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Sustainable Construction

For a lower carbon footprint

Sustainable construction is a way of constructing characterised by the employment of materials and procedures that avoid directly and indirectly harming environment. This trend in construction emerged as a way to preserve natural resources and confront climate change.

Until a few years ago, most of the initiatives on estimation of the carbon footprint in construction were focused on the energy efficiency factor during the useful life, but not in other important factors, such as the emissions of CO2 of the different energy resources used on the buildings, the carbon footprint of the used materials or the impact when demolishing it (capacity to recycle and reuse the arisen materials). All these are very important aspects when tackling climate change with a broad and comprehensive perspective. It is not enough just to train our architects in this aspect, but also that people who face the construction of a new building, or simply the reform or rehabilitation of an old one, are aware of the impact that each detail of that work will have on their own quality of life and consuming of energy, and on the planet, through the carbon footprint that the construction itself, its use and its possible future pull down will entail.

Aspects as the carbon footprint of the used materials or the impact when demolishing buildings it me are very important when tackling climate change with a broad and comprehensive perspective.

Our objective

The goals of Europe2020 establish the importance of motivating students to study science and prepare them to face the challenges that an ecological Europe implies, where new jobs will be created in the Green Economy sector (as identified in Skills for Green Jobs – CEDEFOP 2010). In this way, society needs future scientists with the necessary skills and knowledge to create healthy and sustainable cities. Ecobuild project will also contribute to this objective through the implementation of the foreseen e-book and videogame in the secondary education.