Presentation 2

Department of Civil Engineering
U18CE702C
Sustainable Materials and Green Buildings
Dr. A. Suchith Reddy

U18CE702C Sustainable Materials and Green Buildings
Course Learning Objectives (LOs):

This course will develop students’ knowledge in /on
LO1: concepts of sustainability and governing principles
LO2:green and sustainable building materials
LO3:energy and carbon reduction in buildings
LO4:building performance towards sustainability
Course Learning Outcomes (Cos):

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to…
CO1: infer the significance of sustainability in construction engineering
CO2: appraise and select sustainable building materials
CO3: interpret the energy and carbon reduction strategies
CO4: rate and propose sustainable building
Why does sustainability matter in engineering?
While sustainability obviously matters in every industry, there are a few reasons why
it’s a particular concern in engineering:
• Engineering uses a lot of the earth’s resources, including, carbon, energy, water,
and raw materials.
• Engineering projects also produce a lot of waste.
• The machinery and vehicles used in engineering can produce harmful emissions
and noise pollution.
• Waste from engineering and development produces pollutants that can
contaminate the air and water.
• Local engineering projects can have a long-lasting global impact.
• Engineers can play an important role in sustainable community development
This puts engineers in a powerful position: since they are the source of the problem, they get to decide how to
solve it.
While sustainability has to be an organisation-wide effort, engineers decisions carry more weight because
they’re responsible for the design and execution of new projects. They decide how to meet the requirements of
a job. They can help choose and procure the materials and supplies, and have ideas on how to use equipment
and machinery more efficiently to finish a task faster.
A project’s efficiency and success depend largely on the engineers. If they start following sustainable
practices, the environmental impact of the whole team will probably improve.
Engineering Principles for Sustainability
Sustainable engineering transforms existing engineering disciplines and practices

to those that promote sustainability.
Sustainable engineering incorporates development and implementation of

technologically and economically viable products, processes, and systems that
promote human welfare, while protecting human health and elevating the
protection of the biosphere as a criterion in engineering solutions.
The Principles of Sustainable engineering provide a paradigm in which engineers

can design products and services to meet societal needs with minimal impact on
the global ecosystem.
The principles cannot be taken as independent elements, but rather, should be

considered as a philosophy for the development of a sustainable society.
The principles are not prescriptive. They do not provide engineers with a
definitive methodology for deriving a sustainable design. Rather, they provide
engineers with overarching concepts that can be used along with traditional
design principles to develop new products and services to be applied for the
growth and development of human society, while simultaneously minimizing the
impact of these designs on the global ecosystem.
Classification of sustainable engineering principles versus
environmental, social, and economic criteria.
Various principles of sustainable engineering versus environmental,
social, and economic poles (related to above figure)
Some of these principles clearly gravitate towards one of the corners of

this triangle and thus address particularly societal, environmental, or
economic concern.
But some others, which are placed along the sides of the triangle, have
connections to two of the poles of the diagram and address both societal
and economic, or both economic and environmental concerns in some
proportion.
Those principles placed in the center of the diagram combine all three
aspects of sustainability to a certain degree and hence their
implementation would benefit all societal, environmental, and economic
stakeholders. We should not consider this collection of principles set in
stone
Sustainability Approaches in Engineering
Sustainability Approaches in Engineering

Traditional Engineering Sustainable Engineering
Considers the object or process Considers the whole system in

which the object or process will be
used
Focuses on technical issues Considers both technical and non-
technical issues synergistically
Solves the immediate problem Strives to solve the problem for

infinite future (forever?)
Considers the local context Considers the global context
Assumes others will deal with Acknowledges the need to interact

political, ethical, and societal issues the experts in other disciplines
related to the problem
Principles of Sustainable Engineering
Principle Approach Importance
1. Strive to ensure that (a) Reduce hazard. Reduces/minimizes dangers by
material/energy inputs and outputs reduction of intrinsic hazards.
not hazardous (b) Reduce exposure.
2. Waste minimization over waste Good design is creative about use of Lowers expenses in purchasing and
management. by-products. disposal.
3. Design for easy separation and Plan for recycle and reuse. Easy separation/purification = easy
purification. waste management.
4. All components must be designed Smaller is generally better. Lowers expenses.
for maximum mass, energy, and
temporal efficiency.
5. Avoid unnecessary consumption of Production must respond to real-time Minimization of overproduction.
mass/energy versus. demands.
6. Use entropy and complexity as Not all products should receive the Disposal solutions can no longer be
guidelines to decide end-of-cycle. same end-of cycle treatment. seen as one-size-fits-all.
7. A product must not outlast its uses. Over-design is a design flaw. Decrease accumulation of high-tech
waste.
8. A product must not have Design for realistic uses and Reduces/eliminates the use of
unnecessary capabilities/capacities. conditions. components needed.
9. Minimize material diversity. Minimize the use of different Simplify waste management.
materials, esp. adhesives, sealants,
coating.
10. Product creation is only one part Take into account methods of Minimize environmental impact of
of the cycle. extraction of needed resources and related life-cycle steps.
transport.
11. Evaluate products based on life- Take into account methods of Minimize environmental impact of
cycle analysis. extraction of needed resources and related life-cycle steps.
transport.
12.Prioritize the use of renewable and Avoid using non-renewables, except Minimize the overall impact of
readily available resources. when using renewables may be more resource use.
Case Study
This example presents a success story about how sustainable engineering has
been applied to address a critical community need.
The need is always placed in the center of an engineering project and directs
design efforts. In this case, the need was a flood prevention system.
While the traditional approach of creating the concrete trapezoidal channel

