Sustainability and Built Enviornment - Assignment Example

 Construction plays a significant role in the society today ranging from its economic to the social contributions that it makes in people’s lives. Other relevant areas that construction touches on include the quality of life, comfort as well as safety. Construction contributes a significant portion of most countries’ GDP and provides employment to equally a large chunk of the population. With this, it is important to look at it in the context of the call for putting in place an element of sustainability in the entire construction industry and how materials used for construction have a role to play in actualizing the desired sustainability. While several sustainable construction materials are now available, the criteria used to choose either of the same is informed by the desire to strike a delicate balance between the growing needs of the world today and the need to minimize the negative impacts that would emanate from such initiatives both to resources and to the environment. From the perspective of the environment, the building materials used have a direct impact on the energy consumption, the emission of carbon dioxides, how much waste materials are generated, the natural resources used, water consumption as well as how the utilization of such materials directly affect the health of the persons around the area. The first criteria that would be used in choosing a sustainable building material is the ability of the material to be recycled. Taking an example of steel, it is a building material that is recyclable for an indefinite time without necessarily suffering any losses in terms of quality. Steel can for instance be recycled 100 percent. However for purposes of building, steel materials can be recycled i.e. used from one building to another to a degree of about 98% (Vernon pg 33). There is therefore an economic loop that is sustained by the intrinsic quality inherent in steel itself. Today, it is estimated that all over the world, recycled steel make up to about 40% of the total ferrous material in the steel industry. Mostly, such materials are used in the electrical furnace procedures and other processes like the blast oxygen furnace that play a role in generating building materials and even in direct construction processes. Through recycling, there is a significant cost reduction processes meaning that it can be sustained for a long time. Using the LCI methodology, it is possible to conclude that due to the high rate of recyclability of steel itself, the carbon footprint can be significantly reduced and hence the impact of the building material reduced by over 40%. Some of the other materials that are recyclable and have been chosen by many people include fly ash concrete, asphalt, structural steel, crushed bricks and even fiber boards. The second criteria used to choose sustainable construction materials is cost. Materials that can be easily afforded in terms their cost-effectiveness are likely to be preferred by many people than the rest. This means that for the element of sustainability to be achieved, it is pertinent that one picks those materials that even when recycled, the cost of recycling would be less than the price of the virgin products. It would for instance not be sustainable to pick on recycled timber or wood windows because the cost of recycling them would for instance be more than the price of the virgin products. The issue of cost however does not mean that the building materials used must be too cheap but meet the needs of the targeted persons while striking a balance that can ensure the whole process is sustainable. It is equally necessary to pay attention to the ‘compliance benefit’. This is where the facilities used for the building purposes are supposed to meet the requirements of “executive order 13101” that calls on executive agencies like the department of defense, to ensure that waste management as well as recycling processes are put in place in all facets of the construction exercise right from planning. This equally touches on the need to use environmentally friendly building materials, materials that are less toxic to both human and other living things and with the ability to be disposed in a proper manner i.e. should be biodegradable in the event that they cannot be recycled anymore. There is also the bit of durability. The building material that meets the sustainability criteria should be one that is durable enough. Durability goes beyond just materials to look at the general design where the materials are to be used. The sustainability of the materials are also dependent on the integration system of the design. The sustainable materials used for building should therefore be equally those that are able to be put together in one comprehensive unit to function as one. It is equally necessary to pay attention to the instructions of the manufacturer so that the right materials are used for the right purposes. When the right material is used for the relevant function, it is possible that all materials would offer their maximum benefits and as such generate the required strength and durability. The other factor is whether the building material is going to be locally available or if it has to be sourced from elsewhere. This has a significant influence on the sustainability in terms of costs. Sustainability therefore should be in such a way that the required materials are not in danger of depletion any time soon. This calls for the use of building materials that can be easily acquired even from waste materials or those that are easily manufactured using locally available materials (Kresche pg 3). It is imperative that such materials be derived from the environment because only then can such costs as the transportation cost among others be eliminated and hence add more value to the whole construction process (Muschez pg 7). All these debates has seen more and more attention being paid to the green sources of building materials on grounds that they are easily biodegradable and hence does not come with a lot of environmental pollution. Questions however continue to emerge over the durability of the green building materials as well as their long-term effect on the environment. The criteria highlighted above in picking the most suitable sustainable construction material is well grounded in the life cycle assessment and the extenics theory. This theory pays close attention to the conservation of energy in choosing the construction materials and holds that the materials chosen should be those that are able to reduce more consumption of energy and to reduce environmental pollution. This theory equally holds that the construction sector stands tall as one of the sectors that consume a lot of energy up to about 40 percent of the total final energy. This theory therefore comes into play at the point where it is agreeable that conservation assessment is relevant and very necessary. This theory therefore holds that there is need to ensure that the options that one settles for, meet the criteria for both constitutive as well as for contextual and preference value system (Sherry pg 42). The other bit of this theory looks at it from the perspective of input and outputs. It holds that truly sustainable materials for construction should be able to add value such that after being used, the result should be one that produces more value than in the original case. This perspective equally looks at the issue of sustainable building materials in a way that there should be a possibility that ones materials have been used for construction in one area; they should be equally be available for use in a different dependent industry hence encouraging interdependence of the materials used for the construction in connected industries. From personal experience, I have seen so many people strive to make an impact on building scene by insisting on durable sustainable construction materials. I believe that durability is indeed a serious criterion because in the face of adverse whether conditions like floods or strong winds or even minor earthquakes, buildings that were built using the right materials; normally withstand or survive with minor earthquakes without necessarily causing deaths to the occupants. A case study in point is that of the construction of ‘Monet’ bridge. The bridge was made in such a way that each part of the bridge can be replaced individually. The bridge could still be removed after its lifespan and be reused. The materials ones dismantled could still be used to generate other things. Waste minimization was equally put into consideration (Kresche pg 23). The bridge was also just constructed using simple processes that can only be done using bare hand and as such the process was energy conservative and as such adhered to the theory highlighted that calls for the use of materials and processes that are less energy intensive. It also had concrete bearings as well as galvanized steel works that can be used to reduce rusting as well as wood rails. WORKS CITED Kresche, Phillip. Sustainable building materials: case of Monet Bridge. Springer, 2011, pgs 12-56 Muschez, Jonny. Green energy for building: making the right choices. Prentice hall press. 2009, 1-9 print Sherry, McMahon. Choosing the right sustainable building material for a less costly and durable construction. 2011, 12-67 print Vernon, S.T. ‘Caring for the Earth. A Strategy for Sustainable Living’. Riverside publications. 2010, 12-45 Read More