Efecto de los lodos de depuradora sobre las propiedades bioquímicas de los suelos

Julius Akotia and Chris Fortune

School of the Built Environment, University of Salford Email: [email protected]

In recent years, sustainable regeneration has been recognised as being of major socio- economic concern in the world. In the UK for instance, the government has initiated a number of policies and evaluation methods to deal with some of the environmental problems associated with regeneration projects. However, the approach to the management of these projects has often been seen as not achieving their set objectives. Attempts aimed at evaluating the implementation of sustainability by built environment professionals have primarily been limited to the assessment of environmental impacts with the associated socio- economic aspects of a project’ s sustainable regeneration often neglected. While there have been a number of studies on sustainability and its evaluation in relation to regeneration projects in the UK, there has not been any well-defined built environment research that has been able to deal holistically with the broader issues of sustainability in terms of impacts of the regeneration projects to the end-user and the communities concerned. The findings of an exploratory study that adopted a semi-structured interviews approach for data collection from five stakeholders involved in a commercial regeneration project in the UK are presented in this paper.The findings reveal a lack of a mechanism to evaluate the socio-economic impacts of sustainability in relation to a commercial project at the early stage of the project’ s development. The results suggest that the environmental factors of sustainability continue to be the most dominant factor of sustainability considered by built environment practitioners as compared to the consideration of a project’ s potential socio-economic benefits.

Keywords: Commercial project, socio-economic impact evaluation, sustainable regeneration.

1. Introduction

The awareness and importance of sustainable development and regeneration has been a growing concern around the world for the last few decades (Edum-Fotwe and Price, 2009).In the UK, the concept of sustainable development and regeneration has been an essential focal point of government policy for some time and has contributed to the enhancement of many communities’ physical structures (Haran et al, 2011). Many of earlier initiatives that were meant to tackle socio-economic disparities have focused on improving the physical and environmental aspects of regeneration. In more recent times, there have been a number of studies which sought to study and analyze how the UK built environment is responding to the challenges of integrating sustainability into regeneration projects (Dixon, 2006). This emerging research has sought to suggest a new approach to delivering regeneration for the 21st _{century and beyond. The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC, 2003), suggested}

that the development of regeneration has proved to be a testing and on-going challenge for government agencies, construction industry practitioners and communities within the UK. The appreciation of such challenges has led to the development of various management strategies and systems to guide and direct industry practitioners to achieve higher and improved sustainability standards. However, attempts aimed at implementing sustainability

assessment have primarily been limited to the assessment of the environmental performance of building. According to Brandon and Lombardi (2011), several studiess undertaken on sustainable regeneration have shown that they lack a conceptual clarity related to sustainability assessment. They identified sustainable regeneration/development as an evolving subject and suggested the need for further study as there has not been a well-defined research or evaluation framework that has been able to deal with the issues of socio-economic impact/benefits and their evaluation in a comprehensive and a decisive manner. Consequently, the quest for sustainable development and the need for better sustainable regeneration outcomes calls for an exploration of new ways of evaluating, at an early stage, sustainable regeneration projects that are under-pinned by strong socio-economic considerations; and which better address sustainability concerns in a holistic manner to maximise the sustainability benefits of these projects.

The early stage socio-economic impact evaluation of commercial sustainable regeneration projects in the UK is explored in this paper. Initially, literature is reviewed on sustainable development and regeneration projects, overview of the current evaluation methods and their limitations. A discussion is then presented on the findings from an exploratory study that adopted semi-structured interviews with five stakeholders of leading construction industry organizations involved in commercial regeneration projects in the UK, and draws a conclusion. The work draws from on-going research which is concerned with the development of a framework for socio-economic benefit evaluation of regeneration projects in the built environment.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Sustainable Development and Sustainable Regeneration - a shared objective

The post war era has seen a significant number of transformations in a form of regeneration schemes, designed to improve the social and economic well-being of areas that have experienced a dramatic decline in their socio-economic fortune (CLG, 2010). According to Boyko et al., (2006) such transformation of the urban environment has often been viewed largely in physical terms, for instance, the construction of new a hospital, school, housing etc in a community. The Department for Community and Local Government report outline the need to strive for a greater balance between the creation of physically environment and the creation of sustainable communities where people want to live and feel secure (CLG, 2009). The UK regeneration strategy has traditionally focused on housing conditions of the poorer communities (Special Economics Research Center Strategies (SERC), 2011). It sets out an agenda for the provision of quality facilities to meet the needs of society in a comprehensive and integrated manner to contribute towards the creation and maintenance of sustainable communities. Ultimately, regeneration is about closing the socio-economic gaps (Community and Local Government (CLG), 2010) and tackling the spatial disparities that exist within the communities (HM Treasury, 2007). It also means meeting the needs of the people in a way that delivers social progress, economic growth, environmental protection, and better quality of life (Office of Government Commerce (OGC), 2007; SDC, 2003). Yet, the conventional project management approach adopted to deliver such regeneration goals has accounted for their failure (Sorrell and Holti, 2007). It has also been argued that many of such regeneration initiatives have been planned without the fundamental elements of sustainability as a parallel strand, resulting in their failure to deliver on such shared objectives underlying sustainable development agenda. The UK government Audit Commission report (2007) has revealed that

