News
Issue No. 62 - December/January 2011
Lucid building a sustainable option
Sustainability generally describes balancing the social, economic and environmental aspects of a particular project or development – but how does that involve engineering?
Traditionally, engineers have focused on design, performance and cost, but Adam Greaves of Lucid Consulting Engineers says engineers have a growing role in designing for environmental performance - reducing energy, water and material consumption and minimizing waste, pollution and emissions.
“Engineers have a key role in delivering projects with minimized impacts on the environment. This is not to say engineers’ skillsets and capabilities in sustainability are new, but there is now good market demand for sustainability,” he says. “People are taking more notice across industries including property, construction, manufacturing and mining.
“This demand has many drivers including government policy, community expectation, corporate social responsibility and investment opportunities.”
Adam says a common sustainability problem for any project is misconceived understandings of real cost.
“It is quite often demonstrated that a greater capital cost for a more energy efficient system can result in a more cost-effective solution over the life of the project, with lower overall greenhouse gas emissions compared to a system with lower energy efficiency. We often see the less efficient system selected for the project simply because the project budget has a fixed limit of capital expenditure.
“A good solution to this problem would include a government framework of grants and/or tax breaks that recognize and contribute capital funding towards energy efficient and low GHG emission projects.”
Engineering Sustainability typically involves more than simple compliance with regulations.
“Regulations provide only the bare minimum with respect to Sustainability,” Adam says. “In many industries Sustaina...
