Research Chalenges for Sustainable DevelopmentResearch Chalenges for Sustainable Development1919.0.033--2323.0.033.201.20122, Timisoara, Romania , Timisoara, Romania

Concepte de dezvoltare durabilă Concepte de dezvoltare durabilă în ingineria mileniului III în ingineria mileniului III

Prof. Dr. Ing. Prof. Dr. Ing. Daniel GreceaDaniel Grecea, , Conf. Dr. Ing.Adrian Ciutina,Conf. Dr. Ing.Adrian Ciutina,

Conf. Dr. Ing. Conf. Dr. Ing. Viorel UngureanuViorel Ungureanu

Terms & Definitions

• The term of "sustainable" originally indicates "within the limits, in which natural resources (e.g. fish and woods) can preserve their regeneration ability".

• This scientific term of "sustainable" was applied to the economic term of "development".

“Sustainability” - Sustainable development

• Sustainable development has several definitions, such as:

• “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising that ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (the BRUNDTLAND Report WCED, 1987);

• “Improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems” (Caring for the Earth, IUCN/UNEP 1991);

• '‘Development that delivers basic environmental, social and economic services to all residences of a community without threatening the viability of natural, built and social systems upon which the delivery of those systems depends“ (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, ICLEI 1996).

• Key words: Life cycle process of buildings, requirements management, sustainable design, sustainable construction

• The word sustainable (suggesting the idea of constant, permanent or continuous) is translated to some languages (e.g. Dutch, Finnish, Romanian or French) as durable. The concept of "durable construction" may change the vision on the intended objectives, laying stress on resistance in time.

Sustainable construction

• Sustainable construction is seen as a way for the building industry to respond to achieve sustainable development.

• the Kibert definition for sustainable construction: "the creation and responsible management of a healthy built environment based on resource efficient and ecological principles"

• "a way of building which aims at reducing (negative) health and environmental impacts caused by the construction process or by buildings or by the built environment“ (1990 NEPP+).

• adopted principles : integral life cycle management (closed cycle of raw material use, retention in the cycle through life-time extension, prevention of waste, prevention of emissions); reduction in energy use; - quality improvement (materials, buildings, built environment).

Sustainable construction

• it must be seen as a special case of sustainable development aiming at a specific target group (i.e., the construction industry).

• The construction industry is defined as all parties that develop, plan, design, build, alter, or maintain the environment and includes building material manufacturers and suppliers.

Sustainable buildings

• Sustainable buildings can be defined as those buildings that have minimum adverse impacts on the built and natural environment, in terms of the buildings themselves, their immediate surroundings and the broader regional and global setting.

Sustainable building - green building

The terms ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ are often used interchangeably but there are fundamental differences between them.

Sustainable building - green building• In its most general sense, ‘green building’ is a label

for the process of design and construction which aims to produce buildings that are less damaging to the environment—and the people that use them—than most buildings currently built today.

• These buildings must be measurably less damaging in significant ways of course, and unfortunately there are many examples of ‘green’ buildings that purport to be less damaging without supporting measurements, or that otherwise claim to be have integrated environmental concerns without addressing the most significant issues.

Sustainable building - green building

• ‘Sustainable building’, however, refers more precisely to the goal of designing and constructing buildings that have no net impact on the environment, such that a total built environment composed of similar buildings could co-exist with the world’s ecological balance indefinitely.

• Green building, then, focuses on incremental steps to solve known and measurable problems with our current practice, whereas sustainable building seeks models for an unidentified future state of society.

Sustainable building

Sustainable building

• Proposed essential elements (Code for Sustainable Homes)• Energy efficiency (conservation of fuel and power)• Water efficiency (use of potable water)• Surface water management• Site waste management (during construction)• Household waste management (during occupation and use)• Use of materials

• Proposed optional elements• Lifetime Homes• Security• Soundproofing• Private external space• Day lighting• Home User guide

Stockholm 1972

• The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (also known as the Stockholm Conference) was an international conference convened under United Nations auspices held in Stockholm, Sweden from June 5-16, 1972.

• It was the UN's first major conference on international environmental issues, and marked a turning point in the development of international environmental politics.

• Attended by the representatives of 113 countries, 19 inter-governmental agencies, and more than 400 inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, it is widely recognized as the beginning of modern political and public awareness of global environmental problems.

• The meeting agreed upon a Declaration containing 26 principles concerning the environment and development; an Action Plan with 109 recommendations, and a Resolution.

