Transportation Of Construction Material Contributes To 7Pc Of Carbon Emissions: Anthony Bryce Grubbs, Santa Barbara City College
At the Women Economic Forum event in April 2018, there was a session on “Built Environment and Sustainable Urban Infrastructure/Low Carbon Development & Sustainable Housing”.
Anthony Bryce Grubbs, the student at Santa Barbara City College, said, “One of the biggest things I pushed is actual development. Sustainability is just a buzzword. Everyone in the US keeps talking about it, whether its engineers or architects, but it’s really not happening. People are still disconnected from the topic. When I talk about sustainability, I am going to focus on the lifespan of the building. I will start with building itself, and deconstruct it." He also added, “Starting from the construction process, starting with the sourcing of the material, every city has material they are known for. Looking forward, one should be mindful of what materials are being used, and how it can sustain the ecology of the area. Transportation of the construction material contributes for 7% of carbon emissions. Everything that is mined has to be taken to the site. Everyone loves concrete, but there are many points of CO2 released when making the concrete. Those points are significant, as they contribute to 8% of the carbon dioxide emission. So 7% emissions come from transportation, and 8% from making the concrete itself, so overall 15% of the emissions comes from the transportation and manufacturing process."
Grubbs also went on to add, “There is also energy being used when making the building, and one has to be mindful of that. We have processes like active systems and passive systems. There are active processes like solar power, photovoltaic cells and so on for energy efficiency, and passive systems like the building orientation and architecture and so on. One of the most sustainable buildings is in Seattle Washington. It is a great example of what we should be doing if these policies got more attention. You can have targets and goals, but if there is no passion to get through it, there’s no point. The built environment in Seattle has an abundance of wood, and they use locally sourced wood, which reduces transportation emissions." “I wanted to see what’s being implemented and where there is room for growth. So how we construct and how we build is a rigid system, and there are changes but it has been the same. We have been very narrow-minded about how we construct. Now there is construction using 3D printing. Now there are newer methods which are more viable and sustainable," added Grubbs.
He also said, “Sustainability should be at the core of construction. It needs to be a core value, and then there will be a ripple effect, instead of just thinking of it as a compliance. There should also be dual-purpose structures. Like buildings which remove the smog from the area. We should look beyond buildings which just houses people, it should also consider the environment around. Otherwise, there is no point, we all need to think about the environment. We need to think of more sustainability when it comes to building.”
Anthony aspires to make real sustainable changes in the way architecture and construction is thought of, and integrate environmental thought when it comes to creating new structures.
