On-site energy management challenges and opportunities: a contractor's perspective

Although numerous policies encourage CO2 and energy consumption reduction within the UK non-domestic sector, most measures are primarily focused towards reducing operational impacts, but largely overlook embodied impacts, particularly within the construction process. On-site construction refers to the energy consumed during the installation of materials up to project practical completion and represents the largest share of construction process CO2 emissions. Contractors have a pivotal role to play in reducing CO2 and energy consumption due to their significant involvement in project procurement and on-site construction. The key challenges and opportunities are investigated for delivering on-site energy management within UK non-domestic projects from a contractor's perspective. A case study is presented of a large UK principal contractor's on-site energy management practices, based on a wide geographical sample of non-domestic projects and operatives. Shortcomings are found within the contractor's current on-site energy management procedure across the three reporting levels (director, operations and project). Findings identified the lack of data authentication as a significant challenge, whereas capturing additional project variables to facilitate future benchmarking was deemed as a key opportunity for on-site energy management enhancement. Bien que de nombreuses politiques encouragent une réduction du CO2 et de la consommation d'énergie dans le secteur non résidentiel au Royaume-Uni, la plupart des mesures visent principalement à réduire les impacts opérationnels, mais négligent largement les impacts intrinsèques, en particulier dans le processus de construction. La construction sur chantier fait référence à l'énergie consommée de l'installation des matériaux jusqu'à la réalisation concrète du projet et représente la part la plus importante des émissions de CO2 au cours du processus de construction. Les entrepreneurs ont un rôle crucial à jouer dans la réduction du CO2 et de la consommation d'énergie du fait de leur importante implication dans la passation des marchés et dans la construction sur chantier. Les principales difficultés et opportunités sont examinées pour que soit assurée une bonne gestion de l'énergie sur les chantiers dans les projets non résidentiels britanniques du point de vue de l'entrepreneur. Est présentée une étude de cas portant sur les pratiques de gestion de l'énergie sur les chantiers d'un important maître d'œuvre britannique, sur la base d'un large échantillon géographique de projets non résidentiels et de modes opératoires. Il est constaté des insuffisances dans la procédure actuelle de gestion de l'énergie qui est utilisée sur les chantiers par les entrepreneurs sur l'ensemble des trois niveaux hiérarchiques (directeur, exploitation et projet). Les constatations ont identifié le manque d'authentification des données comme un défi important à relever, tandis que la saisie de variables supplémentaires des projets pour faciliter l'évaluation future des performances a été considérée comme une opportunité essentielle pour l'amélioration de la gestion de l'énergie sur les chantiers. Mots clés: processus de construction, entrepreneurs, gestion de l'énergie, indicateurs de performance environnementale, non résidentiel, construction sur chantier

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