Question

What is the concept of sustainable building or structure? How does it relate to sustainable development?

Answer 1

The sustainable building means

1. The quality of life and harmonize within the local climate, tradition, culture and the environment in the region.
2. conserve energy, resources and recycling materials,
3. reduce the amount hazardous substances to which human and other organisms are (or may be) exposed and
4. the local and global ecosystem throughout the entire building life-cycle.

Related to sustainable development:

Construction industry is commonly one of the largest industries in both developing and developed countries in terms of investment, employment and contribution to GDP. Consequently, the impact of the construction industry on the environment is expectedto be considerable particularly as far as the loss of soil and agricultural land, the loss of forests and wildlands, air pollution, and the loss of non-renewable energy sources and minerals are concerned.

New building technology, based on the use of fewer materials in a more sophisticated or ‘clever’ manner (Less is More) points in a somewhat different direction. Assessment of sustainability may focus on what is covered in assessment schemes rather than attempting to standardise and agree a fixed methodology. Life cycle assessment may be based on a much wider range of building lifetimes, from very short (accompanied by total recycling/reuse/renewability) to very long (where environmental impacts are ‘written off’ over the long life of the building). The focus of attention may shift to relatively small quantities of key resources or materials which play an important role in modem sustainable building. These might include the alloying agents in steel rather than iron ore and limestone, rare metals such as titanium and indium which may come from very environmentally sensitive areas (eg. beach sands) or because they are rare, generate an inordinate amount of waste in their production. These rare elements may play a critical role in the development of ecologically sustainable building and DFD will be based on the recovery of small quantities of critically important materials. They may become politically strategic
further complicating issues of equity. The issues of equity in the social and socio-economic aspects of sustainability, both within and between countries, will become more critical as populations continue to
increase and demand higher material standards of living.