Construction sites are a very common view everywhere. There is always a demand for building new or renovating old ones. The waste materials that are created in these processes should always be recycled, yet this is not always done. On every construction site there should be separate collection points at least for wood, metal, plastics, glass, and hazardous waste. Finnish construction sites are required to follow the Finnish legislation on waste management called “jätelaki”, which states that the number one priority is to try to prevent creating waste in the first place. However, this is not always possible. Jätelaki also states that the waste materials should preferably be reused as raw materials and not converted into energy. Converting into energy in this case means burning and thus creating massive carbon emissions in order to get electricity. This legislation is very open to interpretation, and in the absence of clear statements in the law, it is tempting for companies to deal with the construction waste as they desire, which, especially in the case of smaller companies, is often the cheapest way possible. The cheapest way usually not being the most environmentally friendly option. I have worked on several different construction sites and for several different companies in the past. My own experiences of this topic vary a lot between different construction companies. I personally feel that bigger companies are more likely to have their construction waste recycling well planned, while smaller ones either lack resources or interest. Bigger construction companies also have contracts with companies that rent waste collectors. They also have contracts with raw material buyers, which make it profitable for them to recycle their construction waste. The way I see it is that bigger companies are also more vulnerable to possible reputation loss that could be caused by handling their waste inappropriately. In general, construction waste is dealt with better on construction sites that build new than it is in most renovation cases. Also, bigger companies are usually the ones building new, while smaller ones are the ones that have plenty of small renovation sites. The biggest issue that I have faced while working on this field of business was when I worked in a company that used a lot of different dangerous chemicals. Even though the chemical containers were labeled with “dangerous to environment” sign, they were thrown away with the regular waste, meaning that they would end up on landfills causing a serious threat to the environment. All in all, there is a lot of room for improvement in the construction waste recycling business in Finland. The most important thing would be to create laws that would force even the smallest companies to start paying attention to this situation, followed with appropriate monitoring that could be funded by the government. Also, government could lend support money to smaller companies in order to get them started with recycling their construction waste. This loan could then be paid back when the companies start to make profit from selling waste materials to buyers. Oskari Mäkelä Sources: http://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/9590/Tuohiaro.Rami.pdf?sequence=2 Nowadays becoming “green” has gained popularity among designers and builders, since the needs of the housing market are continuously changing. Sustainable design covers a building’s impacts holistically, from the planning process to the deconstruction at the end of the building’s useful life. It is necessary to consider all the impacts a construction may bring, since wrong planning might affect the tenant’s health as well as the surroundings: ecosystems, air quality, animals and plants among others. The aim of a sustainable construction project is to enhance the quality of life for the building occupants. People were not designed to live in an asphalt jungle, surrounded by traffic jams and having to breathe polluted air. It is necessary to implement projects, which allow public encounters with convenient access to public transportation, and natural spaces that promote walking instead of driving. Simply by incorporating natural features such as windows that permits natural light into the building or by adding some plants, the occupants’ experience can be transformed from just living in the building to enjoying their lives. And what else makes this kind of building so attractive? It’s energy use. High-efficiency buildings use natural means for power generation, for instance solar and wind power, and they include as well the use of some principles which tends towards minimum performance standards such as:
However, what is usually thought about green building is that by implementing this kind of practices, the cost of the project will increase and result in more work. This misconception is far from reality. In terms of the construction process, sustainable practices are not very different from traditional procedures, but they result in a different and a more efficient construction. Green projects are demonstrating that many of the fundamental principles of sustainable building can be applied without increasing the project price and they also allow savings in terms of operating costs. One model of a green building project is actually very near Tampere. The Vuores area is a typical ‘greenfield’ development in a woodland area to the south of the city of Tampere, which by 2020 will become an ECOCITY. This project is trying to incorporate all the fundamentals of green building construction with an optimum urban structure that takes into account the conservation of the natural environment, social issues, an efficient public transport system and of course, for the energy supply the use of renewable energies. Paola Israde Burrola References Image: Kubina, J. 2007. Technische Universität Darmstadt - Solar Decathlon 2007. Solar energy, Wikipedia.last modified on 10 november 2014. Accessed 10/11/2014. