Grantham Centre supervisor Dr Danielle Densley-Tingley, Lecturer in Architectural Engineering, publishes chapter on sustainability in construction.
This chapter focuses on methods to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the materials we use in construction.
Four strategies to extend the life of construction materials, and thus reduce demand for new materials (and the associated greenhouse gas emissions) are discussed.
The strategies are as follows: building reuse, material reuse, design for deconstruction and design for adaptability. Plus the chapter explores case study projects that apply these in practice to derive some key lessons learnt.
Read the full paper: Applying Circular Economic Principles to Reduce Embodied Carbon.
One of the Grantham Scholars that Danielle supervises is Ling Min Tan. Ling Min explains more about sustainability in the built economy in our interview with her. Read: What is urban metabolism? Urban metabolism is an important new concept for sustainability which examines cities with regards to resources, consumption and waste.
Another of her supervisees, Charles Gillott, explains more about sustainability in construction in our interview with him. In this interview Charles explains what embodied carbon is and why it’s so important if we want to reduce the impact of the construction industry on the environment.
Edited by Claire Moran. Photo by Life Of Pix from Pexels.