SHORT QUESTIONS

Question 1

How can you implement the 5 principles from the UK’s ‘Sustainable Development Policy’ effectively?

Answer 1

‘Living within environmental limits’ Reducing carbon and material uses - reuse/recycling processes.

‘Ensuring a strong, healthy and just society’ Construction sector transparency initiative - reduce corruption in construction businesses.

‘Achieving a sustainable economy’ Build a strong, sustainable and stable economy - give prosperity and opportunities to all.

Promoting good governance: Through consultation or good citizenship

Using sound science responsibly: This is duty and also we need to understand that science has its limitations/uncertainties when applied to the very complicated ecosystem.

Question 2

“At its heart is the simple idea of ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come” is one of several sustainability definitions. Describe three basic components of sustainability and their relationships. (6 marks)

Answer 2

Three aspects: economy, society and environment

Their relationships include:

‘weak’ sustainability allows trade-offs,

‘strong’ sustainability acknowledges that the economy is part of society, which co-exists within the environment

Question 3

Give the definition of ecological footprint and discuss how civil engineering can play roles to reduce ecological footprint. (6 marks)

Answer 3

Humanity’s demand on the planet’s living resources is called its Ecological Footprint

There are 6 components, cropland, grazing land, fishing grounds, built-up land, forest area, and carbon demand on land (didnt need to know all for this q)

Civil engineering can directly impact in Built-up Land, Carbon and Forest

Question 4

Choose three UN sustainable development goals (UNSDGs) that construction industry can make significant contributions to. (6 marks)

Answer 4

Clean water and Sanitation- Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Responsible consumption and production - manage and organise projects to produce as little waste as possible, recycling where possible

Industry, innovation and infrastructure - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation.

Sustainable cities and communities

Others: Climate action, life below water, affordable clean energy, Good health and wellbeing

Question 5

Elaborate how you, as an engineer, can contribute the implementation of three of the five principles given by the UK Government Sustainable Development Policy – Securing the Future (6 marks)

Answer 5

‘Living within environmental limits’ Reducing carbon and material uses - reuse/recycling processes.

‘Ensuring a strong, healthy and just society’ Construction sector transparency initiative - reduce corruption in construction businesses.

‘Achieving a sustainable economy’ Build a strong, sustainable and stable economy - give prosperity and opportunities to all.

Promoting good governance: Through consultation or good citizenship

Using sound science responsibly: This is duty and also we need to understand that science has its limitations/uncertainties when applied to the very complicated ecosystem.

Question 6

What are capital carbon and operational carbon? Describe which one is likely to increase in the future and why? (6 marks)

Answer 6

Capital carbon refers to emissions associated with the creation of an asset

Operational carbon refers to emissions related to operation and maintenance of the asset

Capital carbon will increase faster than operational as population overshoot means more properties are required to accommodate them

Question 7

What is life cycle assessment (LCA)? Draw a flow diagram to describe the LCA framework. (6 marks)

Answer 7

LCA is the process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the environment over the entire period of its life cycle: extraction and processing, manufacture, transport and distribution, use re-use and maintenance, recycling and final disposal

Question 8

What are the component layers of a waste hierarchy? Give your personal assessment about how the construction industry can contribute to the implementation of the UK’s National Planning Policy for Waste.

(8 marks)

Answer 8

PRROD

Prevention - reduce the generation of waste – significant role that civil engineers can play

Re-use - for the same or different purpose – when prevention is not possible think how we can re-use those from demolition process

Recycling - recover resources from waste – Aggregates are important for construction and recycling them can significantly reduce lands needed for refilling

Other recovery – e.g. burn for energy, compost

Disposal - the final option

Question 9

Choose three most relevant indicators that the construction industry can use to assess the short-term and long-term SD impacts.

(6 marks)

Answer 9

The most relevant indicators that the construction industry can use to implement SD plans are GHG emissions, raw material consumption of construction materials and wildlife protection or water use

Assess what the short-term and long-term impacts will be with or without implementing such SD plans.

Question 10

Define sustainable development (SD) and its components.

(5 marks)

Answer 10

Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future

We need to assess SD from three aspects which are the components of SD: economy, society and environment

Question 11

Describe the five principles that are covered in the UK’s SD policy.

(5 marks)

Answer 11

LEAP U

Living Within Environmental Limits

Ensuring a Strong, Healthy and Just Society

Achieving a Sustainable Economy

Promoting Good Governance

Using Sound Science Responsibly.

Question 12

What are the shared priorities for the UK action as defined in “Securing the Future”? Elaborate how a civil engineer could contribute to their implementation.

(6 marks)

Answer 12

Sustainable Consumption and Production

Climate Change and Energy

Natural Resource Protection and Environmental Enhancement

Sustainable Communities

Millennium Development Goals/UNSDGs

Link our future construction work with one or two defined action priorities such as sustainable consumption and production or climate change and energy since civil engineering takes a large share of resource use

Question 13

Give the definition for Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP).

(4 marks)

Answer 13

A SWMP is a ‘living’ plan that details the amount and type of waste that it is estimated and is in fact produced on a construction site and how it will be reused, recycled or otherwise disposed of.

Question 14

“Limits to Growth” uses a systems approach to assess the environmental, and to a lesser extent, social, impacts of economic growth. To overcome these limits explain what we need to do now instead at a late stage.

