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Climate change

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 Global warming and infrastructure construction
 Water resources, flood and utilities infrastructure

•  Global warming and infrastructure construction

  Card 57
  Topic: Climate change
  

  • How can construction align with the goals of a low-carbon economy?

    • Definitions
      ■ Sustainable construction aims to minimise environmental impact and maximise both economic viability and the social benefits (e.g. employment/empowerment) of construction
      
      ■ Sustainable design aims to design buildings and infrastructure that work within environmental limits and are profitable and healthy places to live, work and use
      
      Barriers to change
      ■ Economic viability is often prioritised (by both private and public clients) over environmental and social considerations
      
      ■ Sustainable construction/design can be hampered by uncertain economic environments, rapid urbanisation, lack of effective spatial planning, lack of skills and integration of project teams
      
      ■ A ‘compliance’ engineering culture, that assumes – often wrongly – that sustainability will cost more money; and client unwillingness to pay higher up-front capital costs for potential savings in the long term
      
      References
      Du Plessis, C, Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries
      DEFRA, Construction waste
       
    • Global warming impacts of the construction industry
      ■ Economic: construction industries have complex links to most sectors of every nation's economy, playing a key role in determining its social and economic progress
      ■ Social: construction provides opportunities for employment and skills development as well as the socio-economic benefits of the buildings and infrastructure themselves (housing, transport links etc). But consider also factors such as the health and safety risks of construction and use and migration of labour force for large construction programmes
      ■ Environmental: construction impacts ecosystems, depletes natural resources and leads to CO2 emissions (see example)
      
      
      
      Example: the UK construction industry’s CO2 emissions impact
      ■ Through the UK Climate Change Act 2008, the UK government is committed to a 34% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020 and 80% by 2050
      ■ Since building use contributes about 52% of the UK’s CO2 emissions and construction contributes another seven percent, the construction industry is a major focus for change
      ■ The waste going to landfill from the UK construction industry in 2004 was about 100 million tonnes, roughly equivalent to one house being buried in the ground as waste for every three built

  • Design and construct to minimise environmental impact and optimise socio-economic viability

    • Now: engineer’s influence at design stage:
      ■ Choice of locally available resources (materials and labour);
      ■ Recyclability of materials and systems (benefit from a contractor’s input and owner involvement as they are often more informed of material availability and recycleability)
      ■ Efficient structural, electrical and mechanical systems
      ■ Informed decisions about demolition/deconstruction and preservation (design in adaptability to reduce need for demolition at end of primary use period)
      
      Longer term: development of the construction industry to embrace sustainable design and construction requires:
      ■ Human resource development:
      ■ Professionals: professional bodies to set membership standards and CPD; and higher education to focus on sustainable construction
      ■ Small businesses: appropriate procurement strategies for engaging and developing SMEs
      ■ Materials and technology development: e.g. Reduce waste through prefabrication and recycling/re-use. (see box)
      ■ Corporate development: Businesses to position themselves to access the global market for low-carbon goods and services, projected to be worth £4.3 trillion by 2015
      ■ Perception change: Governments can incentivise private sector compliance and research through legislative controls, such as carbon pricing (tax, trading), planning and building regulations and requiring compliance with environmental assessment procedures (e.g. BREEAM, CEEQUAL, LEED, measuring factors such as site development, water and energy efficiency, solid waste and emissions management, materials selection, indoor environmental quality etc)
       
    • Considerations for the selection of building materials:
      
      Construction materials can account for 40% of a building’s lifetime CO2 emissions. So use efficient structural systems and materials:
      
      ■ Timber: renewable, biodegradable, non-toxic, energy efficient. Specify lumber certified as sustainably harvested
      
      ■ Concrete: cement production contributed approx. 7% of global CO2 emissions in 1998. Reduce cement content by substituting fly ash (by-product of coal burning) or blast furnace slag
      
      ■ Masonry: use thermal mass properties to reduce heating/cooling requirements. Consider also recycled content (fly ash, slag cement, silica fume, recycled or salvaged aggregates), adobe (less than 1/6 the production energy of concrete blocks) and interlocking masonry (saving mortar)
      
      • Steel: already a highly recycled building material, consider designing for de-constructability of a building, to aid re-use of materials (e.g. bolted over welded connections)
      
      Further Reading
      BIS, The Strategy for Sustainable Construction
      Journal of Construction in Developing Countries
       

• Water resources, flood and utilities infrastructure

  Card 59
  Topic: Climate change
  

  •  What about public-private partnerships (PPPs)?

    • The challenges in the provision of water resources infrastructure
      Meeting the MDGs is not just about providing water for all, but also about providing water resources and infrastructure that can meet the challenges related to global warming.
      
      Government policy has a large role to play in the management of adaptation for climate change, as does regulation of those responsible for delivering and managing the infrastructure.
      The challenges in providing infrastructure include:
      
      ■ Skills availability in government
      
      ■ Providing for customers who are unable or unwilling to pay
      
      ■ Maintenance of infrastructure
      
      ■ Management and control of private providers to realise objectives
      
      ■ Setting up independent regulating bodies or contractual tools for enforcing services and standards where government outsources the provision, maintenance and operation of utilities infrastructure to the private sector (World Bank/PPIAF,2006)
       
    • Key points for engineers
      ■ Understand the role of government policy and regulating bodies
      ■ Be aware of changes in policy or regulation to address global warming
      
      The role of the private sector – public private partnerships
      The private sector can have a key role in water provision, and various Public-Private arrangements exist which establish how the partnership will work, including aspects such as:
      ■ Ownership of capital assets
      ■ Responsibility for investment
      ■ Risk sharing and
      ■ Contract duration
      (Good Governance in Restructuring Water Supply)
      
      Benefits of PPP’s include transfer of risk to those most capable of managing it, potential for better quality infrastructure and potential for cost savings.
      
      The challenge for shorter-term contracts with public bodies retaining ownership of assets is how to ensure long-term maintenance of and investment in the utility.

  • Manage public-private partnerships (PPPs) with contract and regulatory frameworks within the local context

    Example: Affermage Water Supply Contract in Senegal: Affermage contracts generally place responsibility for operation and maintenance of the water supply network with the private sector, with minimal specific investment requirements.
    However, through longer-term contracts and contractual mechanisms, the operator can be incentivised to invest in the network.
    
    In Senegal, increases in operational efficiency and large-scale network expansion were achieved through:
    
    • Contractual innovations aiming to increase private operators’ incentives to perform efficiently
    • Requirements to finance network rehabilitation with cash flow
    
    In the first case, targets were introduced for collecting payment for bills and for reduction in “non-revenue” (unaccounted for) water, with associated financial penalties for non-performance.
    In the second, by requiring the operators to put money back into the water supply network, they were provided with incentives to improve operational efficiency and flexibility in the way in which they could achieve this. (World Bank, 2010)

    References/Further Reading
    World Bank/PPIAF (2006) Approaches to Private Participation in Water Services, A Toolkit
    Good Governance in Restructuring Water Supply: A Handbook, University of British Columbia.
    Foster et. al (ed), World Bank (2010) Africa’s Infrastructure, a Time for Transformation,
    PPI in poor countries, J Leigland, Gridlines Note No. 51, PPIAF (Feb 2010)
    DMS Practice Guide 2: Construction procurement strategy.