The construction industry is responsible for the emitting carbon, nitrogen, and particulate matter, which is harmful to the environment and contributes to global warming. Municipalities in the Netherlands plan to reduce emissions in inner-city developments to zero before 2030, for which a transformation of the already complicated construction supply chain would be necessary. The unique characteristics of the construction supply chain; temporary coalition of organizations working on one-of-a-kind projects, complicate reduction of supply chain emissions. In other sectors like manufacturing focal firms take in a central position between the demand and supply system and can align the supply chain. In construction the developer translates demands from society, the public and customers into projects that are executed by core supply chain stakeholders. The main question to be answered in this thesis is: How can real estate developers organize a low-emission supply chain for high-rise construction in Dutch cities? A literature review on green construction supply chain management and construction emissions have given insight into the drivers, barriers, and roles of different stakeholders in low-emission design, -procurement, -logistics and -construction & manufacturing. Inner-city high-rise case studies and semistructured interviews with relevant stakeholders within these projects were conducted to draw lessons from practice. Developers can have a big influence on construction emissions through setting ambitions and translating these low-emission ambitions in the criteria for the procurement of services and materials for all supply chain stakeholders. In design, close collaboration with the architect and early involvement of the contractor and relevant expertise can help implement low-emission practices. Logistics and construction & manufacturing emissions can be influenced through contractual agreements with contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers, but should not be a direct responsibility of the developer and ask for active involvement of the government.

Construction resource management in the Netherlands is causing environmental concerns due to a high demand for infrastructure maintenance and carbon/nitrogen emissions. Insufficient optimization of resource management between projects results in more traffic and higher energy demand, but measures such as linking projects, program management, and reducing transportation can save money, improve air quality, and decrease emissions. Efficient resource management is crucial in the construction industry to achieve project goals despite challenges such as complex projects, tight budgets, and supply chain issues.
The aim of this study is to develop a proof-of-concept for managing resources between construction projects using digital connections between resource data. The goal is to optimize information sharing between different companies to reduce urban city traffic, energy consumption, and emissions, while also being practical and easy to implement. This study uses a cross-sectional research design, which involved the collection of transport data from three civil work projects in the centre of Amsterdam. The study uses a combination of research methods including interviews, data analysis and a discrete event simulation.
The main mechanisms influencing inefficient resource management in construction are: (1) the lack of digitalisation at smaller sized construction companies, (2) the imbalance between ingoing and outgoing construction logistics, and (3) the inefficient transports of non-bulk materials.
The study focuses on optimizing logistics in the construction industry in the Netherlands to reduce emissions. The study emphasized the benefits of collaboration among different construction projects and proposed a hypothesis that a centralised resource management system can optimize resource usage and reduce environmental impact. By analysing the construction logistics of three projects in Amsterdam, the study demonstrated that a centralised system for logistic resource management can be employed to reduce traffic required for construction projects, optimize resource usage, and potentially improve the balance between ingoing and outgoing transports. The study also highlighted the challenges in data capturing and the need for a unified digital system for logistic data. The study concludes that a centralized system for logistic resource management can provide insight into transport data and could reduce traffic caused by construction projects through facilitating smart interventions.

This research addresses the challenge of climate change and air quality, focusing on the construction industry's impact in the Netherlands. The construction sector, a significant source of air pollution, necessitates sustainable practices for mitigating the effects of climate change and reducing pollutants. The study emphasises the need for stricter local regulations and innovative technologies to curb air emissions within the cities.

Examining air pollutants such as Ultrafine Particles (UFP), Black Carbon (BC), PM2.5, and PM10, the research clarifies their role in ambient concentrations. While acknowledging the global nature of air pollution, its impact on health, the economy, and various sectors in the built environment highlights the need for comprehensive measures. The Netherlands' commitment to reducing air pollutant emissions aligns with European agreements and initiatives, emphasising promoting emission-free technologies in construction machinery.

