Sustainability

Anitta Dsouza

Sustainability is made up of three pillars: the economy, society, and the environment, refers to the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time

Figure: A thermal image of a standard “stick built” wall and a precast wall. Blue shows areas of less thermal transference

Net Zero Operational Carbon Dioxide emissions

The carbon dioxide produced as a result of the production and use of the energy from fossil fuels consumed for the day-to-day operation of the building or structure, including Low zero-carbon renewable energy technologies as the superstructure mainly consists of structural steel as well as the Insulated Concrete Sandwich Wall Panels with bricks facing both these components carbon dioxide emission is comparatively low as the conventional concrete. The superior insulation property of the sandwich wall panel reduces the fuel requirement for heating.

Thermal efficiency: Edge-to-edge, top-to-bottom rigid insulation can be used within a relatively thin wall, providing a high effective R-value. The thermal mass of the concrete provides an added benefit by slowing heat transmission through the wall, flattening out temperature swings.

Net Zero Embodied Carbon Dioxide

Of all the metals used in construction, steel is amongst the most environmentally-friendly. It has a lower embodied carbon impact than concrete and generates less waste. CarbonCure offers precast producers a cost-effective way to reduce the embodied carbon of their precast products. CarbonCure Precast injects captured CO₂ into concrete during mixing, just like an admixture. Once introduced into the concrete, a chemical reaction occurs where the CO₂ is converted into a mineral and permanently embedded in the concrete.

This process improves the strength of concrete and so strength performance is maintained with reduced cement content in the mixes. Best of all, this reduction of cement content — the material with the highest carbon impact — has no impact on any fresh or hardened properties of the precast concrete. However, the process of manufacturing, transportation and election of these materials contribute to carbon dioxide emission.

Sustainable Water Cycle

As the major process involves erection as sandwich concrete panel forms the external envelope, these are precast as well as in the erection of structural steel. The roof is pitched roof for the proposed building which would enable rainwater harvesting and it’s usage, thereby recycling the rain water.

Sustainable Connectivity and Transport

The resultant carbon impact of the travel of occupants and visitors to and from site or building to a local transport hub or local retail and community facilities would be minimum as building itself has a super market as well as very near to the major transportation networks.

Sustainable Land Use and Bio-diversity

Global and UK biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, while at the same time the pressure to expand our built environment to create more homes is growing. This outcome therefore aims to avoid development on sensitive and ecologically rich landscapes and to make the best use of previously inhabited sites for development. The proposed building which is close to the river Don, the ecological life as the apartments on the rear side of the building is overlooking the river.

Sustainable Communities and Social Value (various metrics)

The proposed building improves the value of the surrounding areas as it would be able to act as a tourist spot overlooking the river the fresh and calm atmosphere attract the tourists and it would bring about the change in surrounding areas.

Sustainable Life Cycle Cost(£/m2)

Life cycle costs play a pivotal role in the financial management of construction projects around the world. They allow critical decisions to be made regarding the relative importance of capital and longer-term costs, which ultimately impact asset performance, longevity, disaster resilience and sustainability.

Good Health and Wellbeing (various metrics)

Indoor Air Quality Daylight, overheating, acoustic comfort, responsive controls, and physical contact to outside. BOD can be shown to come from outdoor sourced pollution.

To save building energy losses it has been usual practise to make building envelopes as well sealed as possible as shown by BSRIA testing. This also has the added benefit of helping stop the ingress of outside sourced air pollution into the building. Healthvent identified three strategies to reduce outdoor sourced air pollution coming into the building.

Optimal dilution using ventilation
Effective Air Filtration to reduce PM2.5 by 50%
Source control of pollution

Effective Air Filtration was shown to be the easiest measure to implement and give the best reduction of incoming pollution with minimum effort.

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