Tuesday, 18 February 2014

The Dinosaurs in Building Sector

Building sector account for 38% of human GHG emission (10% residential& 18% commercial), an ever increasing  trend  since  the  introduction  of  cement  based  building  materials  apart  from  electric appliances&  gadgets  that  has  become  part  of  daily  life  necessity.  On  average  a  regular  building attribute 5,000kg CO2e/m2 through its lifecycle of which 25% come from its construction while up to 2% of it during its course of operation per year. We  can’t  twist  the  facts  that  the  demand  for  building  is  in  tandem  with  the  ever  growing  human population which translate to increment of GHG emission, thus questions on effects of climate change and  sustainability  natural  resources  ensued.  United Nation  (UN)  projected  that  world  population would reached its peak, at 9.22billions, in 2075, an additional of 2.1 billion souls from now. The right for quality shelter is basic to humanity which by then foreseeable as a matter of past but to reached there a mechanism to achieve the equilibrium between human and the surrounding environment is critical now. The sector is most promising in CO2 emission reduction in related to cost effectiveness, as suggested by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 


Recognized  that  people  from  different,  ethnic  groups,  geographical  locations,  nationalities,  sexes, cultural practices, religions, political view, economy power and age group, work and live differently and understanding the anthropology is of paramount to ensure technical skills is not employ in vain. In  the  context  of  Project  Management  Professional  (PMP),  it’s  within  the  elements  of  enterprise environmental  factors  and  Organization  Process  Assets  of  which  stakeholder  analysis  such  as stakeholder  engagement  assessment  matrix,  RACI  analysis&  Salient  Stakeholders  models  would  be employed within the stakeholder management plan in ensuring the success of project. 

It was once said 40% of world tower cranes was occupied in Dubai, indeed people from all over the world  was  pouring  into  the  desert  city,  bring  along with  them  the  technology  and  knowledge  in construction. It was eye opening for me to witness and learned how technology challenge the Mother Nature by converting the sparse desert into a sprawling megalopolis. The influx of people double up population by 2007 has risen  demand for electricity by 55.8% and carbon  dioxide  emission by 64%, since 1994. Energy related activities accounted for90% of total emission. UAE has seen listed as top in the list of environment polluter worldwide and has the largest ecology footprint globally. CO2e in the year 2000 alone was 128.3 million tons. Development in such rapid rate is not without its expense,average temperature is expected to be between 1.6 to 2.9°C warmer in 2050 and 2.3 to 5.9°C warmer in  2100,  from  current  temperature  of  48°C  in  Dubai  and  50°C  in  Al-Ain,  during  the  summer.  More energy is used to fuel the cooling seems like the snowballing effect hardly end anytime sooner 

My  recent  trip  to  Nepal  value  me  how  precious basic infrastructure is. Temperature dropped to -20°C at night, in the mountain region, and public electric supply is not reliable even in the city which forced me to go without bath for 5 days! Nonetheless, I realized  how  prudent  the  local  in electricity&  water  utilization.  Photovoltaic  have  dotted  all  over Kathmandu  as  alternative  to public  supply.  Houses  were  made  out  of  local  available  materials,  no cement based building materials was sighted in the mountain. 

I do belief human constantly strive for betterment,weight risk in relation to situations, in the process and react accordingly. Nevertheless, knowledge in how our reaction effects on climate change must first be imparted before introduce the risk, whether economically or by-law, e.g. Electric tariff hikes by 14.9% alerted heavy consumer, however how rational of the tariff in line with the efficiency of TNB is another question altogether. 

Realized that electricity consumption  per  capita  has  been  rising  52%  from  2,720kWh  in  year  2000  to  4135kWh  in  2010.  In comparison  to  our  more  advanced  neighbor,  Singapore,  over  the  same  period  with  just  10.9% increased from 7,575kWh to 8,306kWh but significantreduction in carbon dioxide emission since 1997 and  even  dropping  below  Malaysian’s  marks  after  break-even  in  2007  at  7.29  CO2e  per  capita.  So what does it implied?? 


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