The shift from conventional high-rise construction to bio-based materials, particularly Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), emerges as a promising solution. Cross-laminated timber is praised for its environmental friendliness, speed of construction, seismic resistance, and ability to resist high temperatures. The study examines the ecological concentrations of UFP, BC, PM2.5, and PM10 in high-rise buildings constructed using CLT and conventional methods, offering insights into the potential benefits of sustainable construction practices.
Focusing on specific construction sites in Rotterdam and specific urban construction sites like Amsterdam, the research compares ambient concentrations during construction, highlighting the environmental impact of different building methods. The lack of regulations for UFP and BC in the Netherlands underscores the importance of investigating their concentrations to guide future research and regulatory efforts.

The research project aims to inform policymakers, architects, builders, and the community about the environmental and health implications of construction decisions. The study envisions a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable urban environment in Rotterdam and beyond by fostering awareness and providing a blueprint for future investigations.

The reuse of secondary materials will be important in achieving a circular built environment. But now, this is challenging since material streams are not synchronized in terms of space and time. Building material hubs, a location where materials are gathered, examined, and momentarily stored before being packed and sent to the building site which, are a way to better organize the flow of goods between parties, might be the answer as they have a positive effect on fewer transit movements, reduced traffic, and better air quality in the city or region.

By identifying building material hubs in relation to the realization of a circular build environment and by defining the factors that shape the emergence of the hubs, this study fills a gap in the literature. The primary research question is therefore: "What different building material hubs in relation to a circular built environment exist, and what factors explain their emergence?".

This study identified six primary factors that explain the establishment of construction material hubs, based on 26 sub-factors. These primary factors include (1) land-based, (2) economic, (3) logistical, (4) technology and knowledge, (5) social, and (6) governance factors. Every circular construction material hub begins with a circular business case that demonstrates how the materials may be used more effectively and with more efficiency. The hub's strategic location connects the supply and demand of building materials, ideally used ones. The building material hubs are shaped by a variety of knowledge and experience as well as logistical accessibility to the main road network. The initiator from the hub contributed equally by raising awareness and offering white label facilities. In relation to the circular built environment, there are four distinct typologies of circular building material hubs: (1) the circular craft centre, (2) the circular multimodal building material hub, (3) the circular building material hub and (4) the circular raw building material hub. This study emphasizes the development of typologies and their connections to relevant territorial factors that explain their emergence, something that, as far as is known, no other study has done. This study is consistent with the body of research from research organizations on the topic of (circular) building material hubs and its potential. The report's findings provide an intriguing parable for cities and regions that have set the challenging objective of attaining a circular built environment. A reasonable next step when enhancing the circular activities in a region may be to implement a CBMH.

The project shows the potential of the transition space, by mediating between the individual “the body” and their surroundings. A thesis critical of architecture based on perception and behaviour. The project is a case study located in the city centre of Rotterdam "Kruisplein area" to show the potential of a place in the city which is currently formalized by different forms, systems and relations. For this, a tapestry is introduced; "the ground undulation” to undo the static-ness and undulate the user. The project has the intention to create a more porous and paused environment by penetrating in the tapestry with architectural compositions, all having different objectives. This punctuations arise curiosity and trigger the body to make new relations with other bodies, the surroundings and its elements. The relation of the different scales in this project will contribute to the relation, experimentation and perception of the visitor, passenger and passer-by. – An architectural project of consciousness, unconsciousness, contingencies and perception

Over the past years, construction activities in the Netherlands shifted from spacious greenfield developments to dense inner-city redevelopment projects. Approximately 50 per cent of the total turnover in construction is generated within the country’s large cities. It’s expected that this percentage will grow to 80 per cent in the near future(De Bes et al., 2018). Inner-city construction activities and the large logistical supply stream connected to it has a large impact on the liveability of the city. Almost 30 per cent of al business traffic is related to construction logistics (Vrijhoef, 2018). Consequences of these activities are a nuisance for neighbours due to noise, congestion, poor air quality due to the emission of greenhouse gasses and particulate matter, and a negative impact on road.

