The Problem
All over the globe, cities are expanding rapidly, yet this growth presents climatic challenges. This renaissance in the construction industry is bound to have a detrimental effect on the environment. On construction sites, heavy equipment consumes a lot of fuel. Consequently, carbon-intensive materials generated at an industrial scale are used to create new buildings.
Thus, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 160 million tons, or 25%, of non-industrial waste generated annually in the United States, comes from the building industry. In light of this, let’s examine the impact in greater detail and look into potential solutions. Too many structures consume energy. According to Business Norway, the building sector is responsible for 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Also, new research by the construction blog Bimhow reports that the building industry is responsible for 23% of air pollution, 50% of climate change, 40% of drinking water contamination, and 50% of landfill trash. According to a separate study by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), commercial building emissions are expected to increase by 1.8% by 2030, accounting for 40% of global energy consumption.
The Solutions
There are numerous ways in which architects and engineers lessen the gravity of construction pollution in their working environments. Therefore, they ought to employ the necessary efforts to eliminate environmental pollution. Sumer Innovations’ approach to contributing to the efforts of reducing greenhouse CO2 emissions is:
1. Implementing materials/resource consumption reduction in the building design.
2. Retrofit existing buildings to ensure a longer life cycle and prevent demolition.
3. Streamlining all design processes using Artificial Intelligence and software to predict the amount of Carbon Dioxide during the design phase.
4. Researching and discovering new sustainable and affordable materials to replace existing construction materials.
5. Invent new 3D printing and robotic technologies to take advantage of clean solar and nuclear energy in building machinery.
The numerous ways listed above are some of the many ways in which architects and engineers are substantially minimizing the negative impact of construction activities on the environment.