(below figure) would address the need perfectly and cost-effectively, it would
have environmental and social trade-offs. For example, construction would
destroy or disturb natural vegetation and wildlife, cause high soil erosion, create
a large amount of construction waste, and have a negative aesthetic impact.
The alternative approach was to convert these problematic trade-offs into
benefits. That required some additional investment and a wider range of
collaboration among civil engineers, ecologists, and landscape architects.
The result was creation of a permanent, landscaped, ecologically compatible

relief channel, with amenities and environmental features of a natural river
(below fig.) which eventually became an asset to the community and increased
rather than decreased the quality of life.
The principles of sustainability guide the sustainable design, the
process of thinking. This stage determines how things are supposed to be
made and how they will function over their whole lifecycle.
The sustainable engineering stage deals with technical implementation of

ideas. Sometimes it is not an easy process, and some aspects of design
may be changed or compromised.
The design and engineering routes practically converge, we may have
a technology created. Technology provides processes and products.
Only then the benefits of new ideas and new engineering developments
become available to society.
Here we can identify the role of technology as some sort of portal through
which the established principles of sustainable design and
engineering may affect people’s lifestyle.
Because of people's strong dependence on multiple technologies, those

become the factors that can facilitate change in society and can even
become tools of manipulation and initiation of global trends.
Below fig. shows how the most general sustainability principles are
narrowed down to specific material outcomes for the society.
Hierarchy of sustainability guidelines
and role of technologies emphasized.
What are the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs)? The systems approach depicts
sustainable development as
In September 2015, world leaders from all 193 the intersection of the goals
member states of the United Nations (UN) made attributed to three interlinked
history by unanimously adopting a 15-year plan systems: environmental (or
for global sustainable development. ecological), economic and
social.
Known as Agenda 2030, the plan centers on 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim
for economic growth, social justice and
environmental protection everywhere in the world,
leaving nobody behind.
The SDGs build on decades of international work,

including eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), launched by the UN in 1990. While the
MDGs helped reduce poverty, hunger and child
mortality, and improved access to clean water and
sanitation, critics argued that they failed to
adequately address within-country disparities,
human rights, and environmental concerns,
prompting development of the more inclusive
SDGs to address such gaps.
Each individual SDG includes qualitative and
quantitative targets to assess if the goal has been met.
Across the 17 goals, there are 169 targets and 232 related
indicators
United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (UNSDGs)
What is a Systems Approach?
Rather than aiming to check off the 17 goals

separately, a systems-based approach focuses on
how we might achieve the SDGs as a coherent
unit.
A systems-based approach recognizes that

progress on one goal, in one place, could either
undermine or enhance progress on other goals,
there or elsewhere.
Interactions and feedbacks among the SDGs can be

both negative (producing trade-offs or diminishing
efforts) and positive (producing synergies or
reinforcing efforts).
As an example of a reinforcing feedback, take the

targets shown in Figure 1; providing access to safe
drinking water (target 6.1), and enabling income
growth (target 10.1) will reinforce efforts to
eradicate poverty (target 1.1).
Why is a systems approach necessary?
Programs that focus on individual goals in isolation are likely to miss opportunities
for increasing the impact of limited resources (via synergies and reinforcing
feedbacks).
In the worst case, a narrow focus that fails to see cross-goal negative feedbacks (e.g.
pursuing economic growth without connecting to social or environmental impacts)
can entirely undermine the impacts a given sustainable development program is
aiming to achieve.
Some rationale for taking a systems approach includes the following.
•Missing the whole:

The land, climate, oceans and water are all part of one Earth life-support system in which
humans are intimately embedded.
Changes in one affect changes in all. Failing to recognize these interactions is leading to
deterioration of the whole Earth system.
It has become increasingly clear that safeguarding our land, oceans, freshwater and
climate is a precondition for social justice and strong economic development and vice
versa. Failing to capture these interactions can undermine critical parts of the functioning
whole.
•One place vs. the world:
SDG interactions can be affected by multiple factors like timespan, geography, governance,
cultural practices and more.
SDG implementation calls for a deep understanding of site-specific context, policy and
knowledge, local land management, to truly comprehend global and regional implications.
It is essential to be able to answer: what does progress mean towards a particular SDG in a local
or regional context? before setting an implementation strategy. Similarly, we cannot assume
that the sum of local actions will add up to ensure sustainability globally.
•Leveraging synergies:
Effectively capturing synergies across SDG goals can also lead to increased overall
impact including cost savings.
For example, one study showed how simultaneously targeting energy security (goal 7),
climate change (goal 13) and air pollution (linked to multiple goals) in energy systems
could improve all three at only slightly higher cost than achieving just the climate
change goal alone.
Climate change impacts construction

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Department of Civil Engineering

Sustainable Materials and Green Buildings

Dr. A. Suchith Reddy

Course Learning Objectives (LOs):

Course Learning Outcomes (Cos):

Sustainable engineering transforms existing engineering disciplines and practices

Sustainable engineering incorporates development and implementation of

The Principles of Sustainable engineering provide a paradigm in which engineers

The principles cannot be taken as independent elements, but rather, should be

Some of these principles clearly gravitate towards one of the corners of

Sustainability Approaches in Engineering

Considers the object or process Considers the whole system in

Solves the immediate problem Strives to solve the problem for

Assumes others will deal with Acknowledges the need to interact

While the traditional approach of creating the concrete trapezoidal channel

The result was creation of a permanent, landscaped, ecologically compatible

The sustainable engineering stage deals with technical implementation of

Because of people's strong dependence on multiple technologies, those

The SDGs build on decades of international work,

Rather than aiming to check off the 17 goals

A systems-based approach recognizes that

Interactions and feedbacks among the SDGs can be

As an example of a reinforcing feedback, take the

Some rationale for taking a systems approach includes the following.

•Missing the whole:

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