Question

Sustainable construction has been high on the agenda of the industry for a number of years. You have been asked to give your view on:

i. Is modern construction sustainable? You must present more than one side to a discussion of this question, finally coming to a conclusion that you support with arguments and with reference to case studies. Your case studies may range in scale and purpose.

ii. How have modern materials improved the sustainability of construction in recent years? You must include in your discussion an explanation of how this has been achieved and how successful this achievement is within the context of global sustainable development.

Answer 1

Q1.

Precise definitions of sustainable construction vary from place to place, and are constantly evolving to encompass varying approaches and priorities. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines sustainable construction as "the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction." The Netherlands defines sustainable construction as "a way of building which aims at reducing (negative) health and environmental impacts caused by the construction process or by buildings or by the built-up environment." More comprehensively, sustainability can be considered from three dimension of planet, people and profit across the entire construction supply chain.

Key concepts include the protection of the natural environment, choice of non-toxic materials, reduction and reuse of resources, waste minimization, and the use of life-cycle cost analysis.

By implementing sustainable construction, benefits such as lower cost, environmental protection, sustainability promotion, and expansion of the market may be achieved during the construction phase.

Potential lower cost

Sustainable construction might result in higher investment at the construction stage of projects, the competition between contractors, due to the promotion of sustainability in the industry, would encourage the application of sustainable construction technologies, ultimately decreasing the construction cost. Meanwhile, the encouraged cooperation of designer and engineer would bring better design into the construction phase.

Environment Protection

By adopting sustainable construction, contractors would make the construction plan or sustainable site plan to minimize the environmental impact of the project. According to a study took place in Sri Lanka,considerations of sustainability may influence the contractor to choose more sustainable, locally sourced products and materials, and to minimize the amount of waste and water pollution. Another example is from a case study in Singapore, the construction team implemented rainwater recycling and waste water treatment systems that help achieve a lower environmental impact.

Q. 2.

The sustainable development uses locally available
building materials which are energy efficient and
durable. It provides an opportunity to living
inhabitants to live with healthy, comfortable
conditions throughout the buildings full life cycle.
The life cycle consists of material production,
construction planning, design, construction, operation
and maintenance processes. The objective of
sustainability is to achieve efficient use of
resources,viz. energies, water, and construction
materials with minimum impact on the environment
of buildings.However, because of the complexity of
sustainability and the fragmentationof the
construction industry, the level of implementation of
sustainable construction practices is still low.At a conceptual level, sustainable construction can be divided into four dimensions:
1.Economical,2.Social3.Environmental and
4.Technical. Economic sustainability includes the use of full-cost accounting methods and real-costpricingto set the prices and tariffs of goods and services to achieve a more efficient useof resource.

Sustainable building materials can be defined as
materials with overall superior performance in terms
of specified criteria. For Selection of Sustainable
building materials the following criteria are
commonly used:
1.Locally produced and sourced materials 2.Transport costs and environmental impact 3.Thermal efficiency

4.Occupant needs and health considerations

5. Financial viability 6. Recyclability of building
materials and the demolished building 7. Waste and
pollution generated in the manufacturing process
8. Energy required in the manufacturing process
9. Use of renewable resources 10.Toxic emissions
generated by the product 11.Maintenance costs