Environment, health, and safety

During the building operation and maintenance (O&M) phase, various pollutants are generated, including air pollution, noise, water and soil pollution, and waste. These pollutants not only pose a threat to the health of workers and occupants but also have detrimental effects on the environment. Moreover, ensuring the safety of workers, particularly those involved in tasks at height and handling hazardous materials where the risk of fatality and injury is increased, is of utmost importance. Therefore, it is essential to identify these pollution and associated safety risks and to enhance the overall level of environmental management and occupational health and safety (OHS) management, which still has much to explore. This chapter contributes to this field. It begins by introducing the relevant legislation and policies governing environmental protection and OHS (Section 1). It then identifies the primary pollutants emitted during O&M activities and provides corresponding control strategies. Based on this analysis, an environment management model is developed to effectively detect and mitigate these pollution hazards throughout the O&M process (Section 2). In the domain of OHS, a comprehensive framework called PPED (physical, people, environment, digitalization) is established to categorize risks associated with O&M. By leveraging this framework, a three-stage OHS management model is proposed to proactively minimize and address OHS incidents, thereby enhancing the well-being of workers (Section 3). This chapter contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of legislation, policies, pollution challenges, OHS risks, environment management, and OHS management in building O&M, improving the decision-making capabilities of digital asset and facility management.