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RICS > Sustainability > Flashcards

Sustainability Flashcards

1
Q

What is meant by the term sustainability?

A

It means to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- Key principles were set out within the Brundtland Commission Report, Our Common Future 1987, which identified the need for sustainable development around environmental protection, economic growth and social equity (THINK THREE PILLARS). Called for gradual change to conserve resources and the environment.

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2
Q

What are the three pillars/keyprinciples of sustainability?

A

SOCIAL: Building healthy relationships with sufficient numbers and range of buildings.
ECONOMICAL: Build strong, responsive, competitive economies ensuring sufficient land and right types.
ENVIRONMENTAL: Contributing towards the protection and enhancement of our natural, built and historic environment.

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3
Q

What are the core principles of planning and decision making around sustainability?

A
  • Creative processes should be used.
  • Proactive steps should be taken to achieve sustainable development.
  • Secure the development of high quality built assets.
  • account for the character of the surrounding area.
  • Support a climate-resilient and low-carbon economy.
  • Conserve/ enhance natural environment and reduce pollution.
  • Encourage use of brownfield sites.
  • conserve heritage
  • maximise use of public transport, cycling and walking.
  • Support health, social and cultural well-being.
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4
Q

What are the most common environmental issues experienced on construction sites?

A

-Water pollution
-Air and Noise pollution
-High energy consumption and high carbon emissions
- Risk of land contamination
- Damage to wild habitats
- High wastage production into landfill
- Release of dangerous gases and chemicals.

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5
Q

What are the key pieces of legislation that affect sustainability in construction?

A

Agricultural Land Act: enables land to be acquired for a particular purpose e.g. to control pests.
Building Act: This is the primary piece of UK legislation that enables Building Regs to be enforced. It assists the conservation of fuel and power, to prevent waste, misuse or contamination of water and the overall ensure those in and around buildings and kept safe.
Clean Air Act: This legislation provides legal authorities in England to introduce measures in order to control air pollution.
Climate Change Act: This is a legally binding framework to tackle climate change. It imposed targets to cut greenhouse emissions compared with 1990 levels 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

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6
Q

What are the key building regs that relate to sustainability in construction?

A

PART L: Conservation of fuel and power
Energy performance of Building Regulations
- Requires that EPC’s are produced for dwellings and non-dwellings
- Quantifies energy efficiency
-required when buildings and built, sold or rented.
- commercial buildings over 500sqm and frequented by the public need to display their display energy certificate (DEC) based on actual energy used.

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7
Q

What are the different forms of taxation to support sustainability?

A

Landfill tax: an environmental tax payable in addition to landfill rates charged by private disposal companies.
This tax was introduced as a means to encourage alternative methods of disposal such as recycling.
The tax is charged based on weight at varying rates depending on whether the waste is inert or active.

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8
Q

What does BREEAM stand for?

A

Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method

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9
Q

What do you know about BREEAM?

A
  • Code of practice that sets best practice standards for the environmental performance of buildings through spec, design, construction and operation.
    It applies to new and refurbishment projects, both domestic and non-domestic.
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10
Q

How is BREEAM assessed?

A
  • The assessment is undertaken by a licensed assessor based on

energy,
land and ecology,
water,
health and wellbeing,
pollution,
materials and
waste management.

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11
Q

What are the different BREEAM Ratings?

A

Outstanding 85%+
Excellent 70%+
Very Good 55%+
Good 40%+
Pass 25%+
Acceptable 10%+
Unclassified <10%

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12
Q

What do you know about SKA ratings?

A

An RICS environmental assessment method for non-domestic fit outs such as office refurbishments.
The scheme assesses fit out projects against a set of sustainability good practice criteria, known as Good Practice Measures (GPM)
SKA can act as an alternative to BREEAM as it is a cheaper alternative.

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13
Q

What are you aware about LEED (Life Cycle Assessments)?

A

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
It is the US equivalent of BREEAM
Ratings are:
- LEED Certified
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
This method reviews embodied aspects of carbon emissions as well as life cycle assessment during construction and operation.

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14
Q

What procedures does your firm implement to promote sustainability?

A
  • New office refurbishment: SKA certified and recycled existing materials to encourage circular economy with QR codes around the office that can be scanned to detail how/ why for both employees and visitors information
  • Recycling in the office
  • Use of motion sensor, energy efficient lighting
  • electric car scheme
  • cycle to work scheme and inter-office step/get fit competitions
  • cloud based systems to reduce paper
  • tree planting
  • sign up to green initiatives
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15
Q

What is the Paris Agreement?

A

This is a legally binding international treaty concerning climate change.
- It was adopted by nearly every nation and came in to affect in 2016.
- The goal of the Paris agreement is to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees whilst targeting pre-industrial 1.5 degrees levels.
- This agreement commits all major emitting countries to cut their climate pollution.
It also creates a framework for the transparent monitoring and reporting of each individual countries progress.

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16
Q

Name some sustainable building methods?

A
  • Use of recycled materials such as reclaimed timber, recycled tiles and plastics.
  • Ground Source Heat Pumps
  • Air source heat pumps
  • solar panels
  • wind turbines
  • solar shading
  • rain water harvesting
  • green roofs
  • automated building systems (Lighting sensors)
17
Q

What is your understanding of the term ‘Green Roof’?

