By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

The Importance of Green Construction

The construction industry, responsible for about 4% of the world’s particulate emissions, is one of the major sources of pollution. Despite our best construction practices, air, water, and noise pollution continue to threaten our way of life.

Green building, a method of construction used to design sustainable, energy-efficient residential and commercial buildings, is now a growing trend and no longer a construction novelty. With pollution jeopardizing air quality, drinking water, and even putting our wildlife at risk, green building has come to the forefront of the construction industry as a largely marketable, thoughtful, and productive method of building.

A combination of sustainable processes and use of high-quality, low-impact materials contribute to the practice of green building. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promotes several components of green building, including renewable energy use, waste reduction, and use of environmentally preferable building materials.

The popular concept of “reduce, reuse, recycle” is an example of an environmentally-friendly practice used during green construction, especially when it comes to waste reduction. As far as environmentally preferable materials, where concrete and steel are often impractical and expensive materials, timber is a relatively inexpensive, naturally renewable alternative with long-term sustainability capabilities.

Ultimately, green construction processes present a pollution-profuse industry with the opportunity to build smarter and sustainably, better control costs, and maintain the condition of the earth.

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • 0 Comments

Designing and Engineering for Climate Change

Green Building

One of the leading industry concerns for engineering and architecture firms is the problem of climate change. As water levels continue to rise, and as the weight of existing infrastructure bears down on already sinking land, engineers are looking for design solutions that can mitigate past inefficiencies and work towards withstanding and reducing climate change in the future. With nearly 40% of the population living in heavily affected coastal areas worldwide, the need for environmentally conscious engineering is imminent.

What Can Be Done?

Raising energy-use concerns early in the process is essential. By using simulation software, considering sustainability, and thinking of the entire building system, engineering and architectural firms can implement design solutions that tackle sustainability from the very beginning of a project. For example, according to the engineering software company Autodesk, “the movement of fluids (examples include air and water) is a very large cause of energy loss in many systems due to drag. Simulation can help reduce these losses.” Reduced loss mean that less energy is required to power the system, resulting in lower emission levels overall.

Architects can also recommend elevating floor levels, adding moisture-resistant drywall, and installing fixed barriers where needed. Once a building is in use, engineering services teams can help tenants get the most out of efficiency and safety features by using building management system (BMS) and building energy management system (BEMS) tools.

The Bottom Line

Green building, or environmentally sensitive architecture, is benefiting from more government incentives, grant programs, success stories, and better marketing strategies. Architectural and engineering services firms that can design products with environmentally sound features are in demand, and those firms may have the best chance of differentiating themselves in the current market.

By Decire Gonzalez KC'S BLOG • • • • • • • 0 Comments

Climate Change and Construction

With global temperatures, sea levels, and extreme weather events on the rise, climate change remains a topical and, more recently, contentious subject.

What does climate change have to do with the construction industry? When there is already an incredibly small margin for error on a construction site, climate change could mean everything.

Safety is the leading concern of the construction industry when it comes to climate change. Adverse weather conditions like excessive rain, snow, wind, heat, or cold can significantly reduce safe working conditions. The result? Severe injuries from slips, falls, electrocution, heat exhaustion, and more.

While worksite safety can be entirely compromised by changes in climate, so too can building materials. As temperatures rise, the integrity of materials like wood and concrete are put at risk. Not only that, but climate change increases the need for new, innovative, and potentially costly building techniques to protect existing infrastructure from severe weather conditions.

Along with the physical constraints of climate change on the construction industry, there is also the possibility for monetary setbacks. According to Construction Business Owner, economists estimate that weather-related incidents cost the construction industry “$3.8 trillion a year in the United States.” With U.S. infrastructure spending already at a tremendous deficit, $3.8 trillion lost in profits only serves as an additional obstruction.

Rather than ascribe weather-related construction risks—such as worksite safety, deterioration of building materials, and profit loss—to an inevitable force majeure, experts suggest proactive implementation of risk management strategies.

Construction insurance, increased employee awareness, and acceptance of unpredictability may be the only ways to work through construction setbacks resulting from climate change.