Module 4

CE 113 – CIVIL ENGINEERING ORIENTATION

1. Title of the Module

Chapter 4 – Civil Engineering, Sustainability and the Future

2. Introduction

‘Sustainability’ is more than just a buzzword. It’s a broad and crucial concept that
incorporates different elements from a range of fields, seeking to protect our environment, as
well as human and ecological health.

Engineering is an important field for sustainability and environmental awareness. Those

who work in this sector typically design or operate systems that use energy and resources in a
sustainable manner, contributing to the sustainability of our environment and the human race as
a whole.

3. Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, the students must be able to:

• Familiarize with the pillars of sustainability;
• Recognize the contributions of civil engineering in sustainability;
• Understand how civil engineering works for sustainable development.

4. Learning Content
I. Pillars of Sustainability

a. Economic Sustainability

At the end of the day, private companies, public agencies, and all owners need to stay in
business. This is often driven by financial considerations. If an organization is “in the red,” it means
that they are spending more money than they are making, and, in the long term, the organization
will fail. However, many choices are only made by considering today’s costs. So, if choice A costs
less than choice B today, the organization will default to choice A. However, what if choice A costs
less today, but will cost more over the 15-year design period versus cost B? Is it worth spending
more money today to save money tomorrow? This is one of the key concepts of economics in
sustainability, looking beyond today’s cost and ensuring that, in the long term, the best economic
decisions are being made. This concept is the cornerstone of the economic pillar of sustainability.

Traditional economic considerations of sustainability revolve around three main points:

local impact, material savings, and reuse. When considering economics and local impact,
sustainable practices provide employment and stimulate local economy. By saving materials, that
is, reusing existing materials, organizations can reduce upfront costs, reduce the transportation
of materials, and reduce onsite waste. In addition, by utilizing fewer natural resources, future
savings are gained in many areas, such as reducing the amount of material going to landfills.
While these are all important concepts of reuse, they are limited in the fact that raw costs are not
the only factor; what is more, maintenance and disposal costs may be quite different depending
on the manufactured product or the engineering infrastructure. Finally, long-term performance is
not taken into account, and in some applications, the longer-term performance may not even be
known. These are certainly challenges while considering the economic perspectives of
sustainability, but there are several concepts that can aid in more accurately capturing the full life
span. These include life cycle cost analysis, present/future/annual worth, rate of return, and
benefit/cost ratio.

b. Environmental Sustainability

While the majority of businesses focus on economic repercussions of business decisions,

almost all civil engineering infrastructure projects have an impact on the environment as well. It
is true that construction of infrastructure and control of the environment often does produce
emissions and waste, an important question to ask, as well, however, through the lens of
sustainability is: What sort of environmental impacts are there to a project?

The environment is impacted during production, construction, use, and termination of

roadways, wastewater treatment plants, dams, and buildings. There is not only energy used during
all of these stages, but there are also wastes generated. Emissions are anything from carbon
dioxide to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and waste is anything from demolished structures
to scalped raw material.

Similar to the economic sustainability pillar section, there are several potential tools
available to quantify the environmental impact of projects. These tools will help associate actual
numbers with emissions and waste, which will then allow for an understanding of how designs
could be changed to reduce such emissions and wastes. Parameters of environmental
sustainability includes life cycle analysis (LCA), ecological footprint (EF), planet boundary and
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD).

c. Social Sustainability

The third pillar of sustainability, social, is the least quantified pillar compared to economic
and environmental. Ongoing research in other disciplines, especially in the arts and sciences, has
developed measurements for aspects of communities that have more success in addressing and
solving problems. One such well-known community attribute is social capital. People are connected
by social networks, and the exchange of trust and resources within those networks comprises
measures of social capital. Community attachment is also recognized as another characteristic of
engaged communities. The difficulty in measuring these well-known aspects of communities,
however, lies partly in the differences between data sources, coverage, and availability. Much
research has been performed with secondary data, often based on census data. This is because
those publicly available datasets are available, affordable, generally have widespread geographic
coverage, and large sample sizes. While many research projects collect primary data, primary data
is more often limited to a relatively small population and/or geographic area as it is generally
based on interviews or surveys. Primary data is expensive to collect and is also more difficult to
use for generalizing because of limits in coverage, sample size, and/or comparability.

Metrics, to be effective indicators of a system, have four characteristics: relevancy,

understandability, reliability, and accessibility. Relevance is key because the metric must provide
information about the system one needs to know. Understandability is important so that even
non-experts can grasp the meaning of the metric. The metric must be trustable or reliable or the
metric is of no use, and the data or information for the metric must be obtainable in a time frame
suitable for decision-making. The quandary for measuring societal sustainability and application
to civil engineering, comes in establishing effective metrics to answer three critical questions:

1. What level are we targeting for sustainability?

2. Who are we sustaining for?
3. Who gets to decide the answers to the first two questions?

In addition to these three questions and the difficulties with data mentioned earlier, other
considerations are important as well. For example, if one area of society has a well-developed
metric, does that influence other areas that do not have well-developed metrics? How do these
metrics scale from a local or regional level upwards to state, national, and international levels?
Social metrics exhibit spatial heterogeneity, or unequal geographic distribution, which can further
complicate scalar relationships. In general, many of the existing social metrics fall under four
emerging areas: human well-being, access to resources, self-government, and civil society.
II. Sustainability and the Future

Sustainability - a set of economic, environmental and social

conditions in which all society has the capacity and
opportunity to maintain and improve its quality of life
indefinitely, without degrading the quantity, quality
or the availability of natural, economic and social
resources.

Sustainable Development - development that meets the needs of the present

without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs

- application of these resources to enhance the safety,

welfare and quality of life for all of society

Working Principle
Advanced Features of a Sustainable Building
 Best Building Form
 Solar & Energy Efficient Design
 Improved Indoor Air Quality
 Usage of Green Materials
 Proper Mechanical Systems
 Efficient Lighting
 Proper Testing & Maintenance

Benefits of Sustainable Construction

 Sustainable construction makes wise use
of all the natural resources and a 50%
reduction in energy use
 Improves occupant health, comfort,
productivity, reduces pollution and landfill waste that are not easily quantified
 A sustainable building may cost more up front, but saves through lower operating costs
over the life of the building
 Building is designed as one system rather than a collection of stand-alone systems with
the help of the integrated system approach
5. Teaching and Learning Activities

Answer the following:

1. Discuss the roles of civil engineering in advancing economic sustainability.
2. Discuss the roles of civil engineering in advancing environmental sustainability.
3. Discuss the roles of civil engineering in advancing social sustainability.

6. Recommended Learning Materials and Resources for Supplementary Reading

Fundamentals of Sustainability in Civil Engineering (2017) by Andrew Braham

7. Flexible Teaching Learning Modality (FTLM) Adopted

Online (synchronous)
TelEducation moodle, Facebook messenger, Zoom, Google Classroom, etc..

Remote (asynchronous)
module, essay activities, etc…

8. Assessment Tank

Essay.

1. Discuss how civil engineers apply sustainability in the Pre-design phase.

2. Discuss how civil engineers apply sustainability in the On-site phase.
3. Discuss how civil engineers apply sustainability in the Design phase.
4. Discuss how civil engineers apply sustainability in the Construction phase.
 5. Discuss how civil engineers apply sustainability in the Operations and Maintainance phase.

9. References

Fundamentals of Sustainability in Civil Engineering (2017) by Andrew Braham