Sustainable Construction

Aim

The construction industry has a very large share of the total environmental impact in society. It is important to have an understanding of the origin of environmental problems and possible solutions. After the course the student should be able to:

• critically evaluate different alternative perspectives on environmental problems
• act preventively to reduce the environmental impact of material and energy use.
• describe a construction process based on a life cycle perspective (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC).

Content

The starting point in the course is to use Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for house construction. With the help of an LCA, one can study the different steps and resource utilization of the process. Through early analysis, you have a better chance of predicting and identifying environmental improvements and thus being able to propose and compare other material choices and different design solutions.

An environmentally focused life cycle analysis of the construction process is based in the course on:

• show what the situation looks like at the moment and what the various measures can provide for results.
• reduce negative environmental effects in the long run.
• the need to implement sustainable methods, processes and systems.
• an environmentally efficient planning as a basis for each project.
• environmental optimization in new construction, existing buildings and in the management stage.
• the choice of different systems that optimize operation at the start of the project. These systems are, among others; electricity, water and sewage.
• opportunities to reduce waste of natural resources by using renewable energy and environmentally friendly materials.