Article

Exploring Current Practice of

Sustainable Construction in Thai
Building Construction Projects
Pachara Wannasiri1,a, Prangprom Rattana1,b, and Vachara
Peansupap2
Department of Civil Engineering, Farculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn
University
2 Department of Civil Engineering, Farculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn
University
E-mail: afirst.author@email.com, bsecond.author@email.com (Corresponding
author)
1

Abstract. The destruction of the environment caused by the

construction industry is a major issue nowadays due to the large
amount of using natural materials and energy. To protect the earth
from its detrimental effects of construction industry, the concept of
sustainable construction were developed and applied to several
construction projects. In Thailand, the perception of the sustainable
construction is only emphasized on the design and operation phases.
Few have been focused on sustainable practice during construction
phase. To overcome the limitations, this paper explored the current
practice of implementing sustainable practice in construction
projects during construction phase. To explore current practice in
site construction, an interview of the practice regarding
environmental protection, social well-being and economic prosperity
was taken with experienced project managers more than 5 years and
the scope of case studies were the buildings that taller than 8 floors.
The interviewed questions were designed to gather sustainable
practices in construction process. Finally, the study proposes the
evaluated model to evaluate the level of implementing sustainable
construction in building projects. The implementation of sustainable
construction are classified into four levels which are chaotic
practices, managed practices, integrated practices and optimized
practices. The finding of this study provides the status of

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implementing sustainable concept during the construction phase in

Thai building projects.
Keywords: Sustainable construction, Construction practice,
Building construction projects, Sustainable implementation

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1. The Important of Sustainable Concept

Nowadays, the impacted of environmental demolition around the world has
effected mankinds living. The consequences of environmental demolition
happens inform of disaster or lacking of natural sources such like Nepals
earthquake 2015 China (Lushan)s earthquake 2013 Japans tsunami 2011 etc.
Construction industries has important role of environmental protection
because they consume natural sources and energy, construction industries are
the 3rd rank industries that emit the greenhouse effect gases and follow oil
industries and chemical industries. United states Environmental Protection
Agency reveals that construction industries take sixty percentage of using
natural sources. In Thailand, real estate industries take forty-six percentage of
using energy.
From all above, the design and management engineer have a duty to reduce
environmental demolition so the practice of sustainable construction was
developed and applied into 3 construction phases those are 1.Design phase
2.Construction phase and 3.Operation phase to reduce protect environment. This
paper will focus on construction method because a contractor in Thailand mostly
concern about design and operation phase such as choosing materials how to
save water and using electrics Design cooler building etc. More over the
understanding of this concept in Thailand are not pervasive, comparing to
England, there are many UK websites (such as www.salvomie.co.uk) to exchange
recycle materials from many construction fields. Hence this paper could bring up
adapting sustainable concept in construction phase.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Pillars of Sustainable concept
Nowadays, many consequences from environmental demolition occur inform of
1.global warming 2.natural disaster 3.non-renewable resources 4.destruction of
ecology and biodiversity. From the foregoing, processes that reduce
environmental demolition and practice of sustainable construction were
increasingly applied in construction phase due to impact of environment concern.
The adapting of practice sustainable construction must balance environmental
protection and development of construction, show in Fig 1.

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Fig. 1. Balance of environmental protection and development of construction

(Nazirah Zainul Abidin,2009)
The balance of environmental protection and development of construction
relate to saving of energy and natural sources. The sustainable concept
emphasize the special design materials using adapting of new technology in
construction and building operation etc. From the foregoing, the sustainable
concept is not only about environmental protection but also economics and
society so the concept of sustainable construction must have 3 pillars those are

Environmental protection concerning land using materials choosing energy

preservation water quality control reducing waste emission control and
protection of ecology.
Social well-being concerning welfare safety satisfaction and accessibility
Economic prosperity concerning cost efficiency risk assessment and image
enhancement

Fig. 2. Scope of sustainable construction practice (Nazirah Zainul Abidin,2009)

The adapting of sustainable construction concept to a construction phase has 3
pillars those are 1) Environmental protection 2) Social well-being 3) Economics
prosperity. The object of 3 pillars is to keep balance of environmental protection
and development of construction so that sustainable practice leads to reducing
environmental demolition and bring up construction efficiency.
2.2 Factor of Sustainable Practices
The literature review called Sustainable construction in Malaysia-Developers
Awareness (Nazirah Zainul Abidin,2009) researched about a perception of
workers of sustainable practice. This research review the different perception of
worker in percentage as environmental protection (88.6%) planning and

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management impact of environment (80%) Saving natural sources (68.6%)

Satisfaction of people around construction field (71.4%) Pragmatism of building
(42.9%) cost efficiency (48.6%). From all above, the research reveals that
workers perception is mostly about impact of environment. The research also
reveals workers evaluated their construction in low level because of 1.lack of
enforcement 2.lack of policy 3.lack of professional 4.lack of experience 5.upper
cost 6.traditional construction process. From the foregoing, adapting concept of
sustainable during construction process could change traditional construction
process to be modern. However, the sustainable practice must balance
environmental protection and development of construction.
2.3 Aspect of people
The research of aspect from different occupation in USA show that people pay
attention to 3 issues those are 1.attention to sustainable construction
2.furtherance of sustainable practice 3.attention to sustainable activities
Table 1. Attention to sustainable construction.

