unit Learning Outcome(s) ULO1: Demonstrate an understanding of the relevance and context of the research topic ULO2: Organise and carry out a research method appropriate to the project and the timeframe ULO3: Identify and critically analyse the existing knowledge related to the topic ULO4: Position their research relative to the existing knowledge

This task assesses your achievement of these Graduate Learning Outcome(s) GLO1: Through the demonstration of an understanding of the relevance and context of the research topic GLO2: Through the professionalism in communication and presentation GLO3: Through the demonstrated capacity to identify and obtain key sources, data, themes, issues, authors, debates, frameworks or theories related to the research. GLO4: Through the demonstrated capacity to critically analyse the existing knowledge related to the research topic GLO5: Through the demonstrated capacity of students to position their own research relative to existing knowledge GLO6: Through the demonstrated ability to organise and carry out a research method appropriate to the project and the timeframe.

Green Technology in Construction Industry Comparing Australia vs. India

Student Name:

University Name:

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction. 2

1.1 Purpose of the Study. 2

1.2 Statement of the Problem.. 2

1.3 Significance of the Study. 3

2.0 Literature Review.. 4

2.1 Green Construction. 4

2.2 Green technologies in construction industry. 5

Cool roof. 5

Green Insulation through waste materials. 5

Usage of Crosslam.. 5

2.3 Advantages of Green Technology in Construction. 6

Reserve funds on Money. 6

Natural Benefits. 6

2.4 The Australian Green Building Industry. 6

2.5 Green Buildings Construction Industry in India. 7

2.6 Knowledge Gap as Hindrance to the Construction Industry’s progress for adapting Green Technology  7

3.0 Research Methodology. 8

3.1 Introduction. 8

3.2 Research Onion. 8

3.3 Research Philosophy. 9

3.3.1 Justification for selecting the ‘post-positivism’ philosophy. 10

3.4 Research Approach. 10

3.4.1 Justification for selecting the deductive approach. 11

3.5 Research Design. 11

3.5.1 Justification for selecting the descriptive design. 12

3.7 Data Collection Procedure. 12

3.7.1 Data Sources technique and procedures. 12

3.8 Ethical Considerations. 13

3.9 Time Horizons. 13

References. 15

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the Study

This paper outlines the comparison of utilizing Green Technology in the construction Industry of Australia and India. The Green technology is growing to be the standard procedure that must be implemented in the Construction Industry that will prompt better home with green norms. The structures are representing 30 to 40 percent of worldwide energy utilize and are considered as energy guzzlers. In Australia and India, the structures represent 30 percent of aggregate energy utilization internationally and a huge share of nursery gas emanations. Hence, there is a need to introduce Green technology in construction for complying with the fabricating energy codes to guarantee that the new structures utilize energy productively (Zuo and Zhao 2014). The presentation of Green innovation can diminish constructing energy use by half or more contrasted with structures arranged without energy effectiveness personality a top priority. Therefore, this paper presents the comparison of India and Australia regarding the utilization of Green technology in their construction industry.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The huge development in economic activity over the globe is setting weight on natural and environmental assets. There is expanding confirmation that human exercises are causing an irreversible damage to the worldwide environment, which will adversely affect the personal satisfaction of future generations. The rising concern towards environment due to unnatural weather change is driving scholars to look for sustainable solutions. The real estate industry is a critical benefactor to the unnatural weather change because of extensive discharges of Greenhouse gasses (GHGs) from the energy consumption by the buildings. In a few nations, the fabricated environment represents around 40% of the energy utilized. Subsequently, there is a basic reason for the business to create sustainable building innovations and green buildings (Espinoza, Buehlmann and Smith 2012). In any case, designers confront a noteworthy challenge in the development of green structures as now and again this expands development costs. Engineers think that it is hard to settle on green buildings because of price limitations trouble in sourcing green building materials, technologies and service providers in Australia as well as India. This paper focuses to comprehend and discover answers for these issues by looking at the use of Green innovation by the Construction Industry of Australia and India.

1.3 Significance of the Study

The developing worldwide emergency has developed the need to embrace the idea of sustainability. The activities of the real estate, being one of the huge contributors to energy utilization and use of resources, is working towards the improvement of green buildings to lessen the utilization of energy and the ecological effect. There are various benefits of utilizing Green technology in Construction Industry of Australia and India as it can save money, tax incentives, environmental benefits as well as lifetime and property value. Hence, this study will compare the two countries based on the use of Green technology in their construction industry. The various challenges and benefits associated with the use of Green technology by the two countries will also be analyzed to identify that most building energy codes are financially effective, sparing the purchasers with huge amount of money on the energy bills (Deuble and de Dear 2012). The concept of green buildings promotes utilization of renewable energy, recyclable and reused items, concentrate on productive utilization of water, minimization of energy, enhancing word related comfort and healthiness.