The development of Construction Consolidation Centres is an innovation in the logistical process that helps with lowering the impact construction has on the cities. The benefits for society and involved companies would suggest that the CCCs are a great success and are widely used in practice, the reality is different. Researchers debate the ability of CCCs to be financially self-sufficient (Browne et al., 2007) or state that the implementation of CCCs in the construction process is expected to increase when the financial benefits are transparent. De Bes et al. (2018) stress the need for the development of financial models that enable supply chain partners to consciously decide for the implementation of Construction Consolidation Centres based on predicted financial benefits. An important step in the development of these new logistics solutions is proving their value by measuring the impact on efficiency and costs (De Bes et al., 2018).
The implementation of Construction Consolidation Centres in the Dutch construction sector is limited due to a lack of tools to prove the financial benefits. A calculation model that predicts the impact of the logistical costs on the construction costs in the preparation stage of the project to prove the financial benefits of the Construction Consolidation Centres has not been developed yet.

The aim of this research is to develop an alternative model for cost accounting in the construction industry. This model includes the activities of the construction logistics process impacted by the implementation of a Construction Consolidation Centre. The developed model needs to enable the prediction of the impact of the implementation of a CCC on the costs of a construction project in the preparation stage of the process.

Circular economy is gaining global momentum as a new economic system to achieve sustainable development. The built environment plays an important role during the transition to a circular economy. China and the Netherlands share a common basis on enhancing resource efficiency by circular economy, which provides opportunities for mutual learning. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how circular economy is introduced differently in China and the Netherlands, and how circular economy is implemented differently in the built environment.

Blockchain technology is able to guarantee an immutable data record which could avoid disputes and litigations. It could also significantly reduce time and costs through process automation. The technology presents a potential solution for the many legal barriers in BIM, regarding ownership of information. This thesis will continue research based on these hypotheses by experimenting within a project transcending partnership in the Dutch social housing sector. For these partnerships alignment of business objectives and commercial interests is still lacking. An overarching goal through benefit-sharing agreements could be implemented by blockchain-enabled contract management. This could potentially result in better financial control and a lucrative business case, which are instrumental for actual adoption of new innovations.

Currently the on-site logistics of construction projects are very inefficient. The construction industry is very fragmented and there are a lot of different information and material processes, therefore it is difficult for a main contractor to get control of these all. It is assumed that if the main contractor gets control of the logistics, the logistics will become more efficient. One of the ways to get control is with BIM. Building Information Modelling combines the data of all stakeholders in one model and can help to streamline the logistics. The goal of this research is to show contractors how they can get change their traditional processes into a supply chain that is managed with BIM and get control of their logistics.

The research design that was selected is that of a single-case study. The case that is selected is project Bètatoren, a medium-sized construction project that is built by Waal. This research focusses on Waal, but includes also other parties. Two subcontractors and two suppliers of project Bètatoren have been selected, in order to research the whole supply chain. Also, experts from other construction companies are involved for the validation of this research.

Case study research shows that currently the logistic information and BIM are disconnected. The logistic information is send from the subcontractors and suppliers to the main contractor and back, but this happens mainly in 2D. This is partly due to the fact that there is a mismatch between the information processes and the production processes. As a result, information is missing in the BIM-model. This information should be completed, but that does not happen. No one takes responsibility and therefore the current information processes are fragmented and uncoordinated. The main contractor controls the process but does not coordinate the information, neither does anyone else.

Based upon a literature study and case study research several steps have been defined which the main contractor must take in order to manage the logistics with BIM. First, the main contractor must take the responsibility and control the changes in the process. He must actively lead the supply chain and demand collaborative behavior from the subcontractors and suppliers. Secondly, the main contractor must make sure that the information processes and BIM are connected, and that the logistic information is incorporated in both. This includes, inter alia, linking the planning to the BIM-model. Thirdly, the main contractor must make sure that the BIM-model aligns with the logistics on the construction site.

The information flows and the BIM-structure should be connected to make supply chain management with BIM feasible. According to the research, the process of changing a traditional supply chain into a supply chain management with BIM is both financially, organizationally and socially feasible for the main contractor. Concluding, if the main contractor takes control, actively coordinates and structures the information flow and focusses on connecting the logistic information and BIM, he can get control of the logistics.

