The Practicality of Sustainable Development in Construction

The implementation of sustainable construction practices aims to reduce the environmental impact of development without hindering the economic or social growth of society and industry. An analysis of sustainable construction was conducted to understand the viability, environmental and economic impacts of sustainable building practices. The research indicates sustainable construction offers substantial economic and environmental advantages. However, the construction industry has yet to universally adopt sustainable practices. The solutions I have determined to help foster the adoption of sustainable construction include enhanced planning and design, implementing waste management, educating industry professionals and increasing public awareness about the benefits. The research and recommendations in this project prove the hypothesis and offer solutions that, when implemented will benefit society.

A Fair Day's Wages: Liberty, Legality, and Liability Among Denver's Day Laborers

Day laborers occupy an essential position in Denver’s booming construction industry. Day laborers make up a highly flexible, highly effective workforce able to respond to market changes. For day laborers, informal day-labor gathering points provide increased control over working hours and employee-employer relationships when compared to traditional wage labor. Still, recent legislation and policies around irregular migration has forced large numbers of workers who may have benefited from the stability of full-time regular employment into the informal sector. The day laborers’ flexibility also exposes them to employers constantly inventing ways to deny them the wages and benefits they are owed. Despite changes in Colorado law in attempts to strengthen workers’ recourse against their employers, and despite social and individual tactics day laborers employ to mitigate their vulnerability, systematic structural, symbolic, and everyday violence continue to advantage employers.

Utilization of ADR Concepts to Bridge the Gap Between the Extractive Industry and Environmental Interests: An Anticipatory Cooperative Effort (ACE)

The extractive industry, more than any other sector of the economy, often finds itself mired in conflicts with various environmental and community interests. As traditional legal avenues of resolution gave way to the collaborative ideas of alternative dispute resolution, the outcomes, especially the relational outcomes, were less than desirable. This capstone project proposes that an Anticipatory Cooperative Effort (ACE) can help to bridge the gap between industry and environmental interests by encouraging a pro-active and pre-emptive engagement. The point of the ACE concept is not that it defines a new set of principles so much as it repositions where established ADR principles are entertained.