The people in 2021 are realising the need of sustainability and slowly moving on to adapt sustainable practices in their projects. As a modern evolving species, it's our responsibility to preserve our environment along with our progression. Construction industry is linked to everyone in someway and largely affects our environment.
But How to be include Sustainability in Construction? How can a small project contribute to improve the environment?
The fate of any construction project lies on mainly three strings, Builder/Client, Architect and Structural Consultant.
Architect and Structural Engineer can provide technical services whereas the decision power lies within the Builder/Client. So, the seed of including Sustainability starts from their front. In this blog, the role of structural engineer to increase the sustainability in a construction project is discussed.
Role of a Structural Engineer
The two major thing that is regulated by a structural engineer are material and design.
1. So, first way of providing a sustainable design will be to do rigorous analysis and provide most Optimised sections and reinforcement. The lesser the size, lesser consumption of materials and reduced construction cost. In the second point, we will discuss the effects of the construction materials. Earlier, the structures would have heavier sections and more columns. With increase in technology and software development, structural engineers became more efficient. With Optimised Sections and High Strength materials It became possible to construct High Rise Structures.
But, in small projects, the wrong notion among people is that More Reinforcement = More Strength. This is not true and People need to be made aware about it. The aim should be achieving required strength in the Optimized way possible.
2. Second way, is by providing alternate materials to be used in the project. The main materials that are commonly used in the structure are, cement, bricks, steel bars, aggregates and sand. Now, we are going to discuss each construction material.
Cement-
Cement production is the third ranking producer of anthropogenic (man-made) CO2 in the world after transport and energy generation.
1kg of cement production generates 0.78 kg of CO2. 30% CO2 is produced for “Energy required by burning coals” and rest 70% is produced by “Process of forming cement”
Good suggestion is to use PPC instead of OPC as PPC has some percentage of Fly Ash (thermal Plants By-product) mixed with cement.
Bricks-
Conventional red bricks made by burning of clays generates lot of pollution as it uses coal to ignite in the chimneys.
Good suggestion is to use Flyash bricks as fly ash is a waste material and can be recycled in the form of bricks. The density and strength is at par or better than the conventional bricks and more cost effective.
In small structures like G+1 building or where bricks are used as an infill material, an unorthodox approach can be taken. Plastic bottles filled and compacted with plastic wastes can be used as bricks. They are known as Bottle Bricks or EcoBricks.
Source-https://www.africaglobalradio.com/the-toa-house-story-building-homes-using-plastic-bottles/
Source- https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/hyd-entrepreneur-making-houses-bathrooms-and-more-using-treated-plastic-89327
To learn more about Ecobricks, refer this link https://www.ecobricks.org/
Aggregates-
Production of aggregates require to breakdown mountains and rocks, while disturbing the natural resources.
Good suggestion can be to use aggregates made by recycled construction waste. Not only it will help to save the resources but also help to prevent landfill due to huge construction waste being generated every year.