Green building handbook volume 3: Scope and flexibility for end-of-life options

Abstract

The pursuit of sustainable development brings the construction industry, and specifically the building industry component thereof, into sharp relief. The built environment is a major component of contemporary life. Over half the world’s population is now urbanised and by 2050 that proportion will have reached two- thirds. Buildings and structures form and alter the nature, function and appearance of the natural and built environment: it impacts on rural areas, villages, towns and cities. Buildings are known to have a long life: many of the buildings still in use around the world are many hundreds of years old. Their construction, operation, repair and maintenance and demolition consume energy and resources and generate waste in excess of any other industrial sector. Construction activity is a consumer of materials and scarce resources (water and energy), is a significant contributor to global warming emissions (including CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels), contributes to air pollution (smoke and dust pollution), generates vast quantities of waste, contaminates the soil, and destroys existing vegetation.