The application of science, mathematics,

business, and other fields to harness

efficiently the resources of nature to
develop structures and facilities that
benefit the entire society at the current
time and in the future.
 Ancient Latin words
tenere (to hold) and sus (up)
A set of environmental, economic and social
conditions in which all of society has the capacity
and opportunity to maintain and improve its
quality of life indefinitely without degrading the
quantity, quality or availability of natural,
economic, and social resources. (ASCE, 2012)
Sustainable Development
“meeting human needs for natural resources,
industrial products, energy, food, transportation,
shelter, and effective waste management while
conserving and protecting environmental quality
and the natural resource base essential for future
development” (ASCE, 2010)
Sustainable Infrastructure
It’s more
It’s:
than built to last…
• Livable cities
• Urban sustainability
• Green buildings
• Smart growth
Guiding Principle
Balance
infrastructure
needs with
environmental
protection to
enhance the
quality of life for
present and future
generations.
Worldwide Sustainable Development
Milestones
1987 – Our Common Future
1992 – Agenda 21
2000 – Millennium Declaration
2002 – World Summit
National Sustainable Development
Strategies
American Society of Civil Engineers
(ASCE) Policy
• The role of the civil engineer in sustainable
development:
– Promote understanding
– Advance skills
– Advocate responsible economic approaches
– Promote holistic approaches
– Promote performance-based standards
 Sustainable development initiatives through
Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) for Water
Management
• Challenge – Meet water
resources needs for 4.5
million people by 2020
in a city with limited
water resources

• Non-integrated
utilities inefficient
and non-
sustainable
 Goals of IRP
• Goal #1: Regional watershed
approach
• Goal #2: Involve the public
• Maximize existing
infrastructure and minimize
new construction to meet
future needs
• Recycling water from current and future
facilities
• Building new wastewater facilities “upstream”
• Reducing rainfall-dependent inflow and
infiltration
• Increasing water conservation
• Reusing more wet weather urban runoff
• Finding beneficial reuses of biosolids
 Cities of the Future
• Fresh, proactive, and
stakeholder-based
approaches
• Join environmental planners, treatment experts,
transportation specialists, modelers, landscape
architects, financial planners, and other stakeholders
• Restore cities through “soft” and “hard” approaches
 Sustainable Development for the
Future
• Complex and long-term challenges will take sustained
effort for generations
• No one approach, no one single formula
• A “blueprint” for sustainable development is neither
possible nor desirable
• Every country, community, environmental steward, and
municipality must take a proactive role in shaping the
future
Sustainable Building Development
• 76 million residential and 5 million commercial buildings use:
– 39% of all energy consumed in U.S.
– 70% of all electricity
• 12.2%(15 trillion gallons/year) of potable water used in
commercial buildings
• Buildings are major source of emissions:
– 49% of sulfur dioxide
– 25% of nitrous oxide
– 10% of particulate
 Green Building Practices
• Environmentally sound, resource efficient
• Integrated approach to design, energy efficiency,
renewable energy, water conservation
• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
• National standard for high-performance, sustainable
buildings
• 2% investment in LEED result in 20% life-cycle savings
 The Future of Buildings
• More than 2,000 LEED registered/certified projects in 50 states and 12
countries

