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The construction and development of the Blue Economic Zone on the Shandong Peninsula in China was elevated to a national strategy in 2011, and it has achieved year-on-year economic growth, driving the economic development of Shandong Province. However, it has also generated problems, such as a fragile ecological environment, unbalanced regional development, and prominent human–land conflicts. Therefore, on the basis of the idea of green sustainable development, this paper measures the ecological welfare performance of seven prefecture-level cities in the Blue Economic Zone of Shandong Peninsula from 2011 to 2020 using an entropy-weighted model together with the TOPSIS method. It then analyzes their spatial distribution characteristics using the natural breaks method. Our findings show that the overall ecological welfare performance level in the Shandong Peninsula BEZ shows a stable upward trend, and that the ecological welfare performance of each city is similar to that of the divided region. The ecological welfare performance levels of Weifang, Rizhao, and Binzhou are relatively low. Dongying, Weihai, Qingdao, and Yantai form a cluster of cities with high ecological welfare performance. Therefore, for the advancement of the Shandong Peninsula BEZ, the government should the government should reasonably deploy the industrial structure; actively implement industrial transformation; strengthen the synergistic development among cities to achieve complementary advantages, coordinating the growth of rural and urban areas; and improve the social security system to achieve high-quality sustainable development in the Shandong Peninsula BEZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global total amount of generated solid waste is currently on a rapid growth trend. China, as the largest developing country, promulgated its Pilot Work Plan for the Construction of Zero-Waste Cities led by the new development concept in 2018 after recognizing the inadequacy and urgency of solid waste management, and the lack of valuable experience and benchmark cities for the construction of zero-waste cities. This study uses the undesirable super-efficiency model and kernel density estimation method to measure the efficiency of zero-waste city construction in 16 prefecture-level cities in Shandong Province and analyze their spatial and temporal differences. Three major problems were found, namely, low regional coordination, the rigid policies of some local governments, and the unbalanced development of scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency. Results show that the zero-waste city construction efficiency as a whole shows a declining and then fluctuating growth trend, and that low-scale efficiency is the main reason behind the decrease in construction efficiency. Suggestions are then provided considering three aspects: improving regional synergy; improving government quality and capacity, and strengthening government supervision and revitalizing the market; and introducing social capital for environmental pollution treatment. These suggestions ultimately help improve the level of zero-waste city construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased greenhouse gas emissions have led to a global warming threat. As a result, countries have tended to focus their decision-making attention on energy-saving strategies. Specifically, the concept of green building has been developed for the construction sector. It aims to create energy-efficient structural activities (new constructions, repairs, or renovated constructions) that will be carried out in line with the determined criteria. With the concept of green building and the need to establish criteria and standards to ensure energy efficiency, green building certification systems have come to the fore. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) certification systems have been developed. This article investigates the achievements of the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) category of LEED-certified projects in Türkiye and Europe. A comparison study of countries was carried out, based on the fourth version of the LEED BD+C framework that was developed for new green building projects. The study's primary goal is to show the linear correlation between market value and IEQ. It was revealed that the gross domestic product does not affect IEQ applications. Although Türkiye was ranked first in applying for IEQ credits, its economic development level is lower than that of other European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After Shandong Province started the construction about digital infrastructure, the construction of digital infrastructure reached social consensus, promoting digital development of the province. However, it inevitably exposed problems such as non-targeted policies and uneven development levels. This study uses the non-expectation super-efficiency SBM model and kernel density estimation method to compare the digital infrastructure allocation efficiency of 16 prefecture-level cities in Shandong Province and analyzes the spatial and temporal differences. Results show that the overall level of digital infrastructure allocation efficiency in Shandong Province shows a steady and policy-stimulated growth, but no high-value aggregation area has been formed and regional synergistic development remains to be strengthened. Recommendations are provided on four aspects: increased government expenditure, policy heterogeneity, attention to low-level construction areas, and promotion of regional synergistic development to improve the construction of digital infrastructure in Shandong and sustain its strong digital thrust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building sector is the world's most significant energy consumer. In addition to that, water consumption and increased waste are some of the most significant issues. Owing to the need to find a solution to this problem, the concept of green buildings has emerged. Green buildings are building types that consume less energy and are constructed with recyclable materials, in harmony with nature. The adoption of the concept of green building in societies is very important in this regard. This study aimed to understand the awareness level of people about green buildings. Its scope was to determine the level of awareness of people living in buildings with and without an energy identity certificate in Adana. The results were created in Microsoft Excel, and the survey questions were measured using SPSS. Data analysis was performed by the WEKA tool using the association rule mining method. According to the result, most of the participants did not have sufficient information about the subjects. The results show that nowadays, most people do not understand this building type and what it means to the next generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high environmental impact of bridge construction causes numerous dilemmas in decision making related to the choice of the best material and technological solutions and their consequences in subsequent phases. These decisions adopt from the management condition the successful investment in this type of project. A bridge construction project includes consecutive stages: design, construction, operation/maintenance, and decommissioning. The latter usually involves the demolition of the infrastructure, generating elements that cannot be reused. This waste-generating linear production process must be urgently replaced by closed-loop production, framed within