Environmental Sustainability in Construction

This paper discusses the importance of Net Zero Energy Buildings, low carbon construction materials, innovative construction processes, renewable energy sources, and recycling and reusing in construction for environmental sustainability. It also highlights the feasibility and challenges of implementing a net-zero energy home. Course code and college/university not mentioned.

Environmental Sustainability 1
Environmental sustainability in Construction

Environmental Sustainability 2
Contents
Overview.........................................................................................................................................3
Net Zero Energy Buildings...........................................................................................................3
Selection of Low Carbon Construction Materials......................................................................3
Innovative Construction Process..................................................................................................4
Management of Operative Energy Consumption and Consumption Behavior.......................5
Renewable Energy Sources...........................................................................................................5
Recycle and Reuse..........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................8

Environmental Sustainability 3
Overview
The aim of this paper is to describe the importance of The Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB)
and to re-design the house the use of low carbon construction materials. The innovation process
along with the management of energy consumption process will be elaborated. Various forms of
renewable energy sources will be mentioned under this assignment.
Net Zero Energy Buildings
The Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) is the concept that generates an effective energy uses
over the course of a year, in recent times has been developing from investigating to realism
(AlAjmi, Abou-Ziyan and Ghoneim, 2016). Presently, there is only a little figure of extremely
well-organized buildings that convene the criterion to be entitled "Net Zero". The definition of
Zero energy building can be elaborated in a number of techniques relying on the political
policies and targets of a specific country. There are major four ways which can be helpful in
describing the Zero Energy such as Net Zero Site Energy, Net Zero Source Energy, Net Zero
Energy Costs and Net Zero Energy Emissions (Ferreira, Almeida, Rodrigues and Silva, 2016).
Selection of Low Carbon Construction Materials
The construction process needs some energy which can be referred as the carbon emissions and
all this kind of carbon emission come under the various processes in the relation of embodied
carbon of that structure. That is why it is required for the builder of Net Zero Building to choose
the materials with less personified emissions (Mwasilu, Justo, Kim, Do and Jung, 2014). There
are number of aspects which should be considered by the builder before taking action towards
selection of the material.

Environmental Sustainability 4
 The process of the production of the chosen material should be easy.
 The wastage of the material should be lesser.
 The selected material can be recycled because it will decrease the energy consumptions.
There are some examples that have been taken into consideration in order to redesign the house.
These are Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, Recycled Metals and Insulating concrete forms.
Autoclaved Aerated Concrete: The concrete has less feature of personified energy and it
performs as sound insulation and that is why it is developed by amalgamation foaming agent in
the common concrete and after that heating it with stem (Weitemeyer, Kleinhans, Vogt and
Agert, 2015).
Recycled Metals: The personified energy can be decreased due to recycle of material. The roles
of the low carbon materials are very important for the company for the purpose of remaining the
company in the construction industry.
Insulating Concrete Forms: It is the system of formwork for unbreakable concrete generally
made with a inflexible thermal insulation that remains in the place in the form of the permanent
interior for floors, roofs and walls.

Environmental Sustainability 5
Innovative Construction Process
Figure 1: Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility
Source: (GreenMontgomery, 2018).
It has been found that many lives of the world are affected due to climate changes and amplified
awareness of sustainable development. The process of new constructions is bringing out as per
the government policies related to the energy ratings. There is a method of precast construction
which facilitates to reduce the construction waste from in-site construction. There is another
material of thermal insulation which is used under the house for reducing the heating and cooling
load of the house (Asdrubali, Baldinelli, Bianchi and Sambuco, 2015). The diversion of sun rays
can be done by entailing the technique of Passive solar and radiant heating. This technique is
assisted in amplifying the internal temperature in the winter season, along with that this

Environmental Sustainability 6
technique is useful for the summer season as well as it diverted the cool breeze into the inner
building in order to reduce the internal temperature.
Management of Operative Energy Consumption and Consumption Behavior
The energy utilization prototypes are evidenced and sophisticated policies are put into practice in
order to meet the power competence and sustainable growth in the construction sector. The role
of the policies and procedures keep huge importance in the construction company that facilitates
in moving towards an effective energy usage patterns. It has been analyzed that the governing
body of the company has the ability to increase the usage of the energy resources by evaluating
the rate of the consumption. There are some equipment which has been used in the constriction
process to operate the energy such as Lighting systems, HVAC. It is necessary for the
organization to select these systems after analyzing the design phase of any kind of projects.
Renewable Energy Sources
Renewable energy is the source of energy which can be reinstated by the natural procedure like
wind, ocean, solar and biofuels. There are some types of renewable energy which are explained
below:
Wind Energy
The use of wind energy has been taken into consideration in the world from centuries. It has been
analyzed that the wind energy is an adaptation of the end energy through breeze turbines into
constructive ways, like mechanical or electrical energy (Ahmad and Tahar, 2014). It has been
found that the basic application of wind power is the production of electricity. It is required for
the builder to investigate the weather data in a rough manner before installing the wind turbine.

