How Ground Improvement Contributes to the Green Building Movement: Fid-Bau Portal

How Ground Improvement Contributes to the Green Building Movement

Woods, Chris

Owing to the tremendous efforts of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and the development of the LEED rating system, a mechanism has been created to evaluate construction projects from a “green building” standpoint. Using a free, foundation industry-specific carbon calculator tool for this study, the carbon footprint of a theoretical project was evaluated for four separate foundation options on the given site, using consumption data from real projects. Two methods of ground improvement, dynamic compaction and aggregate piers were the first two options considered, the third option was driven pile foundations, and the final option was a full removal of the unsuitable fill material and replacement with imported structural fill. Results of the study indicated that under the assumed conditions, ground improvement programs can have a carbon footprint on the order of 2 to 6% of the footprint associated with full removal of the fill material to send to a landfill. As such, this paper recommends that further evaluation be given towards establishing a new LEED credit related to geotechnical construction issues, or at minimum, establishing a carbon footprint reduction scorecard that could be incorporated into the existing LEED infrastructure.