SUSTAINABILITY IN CONSTRUCTION & CIVIL ENGINEERING

What is sustainability in construction and civil engineering?

Sustainability in construction and civil engineering is the optimization of construction activities
in a way that does not have harmful effects on resources, surroundings and living ecosystem. It is
a way of minimizing harmful environmental impacts of construction projects.
Construction involves activities like use of building materials from various sources, use of
machineries, demolition of existing structures, use of green fields, cutting down of tress etc.
which can impact environment in one or more ways.

Why is sustainability important in construction?

Construction has a direct impact on the environment due to following reasons:
1. Generation of waste materials
2. Emissions from vehicles, machineries
3. Noise pollution due to use of heavy vehicles and construction machineries.
4. Releases of wastes and pollutants into water, ground and atmosphere.
Sustainability assessment of construction projects is essential to the fact that it
does not create any harmful effects on the living ecosystem while optimizing the
cost of construction. This is to ensure the availability of resources for the future
generations. Following are the important construction activities which have large
impacts on sustainability in construction and civil engineering:
1. Wastes from demolition of building and structures:

Over billions of tonnes of construction and demolition waste are generated worldwide annually.
These wastes can be hazardous to environment is not disposed off at suitable place without
environmental impact assessment of such wastes. The other alternate is to recycle and reuse of
the demolished building materials to minimize the risk of harmful impacts.
How to make construction waste sustainable?

Following are the steps which need to be followed to make construction waste more sustainable:

Eliminate avoid producing construction waste in the first place.

Reduce minimize the amount of waste you produce.

Reuse reuse the construction wastes in other works.

Recover (recycling, composting, energy) recycle what you can only after
you have reused it.

Dispose dispose of what is left in a responsible way.

Use of durable construction materials and quality control at site for durability of structure is one
step towards minimization of construction waste generation.
2. Use of Sustainable Building Materials:

Building Materials such as sand and gravel have been used for thousands of years in
construction. The demand for these is increasing day by day as demand for infrastructure
development is increasing.
Uses of construction materials such river sand and gravels also have negative impact on
environment. Excessive sand-and-gravel mining causes the degradation of rivers. Instream
mining lowers the stream bottom, which may lead to bank erosion. This results in the destruction
of aquatic and riparian habitat through large changes in the channel morphology. Impacts include
bed degradation, bed coarsening, lowered water tables near the streambed, and channel
instability.
There are many harmful impacts of using river sand and mining of gravels and a detailed study is
required to list all the negative impacts. The use of alternate building materials can reduce the
impact of this on environment.
The alternate to river sand is Manufactured Sand (M-Sand) which can be used in construction
works reduce impacts of mining river sand.
3. Energy Consumption and Green House:

Around 40% of total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are directly due to
construction and operation of buildings. The best of to reduce this impact is the use of green
buildings construction techniques. The use of transparent concrete in buildings also helps to
reduce the use of energy for lighting during day time.

Fig:Example of a Sustainable Building Construction

How to Ensure Sustainable Construction?

Following steps should be taken to for better sustainability of construction activities:

Reduce the supply chains to reduce transport costs

Exercise waste minimization and recycling construction

Building orientation Choose the building orientation in a way to reduce

energy utilization.

Durability and quality of building components, generally chosen to last for the
appropriate refurbishment or demolition cycle.

Use construction materials which are locally available.

Design buildings and structures as per local topological, climatic and

community demands.

Select appropriate construction methods prefabrication, wood or concrete

structures.

Reuse of existing buildings or structures can reduce the construction waste.

Reutilizing by strengthening and rehabilitation of buildings can also save
construction cost.

Make site waste management plans not only during construction but also
during use or operation.

Minimize energy in construction.