Sustainable Construction Practices

The assignment focuses on sustainable construction practices. It emphasizes the importance of environmentally responsible building design and development, aiming to meet present needs without compromising future generations' ability to fulfill their own. The paper delves into strategies for integrating structures with natural environments, utilizing renewable resources, and minimizing waste during material extraction, construction, and demolition. It highlights the crucial role of sustainable construction in achieving long-term environmental sustainability.

environmental sustainability in construction
Student name

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ABSTRACT
The United States Domestic Residence department has conducted a study on the environmental
impact of buildings in terms of the energy use and consumption. There have been millions of
demolitions causing a lot of debris and the amount of raw materials used in the construction is
quite less (Barrett, et al, n.d.). sustainable construction seeks to have minimal or no wastage or
carbon emissions from the construction sites. The strategy aims at maintaining the natural
resources to ensure that the future generations can use the same resources for their activities. The
design technologies employed to minimize the carbon emissions ensure that there is high energy
efficiency. The constructors, architects, designers, and engineers need to use resources that are
environmental friendly or those that do not cause any form of harm to the environment. The
manufacture, distribution, and transportation of the materials needs to be strategic utilizing
minimal energy. There are several ways one can conserve the environment while making it
interactive with the construction process. The landscaping of the site should consider the storm
water management techniques used in hydrology. Water is a scarce resource that needs to be well
managed. As earlier discussed, many designers are using green roof to have a feel of nature on
their buildings. Others encourage residents to have plantation on their balconies and on the walls.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................3
NET-ZERO ENERGY...................................................................................................................................3
Selection of low carbon construction materials.........................................................................................3
Innovative construction process.................................................................................................................4
Management of operative energy consumption and consumption behavior.............................................4
Choice of renewable energy systems.........................................................................................................4
Recycle and reuse......................................................................................................................................5
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION............................................................................................................5
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................6

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INTRODUCTION
Sustainable construction is the structure, the construction process, and occupancy progressions
that are environmentally accountable. These resources must be efficient and effective throughout
a structure’s life cycle. The life cycle highlights from the site to design to construction and
operation, thereafter, the maintenance, renovation, and eventually, its demolition. The LEED
Green Building rating system has a number of strategies such as sustainable site development,
water savings, energy efficiency, material and resources selection, and indoor environmental
quality. The LEED system encourages and accelerates the global adoption of sustainable green
building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally
understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. The initiative is a third-party
certification program as well as a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction,
and operation of high performance green buildings. It gives the building owners and operators
the tools they require to have an immediate and measurable impact on their building
performance. The designers and engineers have adopted the LEED concept and intent. This is
considered the best standard for suitable design globally. This section seeks to analyze some of
the common design techniques that can be used to minimize negative impacts on the
environment (Halliday, 2008). There are a few factors to consider in the construction of eco-
friendly buildings such as the site location, development density, the means of transport, the site
disturbance, as well as the storm water management. Some of the eco-friendly ways that this
sustainable construction manages to have zero or low carbon as well as satisfy the ecological
requirements is having a green rooftop or sidewall plants on the building (Abidin, 2010).
Another key strategy is the water efficiency through the employment of wastewater technologies
as discussed in the section below. Storm water management has a lot to do with the landscaping
of the site as well as water wastage reduction methods. The government has been at the forefront
in encouraging the sustainable construction by providing incentives. There are tax breaks on the
low/zero carbon design technologies. The government also provides rebates, grants and loans to
innovators who ensure that they come up with greater innovations in this field. The embodied
energy is used to tract the impact of the construction raw materials and processes to the
environment. It is the total of all the energy consumed and emitted within the life cycle of a
material. Sustainable building design should aim to provide a balanced solution, offering
optimum working/living conditions, alongside reduced environmental impact, both now and in

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the future. Taking the complete building lifecycle into consideration, there are many factors
involved, from the location of the building, its design, subsequent operation and maintenance, to
the construction materials and practices used, and how any future changes of use are addressed
(D. Mclean, IET, n.d.).
NET-ZERO ENERGY
Selection of low carbon construction materials
The design strategies may comprise minimizing construction material consumption by recycling
and reuse, employing more energy efficient operations, and the use of renewable energy (Ortiz,
et al, 2009). The raw materials are usually extracted from the environment and sometimes that
causes some land to be left bare and unproductive. There should be a way to ensure continuity
such that if a tree is cut down for construction another five tree are planted to compensate and
ensure that there are future raw materials for the next generation (John, et al, 2005). The
embodied energy highlighted in the introduction is the energy involved in the acquisition of raw
materials, manufacture of the finished product, transportation of the product to site, construction
of a building, maintenance through the life of a building, and the demolition of a building. The
sustainability necessitates controlling energy demand in addition to developing renewable or low
carbon energy supplies. The built environment is the largest final energy consumer. Such
strategies ensure environmental sensitivity hence providing places for people to live that are
considerate of the environment. The structures emerge well designed and built featuring a quality
built and natural environment. It is well connected with good transport services and
communication linking people to jobs, schools, health and other services.
Innovative construction process
There are several ways one can conserve the environment while making it interactive with the
construction process. The landscaping of the site should consider the storm water management
techniques used in hydrology. Water is a scarce resource that needs to be well managed. As
earlier discussed, many designers are using green roof to have a feel of nature on their buildings.
Others encourage residents to have plantation on their balconies and on the walls (Matthews, et
al, 2012). The implementation of construction designs where there are natural ventilations in the
structure as well as taking advantage of the natural light during the day. The moonlight on some