Rio 1992 (1)• The United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Summit, Rio Conference, Earth Summit was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 June to 14 June 1992.

• 172 governments participated, with 108 sending their heads of state or government. Some 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attended, with 17,000 people at the parallel NGO "Global Forum", who had Consultative Status.

• The issues addressed included:– systematic scrutiny of patterns of production — particularly the

production of toxic components, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste including radioactive chemicals

– alternative sources of energy to replace the use of fossil fuels which are linked to global climate change

– new reliance on public transportation systems in order to reduce vehicle emissions, congestion in cities and the health problems caused by polluted air and smog

– the growing scarcity of water

Rio 1992 (2)• An important achievement was an agreement on the Climate Change

Convention which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol. Another agreement was to "not carry out any activities on the lands of indigenous peoples that would cause environmental degradation or that would be culturally inappropriate".

• The Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the Earth Summit, and made a start towards redefinition of money supply measures that did not inherently encourage destruction of natural ecoregions and so-called uneconomic growth.

• The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:– Rio Declaration on Environment and Development– Agenda 21– Convention on Biological Diversity– Forest Principles– Framework Convention on Climate ChangeThe Earth Summit resulted

• Critics, however, point out that many of the agreements made in Rio have not been realized regarding such fundamental issues as fighting poverty and cleaning up the environment.

• The Green Cross International was founded to build upon the work of the Summit.

Rio 1992 (3) – Agenda 21 (1)

• There are 40 chapters in the Agenda 21, divided into four main sections.

• Section I: Social and Economic Dimensions

Includes combating poverty, changing consumption patterns, population and demographic dynamics, promoting health, promoting sustainable settlement patterns and integrating environment and development into decision-making.– 2. International cooperation to accelerate sustainable development in

developing countries and related domestic policies

– 3. Combating poverty

– 4. Changing consumption patterns

– 5. Demographic dynamics and sustainability

– 6. Protecting and promoting human health conditions

– 7. Promoting sustainable human settlement development

– 8. Integrating environment and development in decision-making

Rio 1992 (3) – Agenda 21 (2)• Section II: Conservation and Management of Resources for Development

Includes , combating deforestation, protecting fragile environments, conservation of biological diversity (biodiversity), and control of pollution.

– 9. Protection of the atmosphere– 10. Integrated approach to the planning and management of land resources– 11. Combating deforestation– 12. Managing fragile ecosystems: combating desertification and drought– 13. Managing fragile ecosystems: sustainable mountain development– 14. Promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development– 15. Conservation of biological diversity– 16. Environmentally sound management of biotechnology– 17. Protection of the oceans, all kinds of seas, including enclosed and semi-

enclosed seas, and coastal areas and the protection, rational use and development of their living resources

– 18. Protection of the quality and supply of freshwater resources: application of integrated approaches to the development, management and use of water resources

– 19. Environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals, including prevention of illegal international traffic in toxic and dangerous products

– 20. Environmentally Sound Management of Hazardous Wastes, Including Prevention of Illegal International Traffic in Hazardous Wastes

– 21. Environmentally sound management of solid wastes and sewage-related issues– 22. Safe and environmentally sound management of radioactive wastes

Rio 1992 (3) – Agenda 21 (3)

• Section III: Strengthening the Role of Major Groups

Includes the roles of children and youth, women, NGOs, local authorities, business and workers.– 23. Preamble

– 24. Global action for women towards sustainable and equitable development

– 25. Children and youth in sustainable development

– 26. Recognizing and strengthening the role of indigenous people and their communities

– 27. Strengthening the role of non-governmental organizations: partners for sustainable development

– 28. Local authorities' initiatives in support of Agenda 21

– 29. Strengthening the role of workers and their trade unions

– 30. Strengthening the role of business and industry

– 31. Scientific and technological community

– 32. Strengthening the role of farmers

Rio 1992 (3) – Agenda 21 (4)

• Section IV: Means of Implementation

Implementation includes science, technology transfer, education, international institutions and mechanisms and financial mechanisms.– 33. Financial resources and mechanisms

– 34. Transfer of environmentally sound technology, cooperation and capacity-building

– 35. Science for sustainable development

– 36. Promoting education, public awareness and training

– 37. National mechanisms and international cooperation for capacity-building in developing countries

– 38. International institutional arrangements

– 39. International legal instruments and mechanisms

– 40. Information for decision-making

Earth Summit 2002• The World Summit on Sustainable Development, WSSD or Earth

Summit 2002 took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002.

