Sustainable Engineering: State-of-the-Art and Prospects

Abstract

Since the 1985 Brundtland Report and the 1992 Rio Declaration were published, sustainable development has become a well-known global political paradigm. However, sustainability has been applied to forestry for centuries in Europe. The historic development of the issue of sustainability is briefly described as well as the possibilities of how sustainability can be transferred into the construction sector. This sector is the most important contributor of the industry in resource consumption and waste production. Architects and engineers need to consider the entire lifetime of buildings “from cradle to grave” and the ecological, economic and socio-cultural aspects. This refers to an assessment of the environmental impact of construction activities such as the consumption of materials, energy and land, and human- and eco-toxicity of emissions as well as optimizing life cycle costs. In addition, some principles of planning actual developments in the international standardization by the International Standardization Organization (ISO) and the Committee for European Codes (CEN) are shown. The interest of investors in the performance of buildings is growing and is influencing project development and planning. Construction materials and components have been developed under new conditions which will lead to new levels of global competition. Universities need to understand sustainable engineering in a new approach to the education of civil engineers in fulfilling their responsibility for the built environment.