many regeneration activities are yet to have a consistent, positive impact on the most deprived localities in which they are sited. For example, it reported that the level of long-term unemployed in such regeneration communities has remained static and targeted work to develop skills and access to employment for these communities remains under developed. The bottom line is that regeneration shares many goals with sustainable development, therefore any effort aimed at improving the efficiency of regeneration projects should pay

greater attention to the sustainability factors. To deliver sustainable regeneration goals as

advocated by the UK government’ s reports (CLG, 2009; 2010) will require a strong and strategic approach to sustainable regeneration development to meet local needs. Since socio- economic differences are seen to be directly rooted in our community set up, focusing on sustainable regeneration has enormous potential to drive the regeneration process towards the attainment of a sustainable community and development agenda (Smith, 2006). An empirical study by Coaffee (2004) suggested that the previous attempts to delivery regeneration programmes were seen to be lacking the vision of improving the local communities in a way that meets the sustainable development requirements of the area. A subsequent study by Granger (2010), supported this view by suggesting that much of what has been perceived to be sustainable regeneration in recent years in urban communities has been redevelopment rather than regeneration. Granger went on to argue that the objectives of such regeneration projects have been focused on improving the physical ‘appearance’ rather than addressing socio-economic needs of the communities concerned, hence their inability to address fundamental objectives underlying sustainable regeneration projects. It is believed that if future regeneration will make greater sustainable impact on the community then the current regeneration projects’ priorities will have to be altered to reflect the priorities in achieving the sustainable development objectives for the communities (Raco and Henderson, (2009). In a series of stakeholder consultation events reported in CLG (2008), the majority of the participants suggested that socio-economic development should be seen as a key driver for sustainable regeneration outcomes. The participants emphasised a sustainable regeneration framework that pays a greater attention to deliver tangible and sustainable benefits in a holistic manner. Such evaluation framework and their processes must embrace other dimensions beyond the current consideration of sustainability and not one that is only environmentally oriented (Dixon, 2006) if regeneration projects are to attain their sustainability objective and to stand the test of time. It has been suggested that the sustainable regeneration processes which are based on a strategic evaluation plans that are holistic in nature are more likely to drive sustainable regeneration agenda in achieving the sustainable development outcomes for the communities (Hemphill et al, 2004).

2.2 Conceptual overview of current evaluation methods and their limitations

There has been a number of assessment methods developed in the past notable among them are the conventional parametric and construction cost models (Fortune and Cox, 2005). Recently, there has been a significant growth in the number of environmental and sustainability assessment methods available for use in the construction industry such as the fuzzy logic, neural network, neurofuzzy systems and environmental and sustainability life cycle cost models (Mateus and Bragança, 2011; Fortune and Cox, 2005). While some of these system and tools have focused mainly on evaluating the environmental and sustainability performance of the proposed developments, others have placed emphasis on the assessment of their environmental and sustainability impacts (Ding, 2008). The development of these various forms of evaluation methods has largely been informed by the desire to provide building projects with a better profile of environmental performance and the achievement of the best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation.

Empirical work by Haapio and Viitaniemi (2008) identified shortcomings in the design tools used, which limits their usefulness to the environmental building designs. Several other studies have also drawn similar conclusions. A recent work by Brandon and Lombardi, (2011) pointed out that the current lists of available methods do not reflect the complexities of issues they were designed to address. They noted that most of the existing evaluation methods were based on environmental criteria that were derived from ideas and assumptions of individual practitioners. A study conducted by CLG (2010) suggested that several attempts to evaluate the impact of the regeneration projects to date have been seen be partial in their nature. The report went to advise practitioners to undertake a vigorous evaluation on regeneration projects and challenged them to be prepared to act on any evidence pointing to lack of project success. In order for evaluation frameworks to form an acceptable basis for the evaluation of sustainability in regeneration projects, it is essential that the fundamental constraints underlying the current systems are tackled simultaneously to achieving the optimum balance between sustainability factors. Such evaluation frameworks should set out standards and consider innovative solutions that can lead to the maximization of the sustainability benefits that are higher than the current standards and improve the performance that is required. It is suggested that the assessment methods which are flexible and multi- dimensional in nature are likely to offer the best sustainability solutions (Hurley, et al, 2008).