• Membership in Green Building Council grown by 1,000% in past 4 years

• 21 million square meters of LEED registered commercial building space

• 2003 annual market for green building product and services is $5.8
billion – 34% growth from 2002
 Sustainable Building Approaches
• Carefully evaluate facility location and site selection
• Preserve natural habitats and protect wetlands
• Use natural shading, maximize daylight access
• Employ xeriscaping (slow-growing, drought-tolerant plants)
• Avoid over watering
• Use rainwater collection systems
• Design small building footprints to create large open space
 Sustainable Building Approaches
q Install automatic light sensors
q Use window coverings to reduce solar
heating
q Install high-efficiency lighting
q Seal heating & cooling ducts
q Reduce hot water settings
q Use carpets that can be recycled
q Use light-colored roofing materials
q Turn off computers & monitors each night
q Develop “best practices” programs
Motivations for the Drive Toward
Sustainability in the Current Era
 1.Effect on Natural Environments
A sustainable community makes active efforts to coexist with
its natural environment by avoiding needless degradation of
the soil, lakes, air, oceans, and other natural systems and by
outlawing detrimental practices with those that facilitate
reclamation, restoration, rehabilitation, or self-renewal of
ecosystems.
2. Use of Natural Resources
It must maximize the efficient use of natural
resources through actions including
avoidance of use, reduction of the amount
used, reuse, and recycling.
 3. Effect of Anthropogenic Systems
It must promote (or minimize any damage to) the
built-up physical environment, the social and cultural
structures, and the economy. It must enhance local
economic vitality.
4. Institutional Effects
It must not be associated with or promote adverse
institutional effects including financing challenges, tort
liability, and corruption.
 5. Intergenerational Equity and Quality of Life

It must enhance (or at least maintain) the

quality of life at the current time and for future
generations.
 6. Flexibility
It must provide flexibility for possible changes in stakeholder
requirements or demands in the future. Flexibility could also
mean that a sustainable community must be able to recover
quickly from disaster events to its economy, natural or man-
made capital, or environment or social fabric.
 7. Value Based
It must address human values that include fairness and
duty, provide knowledge-based solutions, promote
efficient production with minimal waste of resources,
seek the general well-being of the public and the
environment, and foster accountability for actions or
inactions.
8. Inclusiveness
Actions are more sustainable when they are
based on decisions developed through consensus
building and participatory processes.
ECONOMIC
- include all economics-related considerations including economic
development impacts, economic efficiency, and financial
- Will the new or existing civil engineering system promote
increased job opportunities?
- Will the system’s owner see positive returns for every dollar of
investment?
- Can the system pay for itself or is there a way to finance not only
its construction but also its long-term operations and
maintenance?
ENVIRONMENT
- Often considered the most fragile and, therefore, the most
critical.
- Civil engineering systems typically take great pains to ensure
that at all phases, particularly during operations, air quality is
not compromised.
- During the construction and operations of infrastructure systems,
the quality of surface water can be quickly degraded, and
sustainable actions at this phase are those that prevent or
reduce such adversity.
ENVIRONMENT
- The noise associated with the operations of certain civil
infrastructure systems has often been linked to health problems
and often merits consideration in any sustainability assessment.
- The construction and the operations of infrastructure systems
has been linked to disruptions in surface and subsurface
hydrological patterns.
- The construction and operation of infrastructure facilities is
often directly associated with destruction of flora and fauna and
their habitat.
ECOLOGY
- The construction and operation of
infrastructure facilities is often directly
associated with destruction of flora and
fauna and their habitat.
AESTHETICS
- Civil infrastructure systems typically have a profound visual
impact on the surrounding natural or built-up environment. Such
impacts may occur as an enhanced or diminished blend with the
surrounding environment or obscuring an aesthetically pleasing
natural or man-made feature.
SOCIAL
- “a purely environmental approach is insufficient, and increasingly engineers
are required to take a wider perspective including goals such as poverty
alleviation, social justice and local and global connections.”
- Bell (2011) stated that the social dimension helps to conceptualize the extent
to which an engineering system is suitable for different populations on the
basis of the society’s cultural norms, economic contexts, and political realities.
- In assessing the social impact of an existing or proposed civil engineering
system, it is important to first identify the facilities and population segments
that will likely be affected (Sinha and Labi, 2007).
 Example of Natural Ventilation

