PFI: An Integrated Framework for Creation and Assessment of Sustainable Construction Processes

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This Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) project is a Type III (A:C) partnership between Arizona State University (ASU), an NSF PFI graduate 0090559, and two institutions that are new to the PFI Program (defined as ones that have never been PFI grantees), San Diego State University and Cleveland State University. Building upon a previous housing partnership effort, the project seeks to develop sustainability metrics related to construction operations which can be used by construction companies throughout the nation and beyond. While the transformation focused upon sustainability in the built environment has certainly touched the construction industry; paradoxically, the construction industry itself has been left out of efforts to encourage green practices. Metrics for construction operations do not currently exist in any form and construction companies are left to measure their sustainability in their own way. For the most part, they do no measuring at all. Through discovery and applied research, this project will provide a base upon which sustainable construction operations can be built, measured, weighed, and improved, thereby stimulating significant new research and activity.Improvements in the environmental performance of construction operations are high on the agenda of many national and global organizations. The long-term goal of this project is to provide the construction industry with a standard protocol that will enable measurement and improvement of the environmental performance of onsite construction processes. Conserving material and energy resources will engender economic benefits to the U.S. The project will also contribute toward a fundamental understanding of just how our efforts to build the things we build affect the environment in which we live. Partnership products will enable participation in the discovery process for education groups at all levels, K-12 through university, and for industry groups.Partners at the inception of the project are Academic Institutions: Arizona State University (lead institution), San Diego State University, and Cleveland State University; Private Sector Companies: Pulte Building Systems, SCP Concrete, LLC, DR Wastchak, LLC, and Baker Concrete; and Professional and Trade Organizations: American Concrete Institute (including, specifically, the Concrete Research Council, the ACI Committee 130 Sustainability in Concrete Construction, and the Strategic Development Council), American Coal Ash Association, American Concrete Pavement Association, American Society of Concrete Contractors, National Concrete Pavement Technology Center, and National Ready Mixed Concrete Association.