The research study focuses on implementing Lean SCM and Green SCM principles harmoniously to reduce costs and GHG emission across the logistics department of a supply chain, thereby making a supply chain eco-efficient and giving competitive advantage to an organization. The construction industry over the years has been grappling with costs overruns and low productivity; many paradigms have been implemented to tackle this issue but haven’t been successful. The lack of success is attributed to the highly fragmented and uncertain nature of the construction industry. In terms of GHG emissions the construction industry accounts for 50% of global CO2 emissions, a substantial chunk of this emerges from the operational phase and most research focusing on reducing CO2 emission in construction focus on the operational phase and very little research is dedicated to reducing CO2 emissions during the construction phase and in specific logistics. Hence this thesis aims to develop a framework using principles of Lean SCM and Green SCM to reduce costs and GHG across Construction Logistics.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) are seen as innovations that can manage complexities in construction by focusing on integrating processes and products respectively. Whereas these two innovations have been considered compatible, their practical combination has been mainly anecdotal. The Netherlands was the locale of this study, where both SCM and BIM have been popular approaches. The research objective is to explore their real-world combination and propose strategies for the alignment of SCM and BIM, by viewing Supply Chain (SC) partnering as the inter-organisational proxy of SCM. The main question is: “How to align the SCM philosophy with BIM technologies to achieve integration in the construction industry? What aspects contribute to this alignment?”. The methodology was mixed and both qualitative and quantitative data were analysed. The overarching method was case study research and the unit of analysis was the firm, also referred to as ‘actor’. After a semi-chronological review of the relevant literature, the two constructs of SCM and BIM were found interdependent in product-, process-, and actor-related (P/P/A) dimensions. The study consisted of four other consecutive studies. First, empirical insights into the practical implementation of SC partnering and BIM were obtained via the exploration of five cases. Second, a conceptual model for the quantitative analysis of the product-, process-, and actor-related dimensions was designed. Third, this model and mixed methods were applied to two polar (extreme) cases to analyse the contractual (typically SC-related), digital (typically BIM-related), and informal interactions among the involved actors. Fourth, an additional theoretical exploration of the BIM-enabled SC partnerships took place with focusing also on intra-organisational relations within the involved firms. After the four studies, the findings were systematically combined to create the theoretical synthesis, i.e. generate theory. Three consecutive steps of ‘construct’, ‘internal’, and ‘external’ validity took place after the synthesis, to define the transferability of findings. The systematic combination of findings deduced two routes to achieve SC integration in construction: (a) product-related (emphasis on BIM tools), and (b) actor-related (emphasis on SCM philosophy). The two observed routes to SC integration emerged from the data of the polar cases. Two complementary sets of strategies for SC integration were derived afterwards. These strategies could ease the identification of which route is the ‘closest fit’ to SC integration, and then support the decision-making of how to pursue it. As the concept of BIM is currently a hot topic, it might be wise to undertake a ‘product-related’ route to integration and gradually introduce strategies from the ‘actor-related’ route. However, the ‘actor-related’ route could attain long-term integration and thus, long-lasting relations among the multi-actor networks. The key aspects of the alignment of partnering with construction IT for BIM-enabled SC partnerships are: - The identification of whether the SC complexity is of process-, product- or actor-related nature; - The deployed BIM collaboration patterns, i.e. ad-hoc, linear or distributed; - The SC coordination mechanisms, e.g. centralised or decentralised; - The relation between formal and informal aspects, e.g. symmetric or asymmetric; - The emerging intra-organisational relations due to BIM and SCM implementation; - The hierarchical level that BIM-enabled SC partnership decision-making pertains. As the construction industry evolves into an information-driven sector, the alignment of construction IT with inter-organisational management is preeminent for managing the inherent complexities of the industry. In parallel, embracing inter-organisational approaches for information management such as BIM is a promisingway forward for SCM and construction management.@en