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Technische_Universit%C3%A4t_Darmstadt_-_Solar_Decathlon_2007.jpg Letcher, T. 2008. Future energy: Improvised, sustainable and clean options for our planet. China: Elsevier. Yudelson, J. 2009. Green building through integrated design. USA: Mc Graw hill. Bose, R. 2009. Energy efficient cities. USA: The World Bank. In the past, every family had a vegetable patch in the back yard. When the shift to an industrial society took place and people moved to the cities, producing one’s own food became unnecessary. Today, however, population growth especially in the cities sets many challenges for us, food security and pollution not being the least of our worries. Even though today more than a half of the world’s population lives in urbanised areas, the United Nations Development Programme estimates that only 15 percent of the world's food is grown in cities. How is it then possible to feed such a huge, constantly growing mass of humanity sustainably? An urban farm in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters. Original photo Urban farming, community gardening, urban agriculture - no matter what you call it, is suggested to be one of the solutions for local food production. The loose terms generally refer to farming in an urban area in a small space, usually on an allotment that you share with a group of other farmers, but can also mean simply growing your lettuce on your windowsill in an urban setting. Rooftops are said to have the most future potential of all sites in the cities because of the huge amount of underutilized space they possess. In the western world today, a few urbanites are farming out of necessity, but an increasing environmental awareness and an interest in back-to-basics lifestyle among city-dwellers has led people to embrace farming in cities as a relaxing pastime and a way of having fresh, local, additive-free produce on the table. As the benefits of putting wasted space to a good use are becoming evident and urban farming is gaining more popularity, local governments are starting to show some interest in allocating public land for city farming. Companies too, are getting involved: green roofs are being established on top of their corporate HQ’s and other buildings, where employees can take care of the communal veggies and forget about work every now and then. As an example, the former Nokia headquarters’ rooftop garden can be viewed here. Even a high-class restaurant, Savoy, in Helsinki, established a rooftop garden a few years ago to grow fresh, local ingredients for their own use. The garden has become an icon; since its opening in 2010 it has been expanded, reviewed in many media and turned into a sight in itself, promoting local, urban food production. An impressive example of how an urban garden can actually become very productive in many ways. The urban farming list of positives is in fact long; not only do urban gardens produce food out of land which would often otherwise be underutilized, but it has a huge impact on people’s well-being and on their perceptions about the urban environment. The carbon footprint of locally grown food is obviously much lower compared to things grown far away and as we all must eat anyway, growing your own veggies is the ultimate green choice! Green areas also help reduce run-offs of rain water and create small scale carbon sinks in the cities, purifying the air and mitigating some of the vast greenhouse gas emissions cities produce. According to a National Geographic article, community gardens even have a positive impact on the property values. With all these benefits for human health, the environment and for the liveability of cities, why is this movement then not embraced everywhere? Unfortunately the land in cities is scarce and thus expensive, and in the end it’s often the euros that count. In Finland we have had quite a bit of land to “spare”, and therefore in the past, city farming might have been considered silly, if not pointless. In some major European and US’ metropolises where the situation is quite different, urban farming as a movement, its benefits and possibilities are much more acknowledged and supported. Around Tampere there have been public community gardens also during the past summer arranged by an urban gardening non-profit organisation Dodo, but a lot more could be done. So how about a proposal to your landlord to launch a gardening project in the possibly unproductive, dull yard? Or then you could just make use of those scarce square meters in your balcony, like here and grow a few lettuce leaves. The internet is full of interesting articles on how to use your space wisely to grow yourself some inexpensive food with very small carbon emissions – just the way we like it. References: http://www.who.int/gho/urban_health/situation_trends/urban_population_growth_text/en/ https://koivu.luomus.fi/kasvitiede/tutkimus/viherkatot/PiironenMinna%20tiivistelm%C3%A42609.pdf What's Happening? While people in U.S. and Europe are building and developing zero-energy houses, in China and United Arab Emirates, they are building sustainable cities. That’s right, sustainable cities, not just sustainable houses or small scale housing, but huge cities. Masdar Project Currently in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, there is a completely new city being constructed that will house 50000 inhabitants in an area of 6 square kilometers. After its construction, it will be the first completely carbon neutral and zero waste city in the world. One of the biggest goals of the project is to make Masdar City into the global leader for renewable energy research, development, implementation and investment. This is a great start. The success or failure of this project will determine how willing we will be to construct more of these grand scale eco-cities. Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city is a cooperative project between Singapore and China to build a sustainable city in Tianjin, China. The area is located between Beijing and Tianjin, 50 km from Tianjin and 150 km from Beijing. When completed in 2020, the area will inhabit around 350000 residents. The project is based two sets of three principles: Three Harmonies and Three Abilities. The Three Harmonies are: people living in harmony with other people, people living in harmony with economic activities, and people living in harmony with the environment. The Three Abilities are: commercial viability, the project should be replicated in other place in China and around the world, and the size should be adaptable to any scale. The site was cleverly chosen to be built on a non-agricultural area. This means that no potential farm land was taken away. The site, however, is located in an area that receives very little rain water and has no viable freshwater sources nearby. This means that the only source of fresh water is to build a desalination plant. The Future These eco-cities are not being built just to show-off, but they are being built out of necessity. As your might have guessed, the countries who are taking the first steps are the ones who have the capital to try and fail. The United Arab Emirates have gotten very rich by exploiting their rich reserves of oil, but they also understand that the age of petroleum will come to an end and they have to start building for the future. Chinese economy is one of the largest in the world and they also have the largest population in the world and they are investing very heavily in new eco-cities. To build these cities we need to discover new materials, techniques and technologies. If the only thing standing in our way is our own lack of vision, then there shouldn’t be anything standing in our way. Timo Karjalainen Sources http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/27/what-is-masdar-city-/ http://www.tianjinecocity.gov.sg/bg_intro.htm Building for Future Generations Humanity is running up against the limits of a finite planet. We are experiencing rapid global climate destabilization and the endangerment of entire ecosystems. A great percentage of the world’s population lives in cities and the amount keeps on growing. The use of cars and natural resources has skyrocketed and we are now at a point of great crisis with the way we live. These major life-threatening global environmental problems demand a reconstruction of our way of life. Seeing as the way we live is linked to the way we build and use resources, instead of trying to improve our outdated infrastructure, it needs to be redesigned to suit the finite capacity of our planet. Arcology is a combination of ecology and architecture. It is an architectural design for densely populated areas and is also known as an eco-city. Arcologies or eco-cities are cities that are ecologically healthy. The aim of the design of these cities is to have the smallest ecological footprint and pollute as little possible. The idea is to meet the needs of the present without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It provides its citizens with food, water and power. Other important concepts to consider are: using land efficiently, composting used materials, recycling waste to produce energy and efficient water use. Ecological cities are achieved through various ways. They use various green technologies to ensure a clean footprint. The energy is acquired by using renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal energy and by using bio-gas created from sewage. The need for energy is reduced, for example, by reducing the need for air-conditioning, which is a massive energy demand. This is achieved by using proper insulation, natural ventilation systems, and green spaces which should cover at least 20% of the city’s surface. Green roofs are green spaces on the roofs of buildings, which create a natural insulation for the building and a habitat for wildlife. Eco-cities have an emphasis on the close proximity of things, thus reducing the need for vehicles. Also, improving public transport is an important issue to consider. The optimal solution would, of course, be car-free zones and zero-emission transport by using electric cars.
Changing already existing strong beliefs of how humanity should live and build is difficult. There is not one solution for all our problems; the solution requires experts from many fields to come together and create a practical vision for a sustainable and restorative human presence on this planet. Katja Räsänen |
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