• It was convened to discuss sustainable development by the United Nations. WSSD gathered a number of leaders from business and non-governmental organizations, 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. (It was therefore also informally nicknamed "Rio+10".)

• The Johannesburg Declaration was the main outcome of the Summit; however, there were several other international agreements.

– In terms of the political commitment of parties, the Declaration is a more general statement than the Rio Declaration. It is an agreement to focus particularly on "the worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to the sustainable development of our people, which include: chronic hunger; malnutrition; foreign occupation; armed conflict; illicit drug problems; organized crime; corruption; natural disasters; illicit arms trafficking; trafficking in persons; terrorism; intolerance and incitement to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and chronic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis."

• It laid out the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation as an action plan.

2009 UN Climate Change Conference

• The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 December and 18 December. The conference included the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 5th Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol.

• The Copenhagen Accord was drafted by the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa on December 18, and judged a "meaningful agreement" by the United States government. It was "taken note of", but not "adopted", in a debate of all the participating countries the next day, and it was not passed unanimously.

• The document recognised that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of the present day and that actions should be taken to keep any temperature increases to below 2°C. The document is not legally binding and does not contain any legally binding commitments for reducing CO2 emissions.

• Many countries and non-governmental organisations were opposed to this agreement, but, as of January 4, 2010, 138 countries have signed the agreement.

Kyoto Protocol• The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming. The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.“

• The Protocol was initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan and entered into force on 16 February 2005. As of November 2009, 187 states have signed and ratified the protocol.

• Under the Protocol, 37 industrialized countries (called "Annex I countries") commit themselves to a reduction of four greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons) produced by them, and all member countries give general commitments.

• Annex I countries agreed to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% from the 1990 level. Emission limits do not include emissions by international aviation and shipping, but are in addition to the industrial gases, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which are dealt with under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

WHERE ARE WE NOW ?

• Humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet• 6.6 billion people• An interconnected global economy• Human beings fill every ecological niche on the planet

from the ice tundra to the tropical rainforests to the deserts.

• In some locations, societies have outstripped the carrying capacity of the land, resulting in chronic hunger, environmental degradation and large-scale exodus of desperate populations.

• We are, in short, in one another’s faces as never before, crowded into an interconnected society of global trade, migration, ideas and yes, risk of pandemic diseases, terrorism, refugee movements and conflict.

1954 2010

Changes are accelerating !

Changes are global !

Three pillars of sustainability:planet, people, profit

• The fundamental goal of sustainable development is to preserve the ecological systems that globally are the basis for human life and biodiversity of the nature.

• However, the quality of life is recognized as the non-physical and non-ecosystem counterpart in any usable model of sustainable development

• Sustainable development has three bottom lines:- environmental (“planet”)- social - including cultural (“people”)- economic (“profit”)

Framework for sustainability

Sustainable Development; the viewfrom the Rio conference, 1992

Priorities in SD

Four bold but achievable goals

• Sustainable systems of energy, land and resource use that avert the most dangerous trends of Climate Change, species extinction and destruction of ecosystems.

• Stabilization of the world population at 8 billion or below by 2050, through a voluntary reduction of fertility rates.

• The end of extreme poverty by 2025, and improved economic security within the rich countries as well

• A new approach to global problem-solving base on cooperation among nations and the dynamism and creativity of the non-governmental sector.

Resource Flows and Sustainability

What should we measure as model outputs?

• Air emissions (NOx, SOx, Particulates)• Imports / Exports• Demand for land (External / Internal)• Job creation• Financial / economic viability• Reduction, reuse, recycling• Water / fossil & non-fossil CO2 emissions• Waste consumption• Energy consumption generation (by components)

Amount of space required to transport the same number of passengers by car, bus or bicycle

Source: poster in City of Muenster planning office, 2001

EUROPEAN INITIATIVES

• EU Sustainable Development Strategy EU SDS

• The need for research is highlighted in the following leading EU policy documents:

- An integrated maritime policy for the EU (The Blue Book)

- Energy Policy for Europe

- Strategic energy technology (SET) plan

- Green Paper "adaptation to climate change in Europe – options for EU action"

• European Sustainable Development Network ESDN

EUROPEAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT NETWORK

• Members of the ESDN are government officials responsible for SD policy formulation and implementation that indicate their interest in joining the network.

