Pollution and The Industry of Civil Engineering

The industry of Civil Engineering produces a lot of unwanted waste and pollutions. There are solid waste, air and even sound pollution during construction. In addition, for most structures, it will eventually be demolished and materials become waste. This is the reason why the topic sustainability has been so popular these years. The definition of sustainable development by Brundtland, 1987, is 'Sustainable development meets the economic, social and environmental needs and interests of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and interests.' The biggest concern nowadays is considered to be resources as it is limited on the earth, however, human have unlimited wants. Also, running out of resources (for example construction materials) will mean that we are compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and interests, which is not sustainable development according to above definition. There is a number of ways to create a sustainable civil product. The word 'green building' should remind you of something. Green building is a structure that uses process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle. This can be done by reducing materials needed through improving designs and some innovations or tweak it a little bit, to use materials in a more efficient way. Make good use of natural energy, the most common one is to use natural lighting by installing large windows, which reduces electricity usage.
There are some houses called earth houses over the world which is based on this idea and maximises the potential sustainability. Earth houses, sometimes known as earth berms or earth sheltered home is an architectural sty...

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...s well as living on at least 10th floor. An earth house is more likely to be in countryside where transportation may not be as convenient. I would have to drive to work or school everyday which costs me more than public transport within a city. It also increases my personal CO2 output to the environment which might just cancel out with the energy saving ability of my earth house. The lack of experienced earth house builder means that it is going to be more expensive and time consuming when my houses needs to be repaired. Also, I am not convinced by the energy saving ability of it, since extra electricity is so likely to be needed to control humidity of the house, which a conventional house does not need to. Although I can see its durability in storm or earthquake is a very useful thing in some certain area, there are some cheaper and economically better alternatives.