Table 2. Attention in furtherance of sustainable practice

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From all above, Level of attention in each table are different example the redesign in Table 3 is more famous compare to Table 1 and Table 2, it can be
concluded that people pay attention to the re-design process because re-design
process encourage sustainable construction concept.
From above information, it could be seen that adapting of sustainable concept
are widespread because it gives many benefit in environmental protection social
well-being and economic prosperity. Research of peoples aspect emphasize
workers perception level of attention and obstacle for improve adaptings
efficiency. The information from the research could be part of process of the
practice of sustainable construction development.

3. Process
This exploring current practice of sustainable construction in Thailand could
evaluate level of adapting sustainable construction concept during construction
phase by exploring and conduct sustainable process in construction phase to
evaluate level of current practice. We conduct information of practice via
interviewing experienced project engineer. The questions were designed
appropriately and interpolate them into procedures of construction phase. For
overview he process, the exploring current practice of sustainable construction in
construction projects of Thailand has processes as follows.
3.1. Researchs processes
Step1: Research foreign literature reviews about practice of sustainable
construction during construction phase.
Step2: Design questions for interviewing experienced project engineers.
Step3: Interview project engineers

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Step4: Analyze and gather information from the interviewing.

Step5: Design a criterion to evaluate the level of adapting sustainable practice.
Step6: Recheck the propriety of the criterion.
Step7: Evaluate construction projects
Step8: Summary operating results.

4. Operating result
4.1 Guideline of Sustainable construction practices.

The research gather information of sustain practices around Bangkok via

interviewing experienced project engineer and the type of projects must
be taller than 8 floors building.
The result shows that each 5 projects adapt sustainable practices into
their construction phases. However, the level of adapting in each projects
are different. With this reason, we could create the criterion to classify the
level of adapting sustainable concept. Across to the criterion, we cloud
classify level of adapting this concept into 4 stages those are
1st Poor stage is non-sustainable practice stage.
2nd Fair stage is the stage that basically adapted sustainable practice into
process but
3rd Good stage is the well-developed sustainable stage but not the best way
to proceed.
4th Excellent stage is the best-developed stage with many trials and
approved to be the best way to proceed.
From all above, we create the criterion as showed on the 4th table

Table 4. Criterion of adapting sustainable practice

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4.2 Rating characteristic

4.2.1 Environmental protection
The topic of environmental protection concerning 4 issues those are 1.Air
pollution 2.Water pollution 3.Noise pollution and 4.Toxic, each issue conduct
different level of sustainable practice as follows.
Air pollution concern
Tall buildings apparatus

Characteristic of adapting from the interviewing could be classify into

The 1st stage is non-apparatus stage.
The 2nd stage is the practice using plastic canvas.
The 3rd stage is the practice using Mat Sheet
The 4th stage is the practice using slide protection and mat sheet.

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4.2.2 Social well-being

The topic of social well-being concerning 4 issues those are 1.healhy & welfare
2.safety 3.accessibiity and 4.satisfaction, each issue conduct different level of
sustainable practice as follows.
Safety
Safety Uniforms

Characteristic of adapting from the interviewing could be classify into

The 1st stage is non-safety uniform stage.
The 2nd stage is the practice having uniform without classifying.
The 3rd stage is the practice having qualified uniform without helmets
classifying
The 4th stage is the practice having qualified uniform with helmets classifying
and reflective vests.
4.2.3 Economic Prosperity
The topic of environmental protection concerning 3 issues those are 1.cost
efficiency 2.risk assessment 3image enhancement, each issue conduct different
level of sustainable practice as follows.
Cost efficiency
Materials protection

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Characteristic of adapting from the interviewing could be classify into

The 1st stage is non-protection stage.
The 2nd stage is the practice using canvas to protect materials.
The 3rd stage is the practice having materials vessels.
The 4th stage is the practice having nearby factory for collecting materials.

5. Construction projects evaluation.

The research of current practice of sustainable construction during construction
phase in Thailands construction projects use its criterion evaluating 5
construction projects, the result of evaluation was reveal by percentage as
follows
Percentage of adapting = (sum of given points / maximum given point in each
pillars)
The conclusion of adapting evaluation are revealed as follows
1. Environmental protection

2. Social well-being

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3. Economics prosperity

6. Conclusion
The evaluation could classify characteristic of adapting sustainable concept into
different level depending on size of company budget and experiences of workers.
However, the criterion of this research could measure the level of sustainable
current practices in construction phase and be a guidance to develop and bring
up the level of adapting sustainable concept .

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Assistant Professor Vachara Peansupap for
being the main advisor of the research.
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