• 124 members from 32 countries

• Annual conferences since 2002

• National strategies for SD

Agenda 2001: Strategies for raising the level of “sustainable construction” in Europe

1. Contribute to the European long-term framework policies for SD

2. Facilitate a change in lifestyles and in patterns of consumption and production.

3. Reduce environmental impacts and resource depletion caused by the construction, operation and demolition of built facilities

4. Raise environmental awareness

5. Promote quality in construction (aesthetic and fitness for purpose).

6. Measure life cycle costs in terms of competitiveness factors in a way that they may be converted into performance indicators.

7. Promote renovation, re-use and re-habilitation of existing buildings.

8. Promote environmental expertise and technology so that they become increasingly competitive factors.

9. Establish mechanisms for regular review of progress achieved.

Improving Environmental Performance by purchasing 'green' products. Consequences of EU’s Public Procurement Directive and more intensifying environmental policy

GREEN PRODUCTS

We all need to reduce environmental damage and improve the quality of life for all !!...

Promote environmental sustainability; Conserve and enhance natural resources; Prevent environmental pollution

Construction industry is one of the most important economic sectors, continuing, however, to rely excessively on conventional building systems and the use of not qualified labour which are characterized by inefficient use of natural resources and non-renewable energy and the excessive production of waste:

• Depletion of natural resources (water, materials, …)

• Excessive energy consuption• Destruction of the ozone

The environmental impact of construction activity has gained increasing importance in the last few years

and become a Key subject for the education of every professionals in this area.

For many years, the single most important indicator in the practice of public purchasing was the Economic factor;

Sustainable Development (SD)

Environmental and Social factors

Green Public Procurement (GPP)

• The involvement of the key stakeholders on the European and national level, such as engineers, architects, building owners and buyers, governments, user groups, etc. is essential in the development of a Europe-wide sustainable development;

• The Government is the single largest public sector purchaser with annual spending of millions on products and services. Government procurement practices have an impact on the national economy and the goods and services made available in the market place;

• Federal employees can help reduce the impact of government operations by promoting and following green procurement practices;

• The procurement of environmentally responsible products will only work if the communication between the user, the purchaser and the supplier is effective.

• A building project can be regarded as “sustainable” only when all the various dimensions of sustainability are balanced: environmental, economic, social and cultural.

However:• The political, technological and cultural differences

between countries;• The dependence of a subjective valuation involved

in each general methods developed so far.

• Several and different approaches for the sustainability assessment;

• Different indicators have been developed by administrations, organizations and industries at local, national and global levels.

• Sustainable Certification Systems

– LEED (US)

– CASBEE (Japan)

– BREEAM (UK)

– HQE (France)

– German Sustainable Building Certification (Germany)

– SBTool (iiSBE) – SBTool VERDE (iiSBE Spain); Protocollo ITACA (iiSBE Itália); SBTool CZ (iiSBE Czech Republic); SBTool PT/MARS (iiSBE Portugal)

LEED - US

CASBEE (Japan)

BREEAM (UK)

SBTool

Voluntary Tools for Sustainability Assesment

SBTool / MARS iiSBE Portugal

• Structure of the methodology MARS-H

• Selection of indicators and parameters

• Quantification of parameters– Environmental

Using databases with the environmental impacts and embodied primary energy for each construction solutions (walls, floors, windows, doors, finishing’s, etc.)

– Societal

Using one of the different analytical methods or through experimental monitoring

– Economic

Using costs databases or through the use of external Life-cycle costing (LCC)

• Graded scale for performance assessment

The normalized values of the parameters and aggregated parameters are converted in a graded scale using the following conversion:

• Representation and global assessment of a project

The assessment output are presented at two levels:

Level 1: Categories

Level 2: Sustainable dimensions and sustainable score

The assessment output is similar to the approach adopted by existing schemes such as EU Energy labelling scheme for white goods and European DisplayTM Campaign posters.

Some conclusions?

• Sustainable design, construction and use of buildings are based on the evaluation of the environmental pressure, functional, societal and economic aspects;

• The sustainable evaluation involves subjective rating and depends above all on the type of solution, as well as on socio-economic and cultural heritage of the evaluators;

• Public purchasers are the leading actors of Sustainable Development;

Some conclusions (2)• Departments and organizations can and must reduce the

environmental impacts from their operations by planning meetings and conferences that are as environmental responsible as possible;

• Green alternatives can be more energy efficient. Initial expenditure may be marginally higher but the average payback periods for such initiatives are measured in months, not years.

• Many waste minimization measures cost nothing, but yield big results;

• The conservation of natural resources is becoming very much important. If finite resources are not preserved now there will be major scarcity issues in years to come.