(6 marks)

Answer 14

Extend the planning horizon – earlier preparation to the worst and unpredictable situations

Improve the signals – gather information regarding the impacts for informed decision making process

Speed up response times – good governance/consultation

Minimise use of non-renewable resources – responsible resource management

Prevent erosion of renewable resources – pace the material use rate with the renewable rate

Use resources with maximum efficiency – recycle and reuse of waste

Slow and stop exponential growth of population and physical capital

Improve imbalance:

• Poverty: share what we have
• Unemployment: share the work and the outputs
• Non-material needs: can’t be met with material things

Question 15

What are the recognised technical and non-technical barriers in using Recycled and Secondary Aggregates (RSA)? To tackle these barriers what policies or strategies that UK government have implemented?

(6 marks)

Answer 15

Technical barriers include:

• Design and Specification
• Knowledge and Experience

Non-technical barriers include:

• Planning – permission required for recycling facilities
• Investment – in facilities and transport infrastructure
• Procurement – client and designer specification – see CfSH
• Cost – fiscal policy
• Legislation – waste legislation – see Quality Protocol/SWMP
• Supply – availability, quality, geography

Question 16

Describe the set targets of UK’s “Infrastructure Carbon Review” by Green Construction Board 2013.

(4 marks)

Answer 16

“ . . . to achieve a 50% reduction in operational and capital carbon by 2025 en route to an 80% reduction by 2050, relative to 1990.”

Question 17

How to provide and operate the infrastructure needed for poverty reduction (water, energy, transport etc.) in a sustainable way?

(4 marks)

Answer 17

Some approaches:

Combining large projects with smaller local approaches

‘Capacity building’ - investing in skills as well as infrastructure

Local businesses, ownership and decision making.

Labour intensive constrution

Question 18

Draw the flow chart for performance improvement cycle proposed by the Construction Products Association.

(5 marks)

Answer 18

1. Decide what to measure- what is important to organisation and customers
2. Collect data- from existing sources and new surveys
3. Calculate you Key Performance Indicators- decide what will compare results against, set realistic targets
4. Report results- e.g. plotting on radar chart
5. Analyse results- look for links between different benchmark score and set clear decision criteria to judge what action is needed
6. Take action- avoid strategies that improve one aspect at the expense of another
7. Measure again- decide on how often to measure

• The main ways that the KPIs are use in the industry are:
  
  • To benchmark the performance of specific company or sector
  • As a marketing tool
  • To provide a health check as part of continuous improvement programme
  • To meet requirements ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems
  • To provide measure other than price to support procurement decisions

Question 19

Define the term Ecological Footprint including its units and the six components that are included in its calculation.

(6 marks)

Answer 19

Humanity’s demand on the planet’s living resources [1]. This includes materials resources and ecological resources consumed. Material resources include both finite and renewable resources. Ecological resources include animals and plants, and useful farmland. [1] . . . and the eco-system ‘sinks’ for air, water and solid waste pollution [1].

Standard Eco-footprint is given in units of area (global hectares/capita or ‘Earths’) [1].

Components are 1- land for grazing, 2 - forest, 3 - fishing grounds, 4 - cropland, 5 - built-up areas and 6 – carbon -forest required to sequester CO2 emissions (not absorbed by the ocean) [2].

Question 20

Explain why the Ecological Footprint represents an environmental limit.

(4 marks)

Answer 20

The world’s environment provides resources (finite and renewable materials, land), biodiversity and sinks for wastes and pollution to air and water. These are represented by the six components of the Ecological Footprint. [1]

There is a limit to how much of these components the planet can provide, represented in the Ecological Footprint [2].

There is only one Earth (or set area/capita) and this represents the environmental limit [1]

Question 21

Explain which components of the Ecological Footprint the construction industry contributes to and why.

(10 marks)

Answer 21

Forest – use of timber and other forest products [2]

Built-up areas – directly by built assets [2] and indirectly through exploitation of resources (quarries etc) [2]

Carbon - Emissions due to resource production [1] construction and maintenance [1] and use of assets [1]

Leaving [1] mark for very good answers or something about indirect impacts on other components.

Question 22

Why, in the future, is the level of capital carbon likely to grow relative to that of operational carbon?

(5 marks)

Answer 22

Operational carbon is likely to fall in the future as there is a move to greater electrification (eg trains) and the electricity grid is decarbonised and more efficient products (eg lighting) are developed. [2].

There may be construction efficiencies but coupled with increased demand and supply for infrastructure, due to population overshoot, this is unlikely to have as large an impact [2].

Particularly because heavy plant will be slower to use lower carbon fuels because of high energy density demand – or another salient bonus point [1]

Question 23

Draw a flow chart to identify the four stages of the ISO 14040 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework and the relationship between them.

(10 marks)

Answer 23

Question 24

Draw a flow chart to describe the life cycle phases of a built infrastructure asset, such as a road or building.(5 marks)

Answer 24

Question 25

For each of the life cycle phases, material, construction, use, end of life and maintenance, describe what would be required to estimate the capital carbon and operational carbon.

Answer 25

Materials; inventory of materials used and transport distances along with carbon conversion factors [2]

Construction; plant fuel use by type (and material wastes) and carbon conversion factors [2]

Use; energy consumption of components by fuel type and carbon factors [1] but is more complicated because it is in the future, so models and predictions of future efficiencies are needed [1]

End-of-life; demolition plant use [1] waste and recyclate use and transport [1]

Maintenance; plant fuel by type and materials [1] but more complicated because it needs predictions (deterioration, replacement etc.) [1]