Construction sites, as work places, use energy for two main purposes. The first is to provide lighting and/or heating for site offices and other site cabins; and power for office equipment, kettles, microwave ovens, hand tools, mobile telephones and other small electrical appliances. The second is to provide power for construction plant.

Energy used currently on construction sites leads to substantial carbon emissions. At any one time, there are tens of thousands of construction sites in the UK and their energy demand is huge, as is the amount of carbon emissions they produce. The need to reduce carbon emissions from all aspects of human activity is universally accepted and the construction industry needs to make its contribution to reducing carbon emissions. This makes construction sites legitimate targets for efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

There are initiatives driven by the Climate Change Act 2008 and European Union's Energy Performance in Buildings Directive such as the zero-carbon homes initiative that target the operation phase of construction projects. However, there is no specific effort, to date, targeted at reducing carbon emissions from construction sites that focuses on the energy used on the construction sites.

This workshop is based on the idea that the construction phase of construction projects presents an unexplored area of investigation with respect to reducing carbon emissions. The workshop is primarily designed to respond to this perceived gap in the body of knowledge and introduce the idea of zero-carbon construction sites (ZCS) and plan the agenda for the diffusion of the idea, via a zero-carbon construction sites scheme (ZCSS), as a means of facilitating a step-change in reduction of carbon emissions in the construction industry.

The workshop will be the first to bring together researchers interested in the intersection between construction site operations and zero-carbon energy. The researchers will include specialists in construction management, wind energy and solar energy and other low carbon or non-fossil fuel energy technologies. They will also include specialists in policy design and formulation. The workshop will bring these researchers together to interact with construction contractors and research and technology organisations as well as governmental and quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations in order to define the research agenda about achieving zero-carbon construction sites.

Unlike other workshops that run for a day or on consecutive days, this unique workshop will be run over two days separated by a period of two weeks. The interval between the workshop days is included in the workshop design to promote reflection and consultation about the new agenda in order to maximise understanding and support for the post-workshop activities among the key participants. This is important because post-workshop activities will be the true measures of success of the workshop.

The workshop will be run using approaches such as break-out groups, open forums, brain storming and interrogative discussion. The approaches were chosen because of the potential to maximise chances of realising the envisaged impacts.

Potential Impact:
The workshop will involve construction industry organisations, academic researchers in construction management, academic researchers in renewable energy technologies, governmental organisations, quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations and research and technology organisations. The workshop will start the dialogue about the key issue of carbon emissions from construction sites and lead to a seminal position paper/workshop report. The position paper will be distributed as widely as possible, including via a dedicated website. The position paper is expected to increase the pool of individuals and organisations committed to taking the vision of zero-carbon construction sites to fruition. The workshop itself and responses from the workshop delegates and the general public who will read the position paper are expected to have impact on the economy, knowledge, people and society - as described below.

Economy

The workshop will introduce a new concept of zero-carbon construction sites (ZCS) to the construction industry that can be used to decarbonise construction site operations. In the medium to long term, the diffusion of ZCS, which the proposed workshop will initiate, has the potential to lead to development of new technologies, procedures and companies and opportunities for export. When this potential is realised, we can expect creation of wealth, employment and tax revenues.

The workshop will lay the foundation for a new construction industry scheme, the zero-carbon construction sites scheme (ZCSS) that can be used to evaluate and monitor the carbon emissions from construction industry activities thereby help benchmark and improve performance in this area. ZCSS will constitute a new procedure for the construction industry with the potential to be exported worldwide. ZCSS will have the potential for the development of new companies which will in turn have the potential to create wealth, employment and tax revenues. The potential of ZCSS can be realised in the medium to long term.

Knowledge

The diffusion of ZCS and ZCSS will highlight the need for, and lead to, developing new techniques and/or adopting existing techniques for quantifying available solar and wind energy for construction sites. The quantification is a crucial aspect of balancing the energy supply/demand equation, particularly for off-grid construction sites. The potential for new and/or modified techniques can be realised in the medium to long term.

People

The workshop is expected to have a short term impact on people in the form of training and development of future leaders (people pipeline). This will be possible because we plan to involve four PhD students in the workshop as participants and scribes. Such involvement will provide the students with good experience, particularly, as it will afford them close interaction with industry and help them to develop better understanding of real world problems.

Society

The diffusion of ZCS will bring about environmental benefit to society due to reduction of air pollution from fossil fuels burnt in diesel generators to produce electricity on construction sites and operate construction plant. Above all, it will bring about reduction in carbon emissions and help society towards achieving this universal goal. These benefits can be realised in the medium to long term.

The diffusion of ZCSS is likely to bring about policy changes in terms of what can be used to produce energy on construction sites or target setting at organisational, national and international level. The policy changes can be realised in the medium to long term.