Case Study Analysis of Improving Environmental Ethics Using a Collaboration Toolkit

In recent years a stronger focus has been on ethics and moral responsibilities aligned to businesses. This has been accentuated as governments are faced with ever-challenging dilemmas to find practical sustainable solutions and proposals for some scientific and problems around adopting clean sustainable energy whilst reducing waste. Accordingly, the subject matter of this paper, referred to as ‘environmental ethics,’ has become a hot topic and one that businesses need to pay special attention to if they want to succeed. For this reason, the paper will explore many different aspects and themes around environmental ethics, specifically within the context of the built environment. It will highlight some of the issues and challenges that are currently being experienced in the sector on a national and international level and stress the importance, relevance and significance of environmental ethics in the workplace. The paper will explore and articulate many different innovative initiatives and measures to addressing some of these challenges, by reference to a case study where a collaboration toolkit was developed by the author, as part of his PhD research, and implemented on a large UK university construction project, alongside its estates’ strategy. The sole purpose of the toolkit was to deliver improved environmental sustainability solutions on construction and engineering projects. This entailed reducing embodied carbon in buildings, collaboration with energy partners to assess ways and means of reducing gas, electricity and water consumption and reviewing appropriate renewable technologies. The toolkit as part of the case study proved very useful in creating successful environmental sustainability outcomes for the university as part of its commitment to new zero carbon. Furthermore, it was proven to provide a holistic and ‘joined up’ approach across the supply chain to meet the demands of the carbon neutral agenda. It is hoped that these can be introduced within organisations in the construction and engineering sectors and therein represent a model of good environmental practice for the future of the built environment. The toolkit could prove beneficial for Malaysia in overseeing a new environmental sustainability strategy for its construction and engineering projects and therein contributing to overall social, environmental and economic impacts. This will certainly present potential benefits for Malaysia which has been heavily dependent on fossil fuels for energy and had a detrimental and adverse effect on its environmental sustainability credentials in the past.