Sustainability is the ability for something to be maintained at a certain rate or level, in construction terms it can mean avoiding the depletion of natural resources in order to get environmental balance and to strive for environmental sustainability.
Sustainable construction corporates the design and management of structures. It can be broken down into environmental, social and economic impacts. Sustainable construction needs to be environmentally friendly and should use as many renewable resources as they can, this not only doesn’t deplete resources but also doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the environment. Firms will use lifecycle analysis, this is a method that is used to measure the environmental impact of a construction project throughout is entire lifetime and not just during the building stage; but including extraction of the raw materials, distribution to the construction companies, the cost of running and maintaining the building throughout its lifetime, recycling and then its destruction and disposal. This can also be called Cradle-to-Grave analysis. A lot of the goals that are spearheading the movement for sustainable construction run parallel to the sustainable development goals.
Moving on to the social impact of sustainable construction, we need to create living spaces that improve the quality of life of its occupants and needs to promote the importance of “socially viable living” but also care for the working environment, this means incorporating high safety standards for the general labour force.
Organisations use finance models that help them to gain a higher output with lower input, they can then reinvest what they have earned and progress the business faster, this extra capital can be used to further develop other aspects of the business; such as putting funding towards CSR and EMS which I will get to later on.
Multinational Corporations and Organisations will use management tools to find out various details about certain aspects of a project. This will include SWOT and PESTLE analysis, triple bottom line and sustainability services such as sustainable procurement (Standard ISO20400), a guideline that helps firms to provide sustainable outcomes. Sustainable procurement is ever increasing and the transparency within the industry is also growing, supply chain is generally the largest risk but is also the largest contributor to becoming a much more sustainable business. Supply chain is essentially the network of organisations and resources involved in getting your product to market, in this case it is taking a building from an idea to a physical structure.
There is also the case of whether a company actually cares about taking sustainability into account or if they are doing it to get a good brand image and reputation. There is lots of research on how implementing sustainability into an organisation can improve many different areas of the business, such as increasing efficiency, cutting costs, and also to improve the relationship with stakeholders and investors. The draw that a company has to attract staff is also a lot greater as working for a sustainable company is a lot more attractive to people, this means that you can get the best possible people to work for you without making many compromises. The business might have to run a much tighter regime in order to meet requirements but in the long run it should help to shape the business into the direction that it wants to go and for the better.
Leading on from this in more detail there is CSR, which is the Corporate social responsibility which is when businesses make a significant conscious effort to be aware of their social and environmental impact and be active in providing solutions to everyday issues. There are four types of CSR, these are; environmental sustainability initiatives, direct philanthropic giving, ethical business practices and economic responsibility. It is important to think of sustainability as being a broad topic and not just the constant maintaining the level of resources but also on a human level – this can also mean limiting pollution and there for benefiting society as a whole. A sustainable way of doing this could be reducing each person’s carbon footprint within the company, this will quickly add up and be a significant initiative, for example allowing people to work at home once a week or to carpool. All of these factors can significantly drive profits as the company becomes a lot more well-rounded. This ties into the idea of sourcing staff locally as it cuts the distance that they have to commute, therefore contributing to lowering the carbon footprint as a whole.
If a company finds it hard to cut down on certain areas in order to follow CSR they can also take part in direct philanthropic giving, this can mean giving time, money or resources to charities and organisations that need it – this will offset the environmental and social impact of your business.
Organisations can also use a framework called triple bottom line, it recommends that companies also focus on social and environmental concerns other than just profits. It revolves around the 3 P’s (which stand for people, planet and profit). This is a gauge on how well an organisation is following CSR and to monitor its effects on the environment over time. Essentially it means that if a firm only looks at its profits then it isn’t looking into the full cost of doing business.
The organisation I have been looking into is Arcadis, which is a ‘leading global natural and built asset design & consultancy firm. They have a very clear strategy in “Creating a world for the next generation”, the company has sustainability positioned right at the core and isn’t prepared to cut corners if it means that sustainability is compromised. They take TBL into account at all stages of the project and they aim to provide sustainable alternatives to projects for clients and also turn down work if it doesn’t include adequate measures to evaluate environmental issues. This shows that they aren’t just playing lip service with the framework and that they actually care about the sustainability aspect of their work. Arcadis has been around since 1888 and currently employs around 27,000 people with more than 350 offices around the world. They are currently involved in over 25,000 projects around the world, each year there is a bigger emphasis on sustainability throughout the process, this being said I found it hard to focus on one particular project as I found myself wanting to look into various projects.
