Sustainability Flashcards
Why is Sustainability important to construction?
The construction industry accounts for 40% of CO2 emissions. Construction also produces hazardous waste affecting the environment and the health of people living around it.
Can you outline the three principles of sustainability?
- Environmental - preventing harmful and potentially irreversible impacts on the environment.
- Economic - Efficient use of resource, including labour and ensuring the design and construction meets the current and functional needs of the users
- Social - Development should respond to the need of wider communities.
How can you measure sustainability?
The use of sustainability assessments such as LEED, BREEAM, SKA.
What is the Paris Agreement?
Sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to below 2degrees.
Name some of the technology available to help meet Part L of the Building regs.
(Part L - Conservation of fuel and power)
- Wind turbines
- Ground source heat pumps
- Rainwater harvesting
- Green roofs
- SUDS
- Solar shading
- Natural ventilation
What is a U-Value?
U-Values measure how effective a material is as an insulator. The lower the U-Value, the better the material as a heat insulator.
How do ground source heat pumps work?
The systems are made up of a ground loop buried underground and a heat pump at ground level. Fluids are pumped around the ground loop which absorb the naturally occurring heat stored in the ground.
What is BREEAM?
Building Research Establishment, Environmental Assessment Method.
Third-party certification of the assessment of the sustainability performance of individual buildings, communities and infrastructure projects.
What are the BREEAM headline assessment categories?
- Management
- Health and Wellbeing
- Energy
- Transport
- Water
- Materials
- Waste
- Land use and Ecology
- Pollution
- Innovation
What are the key advantages of BREEAM?
- Demonstrates a level of achievement
- Can reduce operating costs
- Compliance can lower environmental impact
What Building Regulations apply to sustainability?
Approved Document Part L - Conservation of fuel and power
What is Passivhaus?
Passivhaus is a performance-based set of design criteria for very low energy buildings, which can help create buildings which use around 90% less energy then standard UK buildings.
What is EPC?
Energy Performance Certificate
The document sets out the energy efficiency of a property on a traffic light system A to G.
What are SUDS?
Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems.
Designed to efficiently manage the drainage of surface water.