A
  • A green roof is a roof covering that is partially or completely covered with vegetation that is placed over a waterproof membrane.
  • Additional layers such as drainage layers, irrigation systems or root barriers may also be placed over the membrane.
  • Rooftop ponds are an alternative form of green roof which are used to treat grey water.
  • The vegetation, soil, drainage layer, root barriers and irrigation system are typically the key components of a green roof.
  • ADV of green roof: absorb rainwater, provide extra insulation, increase biodiversity, provide habitats, aesthetically pleasing and lower urban air temperatures.
18
Q

What are Photovoltaics and how do they work?

A

PV allow the conversion of sunlight into electricity.
Sunlight contains energy known as photons
When photos hit solar modules within the solar panel they cause electrons to flow through the bottom layer which generates electricity that flows into an inverter.
- The inverter converts DC electricity into AC that is then used to power the building.

19
Q

What is a soakway and how do they work?

A
  • offer a means of surface water drainage attenuation
  • consist of large holes in pits that receive surface water from a drainage pipe
  • The soakway allows the collected surface water to gradually infiltrate through the soil.
20
Q

What does the term carbon neutral mean?

A
  • Carbon neutrality is where there is a balance between the carbon emitted and the carbon absorbed from the atmosphere in carbon sinks.
  • This is an important measure of the impact that businesses and projects have on the environment and global warming
  • To date no artificial carbon sinks are able to remove carbon from the atmosphere at the levels required to offset global warming.
21
Q

What is meant by the term solar gain?

A

Solar gain is the name given to the increase in temperature in a space, object or structure due to solar radiation (the heat from the sun)
- A building can retain this solar gain by having high thermal mass or can avoid it by using reflective materials and insulation.

22
Q

How can solar gain be managed in buildings?

A
  • Limiting the size and area of opening such as doors and windows
  • shading or orientating doors and windows from direct sunlight
  • Using reflective materials on the glass and building fabric.
  • Insulating walls and roof spaces to prevent indirect solar gains into the building.
23
Q

How does a ground source heat pump work?

A
  • Heat from the ground is absorbed at low temperatures into a fluid loop inside a loop of pipe (a ground loop)
  • The fluid then passes through a compressor that raises into a higher temperature, which can then heat water for the heating and hot water circuits of the house/building.
  • The cooled ground-loop fluid passes back into the ground where it absorbs further energy from the ground in a continuous process as long as heating is required.
24
Q

What is your understanding of SUDS?

A

SUDS are sustainable underground drainage systems
SUDS will slow down drainage water run off by allowing it to infiltrate and soak into natural contours and landscapes.
SUDS are considered to be environmentally friendly as they do not rely on the manufacture of plastic or clay drainage components and instead utilise natural vegetation and material to absorb surface water.

25
Q

What are the benefits of a BREEAM Certified building?

A

BREEAM buildings help clients benefit from lowering the running costs of their built assets and minimising the impact on the environment through consideration at planning, design, construction and operation phases.
Other benefits include greater marketability to building tenants through lower running costs and creating desirable places to live and work.
- A higher building value and positive PR message is also achieved through the increased sustainability of the building, particularly when achieving BREEAM very good upwards.

26
Q

What is an EPC?

A

Energy Performance Certificates - introduced in 2007 and are a legal requirement for a building to be sold, let or constructed.
- Once obtained it is valid for 10 years.
- The most efficient built assets typically have the lowest fuel bills and are in band A.
- EPCs are rated on a scale A-G
- The energy efficiency of the built asset along with the potential efficiency following improvements are identified.
- The EPC will also show the amount of CO2 emissions produced by the property in tonnes and will advise the amount this could be reduced by.

27
Q

What sustainable initiatives are you aware of that are being implemented by the RICS?

A
  • The RICS SKA ratings encourages green codes of practice for commercial properties
  • RICS has also launched the ‘ value the planet’ campaign and committed to forming a climate change expert panel o implement the UN’s sustainable development goals.
  • RICS has launched a responsible business report filled with solutions for companies to operate in a greener capacity, regardless of the firm’s size. This includes higher recycling rates and reducing energy, transport and water use where possible.
28
Q

Can you define what cradle to cradle is?

A

Designing materials and construction elements with the thought of recyclability in the future.

29
Q

How can BREEAM be used on a scheme?

A

a. A target is set at the early stages of a scheme (as early as possible) for the scheme to achieve this rating.
b. A register is usually produced by a sustainability consultant, this contains all items that award the project with points if achieved to certain levels.
c. The items are focussed and split into BREEAM categories, and focuses on low impact design, reduction of CO2 emissions, ecological values etc.
d. The building is assessed pre construction in the specification and design, and again during construction (how is it constructed), and then assessed in how the building is then used/operated.

30
Q

What is Nabers?

A

Environmental assessment method for commercial office space only.

31
Q

What is COP29?

A

a. UN climate change conference, where all countries part of the alliance make commitments to cut down on CO2 emissions, by having limits set. This also helps fund countries that are struggling with the effects of climate change.

HOT TOPIC: BECOME AWARE OF SOME OF THE OUTCOMES

32
Q

Are you aware of any change to Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES)?

A

EPC requirements are changing from 2025 where minimum energy rating is going from E to C for domestic rental properties

RICS (18 decks)

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