3. Research approach

In order to meet the objectives of the study, an initial exploration was undertaken through a literature review as a starting point to ascertain the background information relating to the current sustainability practices. A qualitative research design was then adopted with semi- structured interviews used to collect rich data. This approach reflected an interpretivist philosophical position that made use of inductive research strategy and qualitative methodology. A qualitative research approach is considered as an effective method that occurs in a natural setting which enables the researcher to develop a level of detail from involvement in the practice (Creswell, 2009). Initially, 14 leading construction (contractor) organisations in the UK were selected, based on their experience and knowledge in sustainable regeneration projects, through a purposive snow balling sample technique. They were then contacted through formal letters as an invitation to participate in the study. Follow up telephone calls were also made to these organisationsations to explain the purpose and the context of the study. In all, a total number of five (5) organisations agreed to take part in the study. The profiles of these agreed organisations/interviewees are shown in the table 1 below. Face-to-face in-depth semi-structured interviews were then undertaken with the sustainable/regeneration managers of these organisations. Each interview lasted for 45-50 minutes. The interviews were formatted around a range of open-ended questions to explore the sustainability and evaluation issues under investigation. The qualitative data collected were analysed and presented using verbatim extracts from respondents’ responses to identify the emerging themes and issues in the current practices related to early stage evaluation of sustainable commercial regeneration projects.

Table 1: Profiles of interviewees and their leading organisations.

Interviewee Position Organisation Type

A Regeneration manager Contractor organisation

B Regeneration manager Contractor organisation

C Regeneration manager Contractor organisation

E Regeneration manager Contractor organisation

3.1 Sustainability Factors

The first interview question put to the interviewees explored their organisations’ understanding of sustainability and the importance the practitioners and their organisations attached to such sustainability factors when evaluating project viability. A significant theme that emerged from their responses was the lack of conceptual clarity of what are ‘sustainability factors’ by the interviewees. All the interviewees provided relatively simplistic definitions and understanding of sustainability in relation to their business operations. Typical of the comment made by one of the interviewee was:

“ Sustainability is something ingrained and inherent in our business processes something that the business has to pay attention to in order to stay competitive…It is about protecting our business from the risks of today and ensuring that we respond to the challenges and opportunities that tomorrow brings…” (Interviewee C).

The responses highlighted the limitation in the practitioners’ perception and understanding of sustainability. The ambiguity of what constitutes sustainability was also identified as a major problem in works done by Brandon and Lombardi (2011) and Evans and Jones (2008).

3.2 Sustainable regeneration objectives and impact/benefits

When the practitioners were further asked about their understanding of the main objectives of sustainable regeneration projects, the respondents provided mixed responses. Some interviewees commented:

“ … To be aware of the social and physical environment and to endeavour to improve the quality of life to residents…It is about achieving the right balance through our innovative design solutions and area transformation, while maintaining a clear focus on the overall objectives of creating a robust infrastructure and services”(Interviewee A).

“ All regeneration needs to be profitable and if it isn’t profitable, there’s no point doing it, if there won’t be any kind of benefit. So without the benefit element, no regeneration happens unless you get a philanthropic developer who just wants to spend millions of pounds to make people happy for things to happen. So it’s got to be regeneration development which generates the commercial returns they want because without these commercial returns, there won’t be any development and if there is no development, there won’t be any regeneration…” (Interviewee D).

Discussing the issues further about the impact/benefits to their organisations and the end- users, most of the respondents indicated that company reputation and profit making was the main benefit for adopting the sustainability principles by their organisations. However, the

majority of respondents were of the opinion that issues related to energy usage and in particular cost savings on fuel bills was the main benefit to the end-user.

3.2 Evaluation and evaluation framework/mechanisms

According to Kazmierczak et al. (2009), the evaluation process provides an effective management mechanism on which decision-makers can base their judgements. In exploring the evaluation mechanisms currently in practice, many of the interviewees indicated BREEAM as being the main evaluation mechanism used for their projects. As one of the interviewee noted:

“ …BREEAM is easy to use as it provides a guideline and specifies the environmental impact of the final products. BREEAM ultimate benefits are recognisability of sustainability in the sense that it tends to capture the main environmental aspects of projects…Compliance with the existing environmental legislation and principles and best practices” (Interviewee B).

Evidence from the interviewees showed that sustainable regeneration practitioners still consider environmental factors to be the most dominant feature of sustainability and they tend to neglect the consideration of any socio-economic factors. Most of the respondents emphasised the environmental credentials of BREEAM and also regarded its application as representing the industry’ s best practice in relation to sustainability. It is worth noting that BREEAM parameters are prescriptive in nature and largely based on quantitative assessment which tends to ignore the processes and issues relating to socio-economic factors of sustainability of the projects. When asked further about just when the evaluation frameworks were being applied during the project life cycle, there were mixed responses. Some interviewees noted:

We adopt a flexible and innovative approach based on the requirements of the project we are involved in by demonstrating compliance with the specific targets and key performance indicators agreed by all parties on sustainability relating to the construction and operation of the facility…” (Interviewee C).

“ We do not have a structured evaluation framework per se, what we do have is some models for planning and benchmarking…Yes we tend to apply our models throughout our project duration to identify and address actions as soon as possible where the greatest sustainability impact may be available…” (Interviewee E).

These responses however revealed the lack of a structured evaluation framework and a lack of an appreciation of early stage evaluation mechanisms for appraising the direct and indirect socio-economic benefits/impacts of their sustainable commercial regeneration projects.

3.3 Socio-economic impact/benefit

Finally, when interviewees were asked for their views about the socio-economic impacts of their commercial regeneration projects on the communities, a significant misconception