the Circular Economy (CE) philosophy that provides a practical response to the challenges related to sustainable development goals (SDGs). This document performs an analysis of case studies in an attempt to sort out the management challenges related to the construction, operation and decommissioning of bridges. The research is based on a questionnaire carried out among civil engineering project managers and explores the possibility of adapting the principles of the Circular Economy in bridge construction projects, especially in the context of the traceability of construction materials used for the construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction sector significantly impacts the environment. Buildings and non-building structures require natural resources and technical nutrients to be constructed and maintained. One of the most important challenges is the mitigation of their usage for construction projects. In the context of insufficient knowledge about the most effective leadership patterns for sustainable construction projects, one may wonder if there is one dominant style of management represented by construction companies. In turn, the challenges faced by these organizations can be related to how to effectively implement the circular economy (CE) concept, and thus reduce the negative externalities of the construction industry. Transition to sustainable construction requires the involvement of change leaders. In this article, based on a literature review and questionnaire, it was revealed that it is extremely difficult to distinguish one prevailing leadership style in construction companies. Besides, a path to CE maturity has been shown as a continual pursuit. The consistency enables effective promotion of the concept of CE in the construction company. The research allowed the identification of three explicit phases, disharmony, euphoria, and harmony, in becoming the CE-matured construction enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of energy consumption, globalization, and economic growth on the CO2 emission of the BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa) region. Using annual data from 1989 to 2019, this research applies a panel cointegration approach. In this framework, we use Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) methods to examine the long-run relationship between the selected variables. This empirical investigation reveals that there is a long-run association between these variables, and energy consumption positively and significantly affects the carbon emission in these countries. These results indicate that energy consumption is the primary source of environmental degradation in the region. In contrast, the globalization (KOF Index of Globalization) negatively and significantly affects the carbon emission, implying the improvement of environmental quality. Further, this research could not find the presence of environmental Kuznets curve in the region. Policy guidelines are suggested in the line of findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society and the business world are paying more and more attention to the Circular Economy (CE) principles. The construction industry is no stranger to this issue, and the companies are transitioning towards sustainable production models. However, it is not easy to predict when and to what extent a company implements the CE. To measure this process, a scorecard, that includes the main Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the construction industry, related to the CE, was designed. Thus, the objective of this article is to design and test the CE-dashboard applicable to the construction industry. To do it, firstly, a literature review is performed. The next step is the selection of the KPIs collected in the literature, more suitable for reporting information about CE. Afterwards, a simulation based on the Monte Carlo technique performs. After multiple iterations, this method establishes the most probable KPI values as a result, which will be confronted with the limits used in the scorecard. With all this information, the dashboard emerges in Qlik software. Finally, a test of this dashboard takes place according to the information about KPIs from one of the leading Spanish companies (General Contractor (GC) building company). This step brings the validity of the created measurement instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more construction projects are closed before they ever start. Among the most significant reasons for project failures is cost risk. Construction companies have many problems with reliable cost management. Rising demands of the key market players insist on making construction projects more sustainable according to the simultaneous improvement of the economic, environmental and social responsiveness dimensions. In order to investigate these problems, a four-phase research methodology has been followed consisting of: (1) literature review to identify research trends and gaps, (2) survey to construction experts to detect their subjective perspectives about risk costs and analyse the corresponding costs structure for the investment in sustainable projects, (3) simulations based on Monte Carlo simulation with an author's methodology for calculating the cost risk with an additional statistical analysis, (4) ending questionnaire to obtain the final feedback from the experts and the validation of obtained results. A contribution to the development of knowledge about cost risk is the observation that the changing probability distributions of individual cost-generating components may include both economic as well as technological and organizational aspects. Thus, with the proposed approach, often complex, global challenges of sustainable construction projects can be tackled in an accessible way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular economy (CE) is an emerging economic model based on the endless circulation flow of resources creating additional value. In temporary organizations such as construction projects, all administrative decisions are crucial for final success. One of the ideas is to enroll a circular economy manager (CEMR) and put him in an organizational structure. Implementation of the CE concept should be the effort of the entire project team. However, actions specific to the innovative nature of the procedures related to the CE in construction projects require additional support. It can be provided by professionals who can adapt a wide spectrum of knowledge to be used for promoting CE in the execution of construction processes. CEMRs can play the role of patrons of the CE issues because they support project managers in saving material resources in construction projects. The symmetry between visible outcomes of the CE idea and the employment of an extra manager has contributed to the development of the CEMR selection criteria model. However, effective recruitment for such a post may be a bit complicated for decision-makers, especially when CE is still enigmatic, as its procedures are quite undiscovered. All in all, the multi-criteria decision-making problem forces one to prepare the list of selection criteria and to rank them according to status in the hierarchy. This article shows prioritized criteria for selecting the CEMR based on the advanced literature review concluded after several expert-based reviews and calculated after some Monte Carlo simulations. The main purpose of this article is to help decision-makers in construction projects to perform a reliable recruitment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]