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Green Construction

The concept of sustainable or green building design and construction as stated by Beatley and Newman (2012) means the opportunity for utilizing the resources more efficiently at the same time creating healthier and more energy-efficient homes. The success of this term relies on leaving a lighter footprint on the environment through conservation of resources along with balancing the construction needs related to energy-efficiency, cost-effectiveness and low maintenance products. Ahn et al. (2013), defines this concept in a simple way as the design of green buildings involve the finding of delicate balance between the homebuilding and the sustainable environment. The adoption of this Green technology in terms of construction and development of energy efficient homes also contributes to reduction of global warming.

Many people are deprived of the knowledge that the rigid and blown foamed insulation is made of plastics and has the capability to reduce the amount of energy consumption as well as produces less greenhouse gas per application that traditional materials used in building and construction. A green building may cost more in advance, however spares through lower working expenses over the life of the building (Biswas 2014). There should be a little partition of the building-spending plan put aside to take care of differential expenses connected with less tangible green building advantages or to cover the expenses of scrutinizing and examining green building alternatives. Indeed, even with a tight spending plan, numerous green building measures can be consolidated with insignificant or zero expanded in expenses and they can produce enormous reserve funds.

2.2 Green technologies in construction industry

Many milestones towards invention and usage of green technology have been bridged in the recent years with many more still on the bay. Some of the most inspiring initiatives in the world that shall soon be changing the scenario related to construction and allied sector are presented as below:

Cool roof: Cool roofs are specially designed roofs that control emittance of warm or cold air inside the building outside and permits a higher solar reflectance thus reducing the temperature of roof by as much as 50 degrees in hot urban and suburban areas (Eichholtz, Kok and Quigley 2013). This puts less pressure on the air-cooling or heating system within the building thus reducing carbon emissions and giving more durability to such appliances.

Green Insulation through waste materials: Insulation is used widely to across the world to maintain comfortable temperatures inside residences and offices (Sanchez et al. 2013). However an interesting fact is that such an important feature can be made out of waste using cellulose and cotton insulation green technologies as compared to the traditional glass insulation which only recycles 30-40 percent glass and consumes a great deal of energy.

Usage of Crosslam: Crosslam is a cross laminated timber structural panel that is made by putting together layers of softwood boards in right angles to each other rendering more stability and strength to the entire wooden panel and can be used successfully for flooring, ceiling and wall purposes (Young and Coutinho 2013). This can be counted as a part of green technology as it uses less desirable wood even considering those taken from forests killed by mountain pine beetles thus making the best out of less desired natural resources.

2.3 Advantages of Green Technology in Construction

Some of the various benefits associated with the use of Green technology in construction are discussed as below:

Reserve funds on Money: Although the in advance expenses for green advances are regularly higher, the lifetime investment funds are critical. Green innovations are intended to utilize assets productively, which normally prompts money related funds for the proprietor.

Natural Benefits: One of the clearest advantages to working with green innovation is the ecological effect. Green innovation lessens discharges, preserves water, diminishes squander and expends less energy than traditional innovation (Watson 2012).

There is a need to introduce Green technology in construction for complying with the building energy codes to ensure that the new buildings use energy efficiently (Siew, Balatbat and Carmichael 2013).

2.4 The Australian Green Building Industry

Australia’s building industry has a noteworthy history of conveying world-driving ecological results. From advancement, financing and outline to designing and master assembling advances and items, GBCA member organizations are more than qualified to help with conveying maintainable green building improvements (Morris 2013). The Sydney Olympic Games denoted the start of the current green building development in Australia. The games were an excellent case of economical urban advancement, having leading systems in energy and water preservation. Accordingly, the Green Building Council of Australia was shaped in 2002. More than 350 Green Star-certified structures have been conveyed by an industry of excellent planners, specialists and innovation suppliers. Australian engineering practices are known globally for their inventive and innovative arrangements, tending to supportability challenges for the twenty first century (Samari et al. 2013). Australia has developed various positive action buildings such as Energy-positive, Water-positive, Health-positive and Cost-positive buildings that demonstrate their capability to introduce Green technology in their construction industry.

2.5 Green Buildings Construction Industry in India

Ke, Ling and Zou (2013), characterizes the significance of a Green Building as the one which utilizes less water, enhances energy productivity, monitors regular assets, creates less waste and gives more beneficial spaces to tenants, when contrasted with an ordinary building. The Population of the cities in India is projected to double in next 20 years. The test is to make and oversee structures, groups that are proficient in ecological terms as well as advance a high caliber of life. As on 8 August 2013, more than 2,155 green building stretches out signifying more than 1.52 Billion square feet of green building impression (Siew, Balatbat and Carmichael 2013). This makes India a main player despite the way that the incremental cost of a business green building would be 3-5 % and a green home incremental cost 1 %.

2.6 Knowledge Gap as Hindrance to the Construction Industry’s progress for adapting Green Technology

India has one of the quickest developing and most ecologically mindful development commercial ventures in the globe. A research amid by Mao et al. (2013), demonstrates that local pioneers in India’s design, development and property improvement group are consistent in the view that their industry is enthusiastic about practicing environmental safety. In any case, absence of mindfulness and instruction are the two noteworthy limitations, beside cost, on ecologically cordial property improvement. Contrasted with Australia for instance, India is still behind regarding its emphasis on green building and development practices. Australia is considered as one of the biggest business players that have picked water treatment as the central purpose of their nations’ green endeavors, while organizations in different nations are more centered on the modern and energy divisions. In Australia and India, the structures represent 30 percent of aggregate energy utilization internationally and a huge share of nursery gas emanations.

