Let’s find out what sustainable development is, principles and impact on the construction industry.
The concept of sustainable development involves establishing a balance between meeting the needs of the current generation of humanity without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
There is a misconception that sustainable development is about improving the environment. In fact, sustainable development includes three areas that are inextricably linked: environment, economy and society.
In 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution “Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which defines 17 goals and 169 targets to be implemented within 15 years in areas that are critical for humanity and the planet.
Sustainable Development Goals:
Sustainable design is the art of designing interiors, buildings, structures and infrastructure that take into account the long-term impact on the environment, society and the economy.
Sustainable design is a mechanism for achieving sustainable development goals in the fields of architecture, design and construction.
One of the negative phenomena in the field of sustainable development is the so-called greenwashing – the practice when companies try to appear environmentally responsible, but at the same time do not take significant measures to preserve the environment. This means that the company’s products or services can give the impression of being environmentally friendly, although in reality they have minimal or no positive impact on the environment. Another manifestation of greenwashing can be small achievements of the company in ecology, which are completely eliminated by the much larger negative consequences of its activities.
The construction and buildings operation is responsible for the consumption of about 35% of primary energy, 17% of fresh water, 25% of wood and 39% of CO2 emissions in the world. That is why sustainable design in architecture is one of the important approaches to creating favorable living conditions without harming the environment.
When creating a sustainability strategy for a building project, an architect can focus on several key areas, such as: biodiversity, water, transportation, embodied and operational carbon, and user health and well-being.
Biodiversity
Construction often has a serious impact on nature, as it alters habitats, fragments ecosystems, and reduces natural wealth. Therefore, in the context of ensuring biodiversity, new construction projects should:
Poorly thought-out creation of a green roof, wall or lawn is not always a way to maintain biodiversity. Planting new plants near existing ones, but with the advice and assessment of environmentalists, has a positive impact on biodiversity. Examples of preserving biodiversity can be the use of native plants in landscape design, the creation of birdhouses, insect houses and corridors for animal movement.
A good example of biodiversity conservation in construction is the Žali shopping centre in Lithuania, which received the highest BREEAM performance rating. The environmental impact of the shopping center was offset by the creation of birdhouses, bat roosts and insect houses, as well as planting plants on the roof and along the walls.
Water
About 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean water and a total of 2.7 billion experience water shortages for at least one month a year.
When creating a new project, an architect should ask the following questions about water:
A good example of sustainable design is the use of rainwater and gray water for technical purposes, equipping bathrooms with energy-efficient plumbing, creating access points to drinking water and monitoring its quality. Modern plumbing helps not only to improve the project sustainability, but also significantly saves on the buildings operation. For example, old toilets from the 1980s used almost four times more water per flush than their modern efficient counterparts.
Transport
Sustainable design projects should be convenient for:
When creating a comfortable cycling infrastructure, in addition to providing cycle paths, it is necessary to take care of the availability of places for safe storage of transport, showers and changing rooms.
Embodied carbon
Embodied carbon includes CO2 emissions from the production, transportation, installation and disposal of building materials throughout the life cycle of the building.
During the building operation, materials or structures may be replaced (for example, doors, partitions, etc.), so this is also taken into account when calculating embodied carbon, which is part of the LCA (life-cycle assessment) methodology.
Embodied carbon can account for up to 50% of a building’s total carbon footprint, which is particularly important for new buildings, where most of the CO2 emissions occur before they are put into operation.
A good example of reducing embodied carbon emissions is the use of materials that are produced without the use of fossil fuels, have long service life and can be fully recycled after use. In 2024, Ruukki began producing sandwich panels, ventilated facades and roofing materials from SSAB steel that uses hydrogen, electricity and biogas instead of fossil fuels, and the residual product of the production process is water instead of carbon dioxide. Using such products allows for a significant reduction in embodied carbon and increases the number of points in the certification of a building under the environmental systems LEED and BREEAM.
Operational carbon
This type of carbon includes emissions from energy consumption by a building during operation for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting, machinery and equipment operation, charging of electric vehicles, water supply and drainage.
A key factor in reducing operational carbon is the use of energy-efficient materials and technologies in building construction. For example, the use of Ruukki Energy series sandwich panels allows you to reduce energy costs by up to 20%, and the technology of airtightness of envelope structures additionally saves up to 30% of building operation costs.
Creating buildings with zero energy consumption (zero-energy building) allows you to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions during the operation of real estate.
Even such a factor as familiarizing users with the rules of operation affects the reduction of energy consumption by a building. For example, constantly turned on air conditioners with simultaneously open windows for ventilation significanly increase energy consumption.
Well-being
Sustainable design considers a person not only as a consumer of space, but as a central element of a system whose quality of life has to be improved.
Key areas of sustainable design for a person’s comfortable well-being that must be taken into account when creating a project:
Sustainable development is not only a fashionable concept, but also a vital strategy for the future of the planet and humanity. Given the significant impact of construction on increasing CO2 emissions, sustainable design should become the cornerstone not only of new building concepts, but also of modern urban planning.
The article was written in collaboration with sustainable design specialist and blogger Angelina Gladushevska.