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nights can be trapped into the building and the ambience is improved. The designs should aim at
providing minimum Indoor Air Quality performance as well as carbon monitoring sensors.
Management of operative energy consumption and consumption behavior
The construction management plan is carried out throughout construction and before occupancy.
Very low emitting materials such as adhesives and sealants, paints and coatings, and composite
wood are used. The indoor chemical and pollutant source control as well as controllability of
systems such as perimeter spaces and non-perimeter spaces (Ilha, et al, 2009). This has been
efficiently achieved as the government has provided incentives towards the implementation of
the techniques. The sustainable construction has been embraced globally as the standard. Some
of the professions that will be paramount in the propulsion of the green construction are
carpenters, heavy equipment operators, construction managers, electricians, HVAC, industrial
truck drivers, insulation workers, iron and steel workers, metal fabricators, millwrights, roofers,
and sheet metal workers. There are four key areas such as the sustainable consumption and
production, climate change and energy, natural resources, and sustainable communities with
reference to the built environment.
Choice of renewable energy systems
There are several renewable energy sources that can be used in construction sites. The use of
timber in the construction can provide a good structure that is eco-friendly. The timber is a
renewable resource and has a low embodied energy with good thermal properties as well as a
high strength to weight ratio. Some of the resources that the construction architects and engineers
can take advantage of is the day-lighting, the solar energy, the wind power or energy, and the
natural ventilation. The waste from the toilets can be used to make biogas energy which can be
used for cooking or heating homes during the winter season. One should implement the
renewable energy resource that is available at the site location. The solar energy is universal but
to implement wind energy one requires to be in a windy region (Kukudia, et al, 2004). These
renewable energy sources help in the conservation of energy in the region. There are six energy
efficiency and renewable energy strategies that aim at retrofitting buildings to increase energy
efficiency, expanding mass transit and freight rail, constructing a smart electrical grid
transmission system, utilization of wind power, solar power and advanced biofuels.

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Recycle and reuse
An assessment was conducted on the household use of water in Ireland where it was observed
that the key uses of water are to flush the toilet, take a shower, using a washing machine,
watering the garden, and drinking water. There are ways to manage the storm water and the
waste water for reuse (Ugwu, 2006). The structure can have a robust gutter system that collects
water for other purposes such as watering the garden or cleaning the car. The residents can buy
water efficient washing machines, install low flush toilets, and fit low flow taps and
showerheads. An alternative method to the sewage system is the natural reed bed system.
Unfortunately, to use this system one may require a large piece of land. The use of greywater to
perform household or outdoor cleaning.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Sustainable construction is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs. It enhances living,
working and leisure environments for the individuals and the society at large. The energy
consumption and waste generated are at a minimum over the life cycle and the structure needs to
integrate with the natural environment and use renewable resources where possible. What the
paper seeks to avoid is construction that causes permanent damage to the ecological features
during extraction of raw materials and demolition. The strategy seeks to avoid causing
unnecessary waste of energy, water or materials due to short life, poor design, inefficiency or
low standard construction techniques. In a nutshell, the sustainable development is the
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future
generations to meet their own needs.

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REFERENCES
Halliday, S. Sustainable Construction; Butterworth Heinemann: London, UK, 2008.
Barrett, P.S.; Sexton, M.G.; Green, L. Integrated delivery systems for sustainable construction.
Build. Res. Inf, 27, 397–404.
Abidin, N.Z. Investigating the awareness and application of sustainable construction concept by
Malaysian developers. Habitat Int. 2010, 34, 421–426.
Ortiz, O.; Castells, F.; Sonnemann, G. Sustainability in the construction industry: A review of
recent developments based on LCA Constr. Build. Mater. 2009, 23, 28–39.
Ortiz, O.; Pasqualino, J.C.; Castells, F. Environmental performance of construction waste:
Comparing three scenarios from a case study in Catalonia, Spain. Waste Manag. 2010, 30, 646–
654.
John, G.; Clements-Croome, D.; Jeronimidis, G. Sustainable building solutions: A review of
lessons from natural world. Build. Environ. 2005, 40, 319–328.
Bainbridge, D.A. Sustainable building as appropriate technology. In Building without Borders:
Sustainable Construction for the Global Village; Kennedy, J., Ed.; New Society Publishers:
Gabriola Island, Canada, 2004; pp. 55–84.
Ugwu, O.O.; Kumaraswamy, M.M.; Wong, A.; Ng, S.T. Sustainability appraisal in infrastructure
projects (SUSAIP) Part 1. Development of indicators and computational methods. Autom.
Construct. 2006, 15, 239–251.
Matthews, E.; Amann, C.; Fischer-Kowalski, M.; Huttler, W.; Kleijn, R.; Moriguchi, Y.; Ottke,
C.; Rodenburg, E.; Rogich, D.; Schandl, H.; Schutz, H.; van der Voet, E.; Weisz, H. The Weight
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Washington, DC, USA, 2000; Available online: http://pdf.wri.org/weight_of_nations.p (accessed
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Ilha, M.S.O.; Oliveira, L.H.; Gonçalves, O.M. Environmental assessment of residential buildings
with an emphasis on water conservation. Build. Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 2009, 30, 15–26.
Kukadia, V.; Hall, D.J. Improving Air Quality in Urban Environments: Guidance for the
construction Industry; Building Research Establishment (BRE) Bookshop, CRC Ltd.: London,
UK, 2004.