Sustainability (Level 1/2) Flashcards
UK Sustainability Legislation?
Agricultural Land Act
Building Act
Climate Change Act
Water Act
How to calculate life cycle costs?
Capital Cost
+ Operating Cost
+ Maintenance Cost
+ Replacement Cost
- EOL Value
= Life Cycle Cost
Define sustainability?
To meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations
Key principles of sustainability
Social - Healthy communities
Economical - Strong & competitive economies
Environmental - Protect & Enhance the natural & built environment
Impacts of construction on the environment?
Land Degradation - Extraction of natural resources
Water Pollution - Run off & spills
Air & Noise Pollution - Use of heavy machinery
High Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions
Design considerations regarding sustainability
In the UK Water Industry:
- High quality built assets to minimise the need of future developments
- Support health, social and cultural well being
What is COP27?
27th Conference of Parties:
- Meeting attended by countries that signed the UN treaty on climate change
What happened at COP27?
- Highlighted the countries mostly affected by ‘loss and damage’ of extreme weather
- Loss and Damage fund agreed, £100bn per year if country doesn’t meet targets
Building regs regarding sustainability
Part L - Conservation of Fuel and Power
Part S - Charging of Electric Vehicles
What is BRE / it’s role?
Building Research Establishment - developing scienced based solutions to improve sustainability in the built environment
Codes of practices for measuring sustainability?
BREEAM - Building, Research, Establishment, Environmental Assessment Method
Determines the environmental performance of buildings undertaken by a licensed assessor
What steps does your company undertake to ensure it operates in a sustainable manner?
Recycle Paper, plastics etc
Implement the cycle to work scheme
Reduce printing by using cloud based storage systems
All company cars to be Electric by 2025
Use of electric / HVO plant when possible
Method of sustainable construction?
Any I have been part of?
Solar Panels
Wind Turbines
Reedbeds on Wastewater construction sites remove (by absorption and adsorption) pollutants from wastewater
Paris Agreement
International treaty which commits all major emitting countries to cut their climate pollution
Aim to limit global warming to below 2 degrees
Meaning of Carbon Neutral?
Balance between carbon emitted and carbon absorbed by carbon sinks
What is the Governments net zero legislation?
Policies for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy by 2050
What will the water industry introduce to achieve net zero by 2030?
Production of biomethane from sewage waste which will be used to heat homes
Electrification of all passenger vehicles and 80% of commercial vehicles
Restoration of lands and planting of new trees
Can you give an example of undertaking life cycle cost exercises which take account of sustainability issues?
Yes, when working on Verulam Rd, we changed from open cut to auger boring. One of the benefits on this was sustainability, with less muck requiring to be disposed offsite.
Also on Verulam Rd, we hire additional land, which we used to store earth and topsoil, which was then relayed. This was both a better whole life cost and more sustainable than disposal and purchase of the same material again
Verulam Project - How did you undertake the exercise to determine the impact of sustainability issues on the different construction methodologies?
The two factors to consider each methodologies carbon footprint:
Emissions produced from machinery
Quantity of waste produced
Oswestry WTW Project - Where did you obtain information and advice regarding the different options for plant regarding their sustainable credentials?
I liaised with our Plant department to understand the sustainable options they had available, as well as undertaking my own research
Oswestry WTW Project - How did you undertake the cost/benefit analysis of the different options?
I had to consider:
Hire cost of each tower light
Fuel consumption of each plant
Cost of fuel for each plant, consumption x rate x duration
