Duties and responsibilities pertaining to sustainability of basic participants of a construction project having a sustainable objective

Growth in global population and developments at technology causes an increase in the energy requirements of people at the same rate. Various organizations and institutions from various countries at global scale aiming to ensure the energy efficiency of buildings consuming almost half of the energy, generated throughout the world and bring down their effects on environment to minimum level, conduct important researches with relation to the sustainability. The "sustainable building" conception, discussed at the thesis, is used in the definition of the projects that have energy saving feature and minimum effect on environment, aim to improve the health and increase the prosperity of people or use renewable sources. However, the sustainable buildings are mentioned as "green buildings" or "high-performance structures" as well at the literature. Low operation costs of the sustainable buildings, obtained by way of energy saving, high rates of occupancy and high rental incomes increase the interests of investors in the sustainable buildings, to put it another way, in the green buildings. The reduction of energy and water demands of sustainable buildings, provision of contribution to economic development and improvement in the air quality and public health due to be obtained especially by means of their effects on the environment to a minimum level may be listed as their benefits and advantages in the long run among the subject matters thereof such as their low operation costs generally concerning the investors in short period, increase in the added-value of the building, advanced risk management and so on. It is possible to emphasize that the interest in the sustainable buildings will rise when the researches, carried out with relation to the green buildings and increase regarding the interest of investors in the said green buildings, are taken into consideration there under. It is understood that the buildings due to be renovated or constructed in this direction will have sustainable qualifications to a larger extent. However, this green building conception being very fresh for the construction sector will bring a lot of problems along with it. One of the most important one of these problems, however, is the non-perception of the sustainability duties and responsibilities, defined at the contractual documentation, by the participants in the project. Among the project-delivery systems, used prevalently, such as Design-Build Project Delivery System, Construction Management Project Delivery System and Design-Bid-Build Project Delivery System have been examined. Since the Design-Bid-Build Project Delivery System, of which recognition and utilization is the most prevalent in our country among these project delivery systems, is taken into assessment within the scope of the thesis, more information is provided about it. The sustainability advantages and disadvantages of the Design-Bid-Build Project Delivery System are put forward there under. Therefore, the AIA A201 contract documents family that is of the highest reliability and recognition among a few number of contract forms that are created for the design and construction of the sustainable buildings has been examined. The sustainability articles, which are defined for the project participants primarily at the AIA A201-2007 SP, A401-2007 SP, B101-2007 SP and C401-2007 SP contract documents have been determined and translated within the scope of the thesis. Subsequently, the duties and responsibilities of the project participants, explained in contractual articles in order to provide guidance to the construction professionals, are revealed and various examples are given out of the LEED certification system. While the duties of the project participants are examined at the contract of the construction projects bearing an objective of sustainability at the traditional project delivery system, the documents, prepared by AIA for the contracts of the sustainable projects and books pertaining thereto, have been examined. The equivalents, indicated at the contract forms, of the terms and articles at the LEED certification system, have been put forward in order to make them be perceived in this respect. The contractual articles that these articles are referenced thereto were given relevant coverage within the thesis and furthermore, explanations are made in a more comprehensive manner together with the contractual articles with relation to the sustainability. It is understood that Owner is the sole authorized person to approve all stages pertaining to the sustainability at the end of the examination of the AIA A201 contract documents family and related sources, and the same is the sole responsible party to catch the Sustainability Target of the project and that its Architect bears supporting duties for catching the Sustainability target of the project. The sustainability duties of the Architect, mentioned there under, are listed under main topics as the sustainability consultancy of the Owner, contract administration and design, and sustainability representation in order to conduct the relationships of the Owner with the Certifying Authority. The Contractor is expected to carry out the sustainability duties at the AIA A201 General Conditions in a manner as is indicated at the sustainability plan. The Contractor hereby undertakes to effectuate this project by this contract, Sustainable Measures, determined at the Sustainability Workshop. It is indicated within the scope of the realization of the Sustainable Measures that it is necessary to deliver the Sustainability Documents in a timely manner to the Architect conducting the contract administration and certification agent for and on behalf of the Owner. The Sustainability Plan that is a guiding document at the construction projects having a sustainable objective has been prepared as an example according to the aforementioned sustainability duties for the Owner, Architect and Contractor and been indicated in the attachment of the thesis (Appendix A). What the Sustainability Documents at the LEED certification system that mentioned frequently at the contract documents and have a significant importance for the determination of achievement of the Sustainable Objective at construction projects having sustainable objective, are indicated at the Appendix B. Along with the construction projects such as Owner, Architect, Contractor and so on, mentioned in the AIA contract documentation, the sustainability duties and responsibilities of the project participants that have no direct contractual relationship with the Owner have been indicated in this respect. It is hereby understood that the sustainability duties and responsibilities, defined for the Consultant and Sub-Contractor are much less in comparison with the Owner, Architect and Contractor. The sustainability duties, defined for the Sub-Contractor, show parallelism to the duties and responsibilities, indicated for the Contractor under "Article 3.15 Cleaning" at the AIA A201-2007 SP General Conditions. The responsibilities of the Contractor to its removal of waste materials at the site through the A401-2007 SP Contractor-Sub-Contractor contract and in the meantime, the reutilization of materials, and making the same be acquired in the recycling process, are transferred to ensure the same to be applied to the wastes that are created in its worksite of the Sub-Contractor. The sustainability duty that has been determined for the Consultant at the C401-2007 SP contract documents, executed by the Consultant with the Architect, may be summarize as a participation in the Sustainability Workshop in case of requirement of the Architect. It is indicated in Article 10.7 being another sustainability article at the C401-2007 SP contract documentation that the Consultant does not guarantee the Sustainable Objective to be achieved. Relevant standard contract forms have been published by the AIA for the Construction Management project delivery system along with the standard contract forms of the construction projects having a sustainable objective at the Design-Bid-Build project delivery system of the AIA, taken into assessment at this thesis. It is necessary to examine the standard contract forms for the Construction Management project delivery system and to make an explanation likewise in that respect. Furthermore, it is deemed as useful and beneficial both for AIA and other institutions to prepare the contract forms of construction projects with sustainable objectives together with explanatory guiding documents for other project delivery systems. The examples, given in the attachment of the thesis, has been prepared only for guidance objective and may show differences subject to the expectation of the Owner, capacities of the project participants and special terms and conditions, agreed upon by the parties there under. While the thesis as a whole is examined, it is necessary to take into consideration of the fact that these examples are not absolutely correct and may be possible to form them up in various modes and ways.