SUSTAINABLE ENERGY AND GREEN TECHNOLOGIES

An integrated approach for sustainability evaluation of materials and buildings during construction phase using Figure of Merit 

- Dr. Ajit Sabnis

International conference on “Sustainable Energy and green Technology” was held at Kuala Lumpur between 11^th and 14^th December, 2018. It was an excellent platform for several young engineers and researchers who presented their ideas in achieving a sustainable society. Most of the papers were focused on clean energy options and very few touched upon alternative materials.

A presentation with the above title was made by the author on the first day and the abstract of which is placed below for my fellow engineers to consume.

Please mail me clarifications (ajitsabnis@gmail.com) if any.

Abstract:

Built Environment is an overriding sector responsible for the increased carbon footprint especially in urban scenario. Complex interactions between construction materials, embodied energy and greenhouse gasses play a significant role while evaluating sustainability parameters in buildings. These interactions are simplified as; I₁-Interaction between construction materials and embodied energy, I₂-Interaction between embodied energy and GHG emissions; I₃-Interaction between GHG emissions and construction materials. The net outcome of interaction phenomenon is the ‘Sustainability Development Index (SDI)’ designated ASP-SDI that enables prediction of sustainability levels in buildings. In support of United Nation’s call to establish a standard SDI, this paper presents a comprehensive assessment tool that is applicable to all building typologies in different climatic conditions, by integrating two critical engineering properties, two construction industry cost stimulants and eight other eco-indicators using Figure of Merit (FoM) as a founding principle. An urban scenario case study project (CSP), falling in warm-humid region of India and based on real time construction data is considered to illustrate the ASP-SDI model. It is found by the analysis that, the CSP exhibits an overall sustainability level of 56.25% and that the Concrete, Steel and Formwork cast high impact. The proposed ASP-SDI model applies normalisation to ten primary parameters in the whole building system to compute the overall impact per square meter of a building prior to actual construction process. ASP-SDI model provides two levels of sustainability indicators namely: Impact contribution of primary parameters constituting a building system and Impact contribution of whole building system, enabling in identifying strategies to reduce global warming using alternative materials and technologies.

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