Sustainable construction

Sustainable construction

There is increasing pressure on all who are concerned with construction, including developers, designers (including engineers of various disciplines) and contractors, to work towards achieving a sustainable construction industry. Major areas of concern are energy use in buildings, selection of materials, resource depletion and waste management. These concerns are being addressed by researchers in many countries with particular emphasis on reducing operational energy in buildings (e.g., energy used for heating, cooling and lighting) and reducing the amount of waste generated during construction and demolition that is disposed of to landfill.

Advances in computer modeling of building performance have made possible substantial reductions in the energy needed to run buildings, with an increasing number of non-residential buildings being constructed with smaller mechanical plant, or none at all. Daylight is utilized more effectively, reducing the need for artificial lighting, while natural ventilation systems based on sophisticated modelling of airflows in and around buildings are becoming more common.

The effect of these developments on building value will become apparent as environmental controls tighten and the environmental costs associated with energy production and use are progressively internalized through the introduction of measures such as carbon taxes (which are already in place in some countries).