3.0 Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

Experts are of the opinion that the utilization of research methodologies facilitate the process of conducting research studies as the application of appropriate research techniques helps the researchers in analyzing the topic in a better manner.  In the following sections of the report, discussions would be made on the methods and techniques that would be utilized for conducting the research work being proposed.

3.2 Research Onion

The ‘Research Onion’ is considered as an efficient tool for selecting the methodologies that could be used efficiently for conducting a research work (Zhang et al. 2012). With the help of research onion, the appropriate methods and techniques to be used in each stage of the research work can be identified easily.

The ‘Research Onion’ categories the tools and techniques used for conducting independent research works in to the following heads:

a)      research philosophies

b)      research approaches

c)      research strategies

d)     Research choices

e)      Research choices

f)       the time schedule according  to which  research work would be conducted

g)      research techniques

h)      research procedures

The   diagram provided in the section above depicts the manner in which each layer of the research onion presents tools and techniques for conducting research works in a better way.

3.3 Research Philosophy

Researchers Yang and Yang (2012) are of the opinion that the utilization of appropriate research philosophy facilitates the process of selecting the most appropriate manner for conducting a research work.

The most common philosophies that are utilized for conducting research works are: positivism, post-positivism, realism and interpretivism. Among these philosophies, ‘post-positivism’ has been selected to be used in the proposed research work.

3.3.1 Justification for selecting the ‘post-positivism’ philosophy

Post positivism that particular research philosophy, which appreciates the fact that results of research works, would indeed depend on the educational, professional, economic and social background of the personnel involved in the research. Besides this, the post–positivism approach also takes into consideration that the outcomes of any research study is significantly dependent on the professional experiences of the participants.

The consideration of the abovementioned factors should be considered as one of the intrinsic part of any scientific research work: thus, the selection of this particular philosophy for the proposed research work is justified.

3.4 Research Approach

The utilization of an appropriate research approach is essential for identifying the most suitable approach that can be utilized for the research work.

In general, scientific research works are conducted with the help of the following approaches: inductive approach and deductive approach (Traynor and Gordon 2014). Among the above-mentioned approaches, the researchers have decided on using the deductive manner for conducting the proposed research work.

3.4.1 Justification for selecting the deductive approach

The deductive approach helps in unearthing how the theoretical aspects of any domain are used in practice. Besides this, deductive approaches can also be used for analyzing data and formation available from existing   research works and develop theories from them.

The research work being proposed in this report is aimed at comparing the utilization of green or eco-friendly mechanisms (in construction industry) in two nations: India and Australia.  Thu, the utilization of the deductive approach is appropriate for it (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015).

3.5 Research Design

Researchers are of the opinion the selection of an appropriate research design is essential for conducting any research study as it facilitates the process of conducting the activities associated with the collection and analysis of information.

The following types of research designs are used for conducting scientific research works:

a. Exploratory design

b. Descriptive design

c. Explanatory designs

It has been decided that in order to conduct the proposed research work, the descriptive design would be utilized.

3.5.1 Justification for selecting the descriptive design

The descriptive research design helps in gathering detailed information in the domain being researched on, thus helping in providing a proper description of the entire research topic. Since the primary objective of the proposed research work is to compare the utilization of eco-friendly construction mechanisms across Australia and India, the selection of the research design is justified.

3.7 Data Collection Procedure

The collection of relevant information is an intrinsic part of any research work.   Researcher Panneerselvam (2014) is of the opinion that the availability of authentic data is essential for conducting any research work as the outcome of research studies are largely based on the information available during the study.  In the following sections of the report would provide   a detailed discussion on the techniques and procedure that would be used for collecting information to be used in the proposed research work.

3.7.1 Data Sources technique and procedures

Data sources that can be utilized for collecting first hand data are considered as primary data sources, while sources that provide access to modified and processed information, are considered as secondary sources of data (Flick 2015).

On the other hand, data collected from these sources can also be categorized as quantitative and qualitative data.  While qualitative data provide in depth description of the topic being researched on, quantitative data help in generating a statistical view of the topic (Miller et al. 2012).

The proposed research work would use both primary and secondary sources of data for collecting information. Besides this, qualitative along with quantitative would be utilized for conducting the research work.

3.8 Ethical Considerations

Researchers are of the opinion that any research work needs to be conducted ethically (Miller et al. 2012). Thus, the following considerations would be followed while conducting the propose research work:

a. The researchers conducting the study would refrain from using the information collected from various sources   in any commercial manner.

b. The researchers would also collect information from persons who willingly participate in the research work.

c. The researchers would remain careful so that the identities of the participants are not revealed on any case.

3.9 Time Horizons

The following table provides the timeline following which the research wok would be conducted:

References

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Beatley, T. and Newman, P., 2012. Green urbanism down under: Learning from sustainable communities in Australia. Island Press.

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