I took a significant interest in one of Arcadis’ many projects, this being the New Jiang Wan Cultural Centre in Shanghai. I love that being a cultural centre it should have a significant emphasis on people and planet and that’s exactly what they have done. It contrasts with many other buildings in Shanghai and really stresses the importance of sustainability in the world we live in today – Especially with the throw away culture that China has today, it is a real breath of fresh air within construction in China and hopefully other firms will follow suit. China has a building lifespan of 35 years which is minuscule compared to 132-year lifespan that we have in the UK, its buildings like this that will pave the way to improving this figure.
The building is located in one of Shanghai’s only remaining wetlands and by beginning to build sustainably within this area, CallisonRTKL (a design consultancy of Arcadis) was able to help preserve this area and improve quality of rexit hits it will make it increasingly difficult for businesses that heavily rely on EU trade to operate and it is dependent on how the government negotiates its withdrawal, it will make everything from procurement to hiring staff problematic and will inevitable slow down the construction industry until it rights itself. Procurement leaders stated “Environmental policies the UK adopted as part of the EU are at risk of being compromised, and many environmentalists have voiced concerns over the negative outcome Brexit will have on the progress of sustainability in the supply chain. Brexit will lead to short term budget cuts for many companies operating within the UK, this will undoubtably cause organisations to cut their CSR budget even if the long term is essential.
It is key that we use sustainable services in the construction industry as currently the construction industry contributes incredibly large percentages, 23% of the worlds air pollution, 50% of climate change, 40% contamination of drinking water, and 50% towards filling up landfills around the world. It is evident that the industry as a whole need to do something about this as it’s only a matter of time before it’s too late.
I felt that it was important to not just focus my time in just looking into one organisation as then my essay would be bias towards their goals but I also wanted to look at an organisation that is much more focused on refining the raw materials as then I have covered all aspects of the construction process. Naturally this led me to looking at companies that produce cement and aggregate based products such as the LafargeHolcim. LafargeHolcim have significant data on the topic of sustainable construction, it might sound contradictory as they are one of the leading companies in producing cement-based products, but they are moving towards a much more sustainable outlook. They agree that to achieve long term development of the build environment you have to look into refining each part of the business and manipulating it in a way that favours sustainability. In order to reach this they have 17 sustainable development goals – amongst them is using their revenue generated from selling their products they invest into emerging markets that aim to be sustainable – this will help to offset the negative effects caused by producing cement and aggregate based products as these are very harmful for the environment on their own. An example of a project that they invested in would be ‘Urban public transit’ where LafargeHolcim was a major stakeholder in bringing the ultralight tramway line to Casablanca (2012). LafargeHolcim helped towards making the city become greener. They also provide their own solutions to contribute to the idea of sustainable construction related to energy and natural resources, they are offering solutions for mining, stabilising soil and treating acid water. This proves that they are also trying to target sustainability within their own specific market. LafargeHolcim state that “Infrastructure is can be inherently sustainable” this is due to the added investment going into renewable energy and transportation in cities. They state that we need to consider sustainability over the lifespan of a project (“cradle to grave”), so they have implemented teams towards targeting this funding.
Leading on from this one of the key points of this essay is to provide detail on how organisations find out when these tools are needed. In most organisations/companies that operate within the construction industry they are fully aware of the impact that they have on the environment but until now have chosen to ignore it due to not having a triple bottom line, hence they are just conscious about turning profits and have no regard for the catastrophy happening around them as an effect of what they have done to further their profits. This is understandable as up until the beginning of the 21st century it was the norm to not care. Most companies such as LafargeHolcim and Arcadis are thriving today due to the experience that they have within the industry – meaning they have been in the game long enough to see what’s happening (since the 19th century). They are now clearing up what they possibly spearheaded when they were growing. That is one of the keyways that they can find demand. This isn’t something to take away from them as they most likely were oblivious of the long-term effects and it’s great to see that they are taking significant action nowadays.
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