A web service framework for measuring and monitoring environmental and carbon footprint in construction supply chains

There is increasing demand for the measurement and accounting of the environmental and carbon footprint produced by corporate companies. In construction processes, environmental impacts accumulate along supply chains from raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution, installation, maintenance, to demolition and disposal. The calculation of the environmental and carbon footprint of a construction project considers not only the emissions from contractors on site, but also those from the participating members along the supply chains. However, construction supply chains are characterized by their high fragmentation. It is not an easy task to measure and collect loosely distributed footprint data among numerous supply chain members. In addition, due to the project-based temporary nature of construction supply chains, it is unlikely for project participants to work together long enough on a project to build enough trust and to share information willingly. Therefore, a flexible, secure, and scalable support system is needed to measure and manage environmental and carbon footprint data in construction supply chains. This paper presents a web service collaborative framework for measuring, monitoring, and integrating environmental and carbon footprint data in construction supply chains. Web services technology is used because its "plug-and-play" capability allows flexible and quick system reconfiguration, which is desirable for communication and collaboration in construction supply chains. In the framework, each process element and footprint calculation is represented and delivered as individual web service units, which can be reused and integrated over standard web service protocols. This paper also presents an illustrative example to demonstrate the implementation of the web service framework.