Environmental Sustainability 7
This data would be helpful to get know more about the right decision about installing the wind
turbine in a particular location or not.
Solar Energy
There is an ideal energy source which is being offered by the sun in an unlimited way. The
installations of the solar have enlarged into residential areas with taking advantages of the
government offering incentives (Khatib, 2016). There are various technologies such as Solar hot
water, Solar electricity, passive solar heating, and daylight.
Bio-energy
Bio-energy can be called as the biomass as it is the energy that comes from organic matter from
many years. Wood is the source that is the huge biomass energy source of today’s world. There
are other sources as well such as plants, forestry, organic components and the residues from
agriculture. It has been found that this is the energy which can be developed into the fossil fuel in
case of not touching on the surface of Earth (Sim and Putuhena, 2015).
Hydropower
Hydropower is the energy which is used in the form of renewable energy as it generates the
hydro energy through the flow of water. It is the method in which water is kept in the large dam
which released through a turbine (Atomberg, 2016).
Recycle and Reuse
It has been analyzed that the utilization of the resources can be done in an efficient manner by
recycling the natural resources of the world. The elimination of transportation, removal and the
conveyance of new products can be done by reducing the unnecessary use of electricity and

Environmental Sustainability 8
water and decrease the global temperature. There are some materials such as timber, metals, and
plasterboard which can be recycled and reused. It has been found in the context of the metal that
business demolition places generate the most of the metals which amasses for almost 90% of the
entire metals (Iyer-Raniga, 2017). There is only 5% non-fours metal is entailed in the metal rest
95% is steel. This steel has the tendency of reusing and reprocessing as well. It has been
analyzed that at the time of the destruction of any kind of building, the huge range of timber is
used in the process. However, the range of the timber is generally improved from the
deconstruction waste and the quantity of timber can be recycled. It has been found in the context
of the plastic board recovery from the construction site that is generally brought out by ample
negotiations between the material manufacturer and the stakeholders. Plasterboard manufactures
provide sites frequently persuade the revitalization of a hygienic item from sites and promote
organizations which purchase their materials.
Feasibility and Challenges in implementing Re-design Home
There are various strategies and techniques which can be used by developing and traditional
home into a “Net Zero Energy” home. There are various advantages such as it is easy to adopt
due to lower carbon emission and the home will be full of energy. However, it is an efficient
technique but there are some challenges which have to be faced while re-designing the home. It
is a high investment and lack of awareness in making a home with net-zero energy process. It is
required for the builder to overcome these risks by situating the campaigns in order to increase
awareness so that people can get to know about the actual advantages of the process of net zero.
There is also governing bodies which can initiate in creating the policies and the rules regarding
sustainability.

Environmental Sustainability 9
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that the energy consumption of the home was in
the upper level that is why the use of some selected materials are being undertaken. The
discussion has been made on the renewable energy system and to accomplish the demand of Re-
design, solar energy system is installed in it. It is necessary for the houses to move ahead to net
zero process system instead of conventional construction.

Environmental Sustainability 10
References
Ahmad, S. and Tahar, R.M., 2014. Selection of renewable energy sources for sustainable
development of electricity generation system using analytic hierarchy process: A case of
Malaysia. Renewable energy, 63, pp.458-466.
AlAjmi, A., Abou-Ziyan, H. and Ghoneim, A., 2016. Achieving annual and monthly net-zero
energy of existing building in hot climate. Applied Energy, 165, pp.511-521.
Asdrubali, F., Baldinelli, G., Bianchi, F. and Sambuco, S., 2015. A comparison between
environmental sustainability rating systems LEED and ITACA for residential buildings. Building
and Environment, 86, pp.98-108.
Atomberg, 2016. Top 10 Renewable Energy Sources. Available [online]
https://atomberg.com/top-10-renewable-energy-sources/. Accessed from: 26 Oct 2018.
Dumont, O., Quoilin, S. and Lemort, V., 2015. Experimental investigation of a reversible heat
pump/organic Rankine cycle unit designed to be coupled with a passive house to get a Net Zero
Energy Building. international journal of refrigeration, 54, pp.190-203.
Ferreira, M., Almeida, M., Rodrigues, A. and Silva, S.M., 2016. Comparing cost-optimal and
net-zero energy targets in building retrofit. Building Research & Information, 44(2), pp.188-201.
GreenMontgomery, 2018. Net-zero energy homes: Yesterday’s dream, today’s reality. Available
[online] https://mygreenmontgomery.org/2015/net-zero-energy-homes/. Accessed on 27 Oct
2018.
Iyer-Raniga, U., 2017. Net zero energy building policy: benchmarking Australian practices
against some Asia Pacific countries. In WSBE 2017: Transforming our Built Environment

Environmental Sustainability 11
through Innovation and Integration: Putting Ideas into Action(pp. 1844-1849). Hong Kong
Green Building Council.
Khatib, J. ed., 2016. Sustainability of construction materials. Woodhead Publishing.
Mwasilu, F., Justo, J.J., Kim, E.K., Do, T.D. and Jung, J.W., 2014. Electric vehicles and smart
grid interaction: A review on vehicle to grid and renewable energy sources
integration. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 34, pp.501-516.
Sim, Y.L. and Putuhena, F.J., 2015. Green building technology initiatives to achieve construction
quality and environmental sustainability in the construction industry in Malaysia. Management of
Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 26(2), pp.233-249.
Weitemeyer, S., Kleinhans, D., Vogt, T. and Agert, C., 2015. Integration of Renewable Energy
Sources in future power systems: The role of storage. Renewable Energy, 75, pp.14-20.