The construction industry is responsible for a rather large portion of the world's pollution, and resources are running out. What can be done? Is sustainability in the construction industry the solution? Ásgeir Valur Einarsson, the new project manager in the construction division, discusses sustainability in the construction industry.
Sustainability is a very broad concept, but at its core, it is a cycle that requires little maintenance. Resources or systems that run on their own energy or structure and never run out. Sustainability also applies when talking about living in peace and harmony, promoting human needs, both present and future. The concept of sustainability is usually divided into three main categories: environmental, economic, and social sustainability. If a project meets the requirements equally within all three categories, it is considered sustainable.
The construction industry as a whole is one of the world's biggest problems when it comes to pollution and poses a major challenge to environmental sustainability. The production of various building materials contributes to enormous pollution of the earth, and many resources used in this sector are running out or are already depleted. Metals are in a particular risk category, and it is said that if humanity does not change its consumption habits of copper, there are only 38 years of copper use left on earth. Zinc, which is also widely used in the construction industry, will only last us for another 34 years. What if these materials run out? The only real answer is recycling, which has been lacking when it comes to metals.
40% of all carbon pollution on Earth can be traced back to the construction industry in one way or another. This includes, among other things, the production of materials, the use of machinery, and the energy consumption of buildings. Regarding material production, cement production, for example, is responsible for 4-8% of the total carbon pollution on Earth. The use of machinery, or the pollution generated by petrol or diesel engines, is, as most people know, the biggest problem when it comes to global warming. The energy consumption of buildings is no less of a problem, as not everyone is as fortunate as we are here in Iceland, where almost all of our energy, about 85%, is green energy.
Social sustainability tends to be forgotten but is no less important because it concerns us as human beings. How do we feel in a particular building? Are the conditions good enough to spend time inside? First and foremost, safety and health are considered in this category. This involves looking at fire safety, access to and from the building, and whether it is suitable for everyone, including the disabled and the elderly. Regarding health, daylight conditions indoors, oxygen quality, and thermal comfort are considered. It is also important that the acoustics are good, as poor acoustics lead to fatigue and can be stressful over time. Then there are things like the architecture; is there something for the eye to enjoy both inside and outside the building? Is there good access for all groups? Is it possible to arrive by bicycle, and are there, for example, showers in the building that could be used if people came by bike? And last but not least, social responsibility. For example, it would not be socially sustainable to build an aluminum smelter in the middle of a town or a nightclub in the middle of a residential area. These may all be factors that we take for granted, but nevertheless, these things need to be thought about, implemented, and planned. And what's more, to do better than last time. To learn from experience.
Financial sustainability is perhaps not necessarily a major problem when it comes to the construction industry. It is, of course, each individual's decision and discretion how much he or she spends on their own building. However, authorities need to protect interests when it comes to building public buildings that the country's citizens pay for. For the average citizen or company, factors such as choosing durable materials are perhaps most important. A so-called LCC (life cycle costing) analysis is also often carried out, which is then used to minimize the building's cost and maintenance costs over its lifetime. The design of the building can also play a large part in its financial sustainability, meaning, for example, finding ways to minimize costs in the least used parts of the building, such as corridors or cleaning closets, and so on.
As you can imagine, we are not just talking about pollution, waste of funds, or social importance at the construction stage, but also over the entire lifetime of the building and its disposal. Therefore, it is not so simple to build a sustainable building; the process from the idea of building a house, the production of the material, the life of the house, and all the way until it has been torn down to the last screw needs to be sustainable. Building materials that can provide so-called EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) data are considered sustainable and are almost exclusively used in the construction of eco-certified houses. These building materials have been thoroughly extracted and analyzed, which is then compiled into a report detailing their environmental impact from the beginning of production to the packaged product. This assessment process uses a methodology called LCA (Life-cycle assessment), where the product is analyzed from “cradle to grave.” In the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, a clear message is sent to those who intend to build. To promote a sustainable construction industry, three filters are mentioned that are good to go through:
Anything beyond these filters should then involve using sustainable materials, eco-certification, and environmentally friendly methods, and last but not least, applying carbon offsetting. Carbon offsetting, in short, means that if you cut down a tree, you plant one or more in its place. This applies to all materials and resources where carbon is released into the atmosphere; you then need to save in other actions elsewhere or even perform negative carbon emissions to offset the damage that was done.
To make things easier for us Icelanders, BYKO has published a product catalog with all the building materials that can be used in the construction of a house that could meet the Swan Ecolabel certification. Alternatively, you can visit www.environdec.com to view most of the products that come with EPD reports and are therefore ideal for use in eco-houses. The Green Building Council Iceland's website is also full of various useful information, as is the Swan Ecolabel's website.
With hopes for a more environmentally friendly future. Ásgeir Valur Einarsson Project Manager in the Construction and Civil Engineering Division of IÐAN.