Ways to improve sustainability in construction and civil engineering

For last many decades, engineers have been optimizing the construction and civil engineering activities so that it does not have negative impact on our natural resources, environments and ecology system. This optimization process is called sustainability in construction and civil engineering. Every construction work brings hazardous environmental impacts and hence it must be worked out to reduce such impacts.

Construction activities which can have sheer impact on our environment can be listed as follows:

• Use of building materials from various natural resources
• Use of machineries
• Demolition/Destruction of existing structures
• Using the green fields
• Cutting down the trees

Importance of sustainability in construction and civil engineering

All construction work leaves sheer impact on our ecosystem due to the following reasons:

• It generates a lot of waste materials
• Air pollution due to use of vehicles and machineries
• Noise pollution from heavy vehicles and machineries
• Water pollution due to the release of toxic wastes into water bodies
• Ground and atmospheric pollution

While planning any construction projects, it is essential to have a sustainability assessment of the said project so that we can minimize the hazardous effects on our environment. We should also plan to optimize the cost of construction. This way, we can make sure that our natural resources are available for the future generations as well. Here we are going to discuss those construction and civil engineering activities that have sheer impacts on sustainability.

Demolition waste of building and structures: There are thousands of constructions or demolition works are carried out at any given time worldwide. These works generate billions of tons of waste every year worldwide. We must make sure that these wastes are disposed off at suitable place keeping environmental impact assessment in mind. To further minimize its harmful effect we can recycle and reuse the demolished materials in another construction projects.

There is a five way process to minimize the hazardous effect of waste due to construction work:

• Eliminate: We should try to avoid producing any type of waste in our construction work
• Reduce: In case complete avoidance is not possible, try to minimize the waste produced
• Reuse: The waste produced should be reused in other construction project, if possible
• Recycle: Those waste that cannot be reused should be recycled
• Dispose: Those left over should be disposed off at suitable place

Use Sustainable Building Materials: Natural construction materials (e.g. sand and gravel) are used for many centuries and its demand is increasing each passing day due to global demand of infrastructural project. Use of such excessive natural resources lead to degradation of rivers. River sand and gravel mining have huge impact on our environment. Due to in stream mining, river bank erosion has become a threat to our ecosystem.

Instead of using such natural construction materials, we should use the alternate construction material such as Manufactured Sand (M-Sand). It can considerably reduce impacts of mining river sand.

Electricity Consumption and Green House Gas: Green House Gas traps heat in the atmosphere and makes the Earth warmer. Without green house gas, our earth would have been too cold to live or survive. But excessive green house gas is increasing the temperature of atmosphere and is effecting the climate change.

Due to mining and use of natural gas, methane gas is released in the environment and causes green house effect. Similarly, 40 percent of total energy consumption is due to the construction and heavy machinery use.

This impact can be reduced by using green building construction techniques. Similarly, we can use natural building concept that uses the natural materials that are available locally. The use of transparent concrete while construction building also reduces the use of energy for lighting during day time.

Ensuring Sustainable Construction: In construction works, the below steps can improve the sustainability:

• Minimize the transportation activity to move building materials. Use of construction materials which are locally available. Therefore, reducing transport cost
• Minimize the waste produced and recycle the construction waste
• Design green and natural building
• Use appropriate construction methods such as wood or concrete structures.
• Reuse of existing buildings or structures can reduce the construction waste. It can also save construction cost.
• Reduce the use of energy in construction
• Make a disposable point where construction waste can be disposed off not only during construction but even after it.