www.thedalles.k12.or.us/.../ sld018.htm
 Photovoltaic Roof Systems

http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/pvt/education/inspgcps/handbook/images/pvarray.jpg
http://www.alternativeenergyinc.com/images/gallery/roof_mounted_pv.jpg
 Materials and Resources
• Storage and Collection of Recyclables
• Building Reuse
– Maintaining 75 – 100% of Existing Walls, Floor, and Roof
– Maintain 100% of the shell/structure and 50% of non-shell/non-
structure
• Construction Waste Management
– Divert 50 – 75% from a landfill
• Resource Reuse
– 5 – 10% of materials used are salvaged, refurbished, or reused
materials, products and furnishings
 Materials and Resources
• Recycled Content
– 5 – 10% (post-consumer + ½ post-industrial)
• Regional Materials
– 20% manufactured regionally
– 50% extracted regionally
• Rapidly Renewable Materials
• Certified Wood
 Recycled and Rapidly Renewable
Materials

http://www.eps.or.kr
http://www.franksupply.com
 Indoor Environmental Quality
• Minimum IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) Performance
• Environmental Tobacco Smoke Control
• Carbon Dioxide Monitoring
• Ventilation Effectiveness
• Construction IAQ Management Plan
– During Construction
– Before Occupancy
 Indoor Environmental Quality
• Low Emitting Materials
– Adhesives and Sealants
– Paints and Coatings
– Composite Wood
Indoor Chemical and Pollutant Source Control
• Controllability of Systems
– Perimeter Spaces
– Non-Perimeter Spaces
 Indoor Environmental Quality
• Thermal Comfort
– Compliance with ASHRAE 55
– Permanent Monitoring System
• Daylight and Views
– Daylighting in 75% of spaces
– Views for 90% of spaces
EXAMPLES OF GREEN BUILDING
The Crystal, London,
United Kingdom
The Crystal is one of the greenest buildings ever
built by mankind.
This building uses natural light, that is, natural
daylight is availed of entirely during the day. It also
utilizes smart lighting technology, wherein electricity
is mainly powered by photovoltaic solar panels- the
building is illuminated by an integration of LED and
fluorescent lights which are switched on and off
depending on the bulk of daylight present.
Another interesting feature of The Crystal is the so-
called Rainwater Harvesting and Black Water
Recycling. The building’s roof acts as a collector of
rainwater, while the sewage is treated, then recycled
water is purified and converted as drinking water.
ACROS Fukuoka Foundation
Building, Fukuoka, Japan
ACROS Fukuoka Foundation Building was opened
in April 1995. What makes this building a
sustainable one is that its interior design
features a colossal atrium, immersing the entire
space with natural lighting thus saving a lot from
energy consumption.
The distinctive feature of this building is a
systematized design of water drainage, similar to
a mountain. This method allows natural
irrigation to take place as water flows from the
top of the building and further waters the
surrounding vegetation on the way down.
Phipps’ Center For Sustainable
Landscapes, Pittsburgh, USA

This building uses different sources

of energy such as solar, wind and
geothermal.
The CSL building is also known to be
run on net-zero water which means
that wastewater is being recycled
while rainwater is harvested so that
the building won’t rely on city water
anymore. This works for CSL as all its
operations run smoothly including
its plumbing.
Phipps’ CSL also features a green
roof where visitors can walk in the
rooftop garden as its walkways are
filled with lush and leafy plants.
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital,
Yishun Central, Singapore
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital is an
example of a consciously-made
green environment thus equivalent
to a healing environment for its
patients.
This hospital complex also uses solar
water heating system and other
energy-efficient methodologies thus
making the building 27% more
energy efficient than a conventional
hospital building. Solar panels are
used to transform solar energy into
electricity, while a solar thermal
system provides hot water for the
hospital’s needs.
Taipei Public Library,
Beitou branch, Taiwan
The Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch is an
environmental-friendly building, the first ever
building in Taiwan to qualify for the highest
diamond rating under its government’s EEWH
certification system.
The public library uses large windows to help
save in electric consumption. Almost all
windows are opened wide in order to
minimize the use of fans and air-conditioning
unit.
One part of its roof is also covered by
photovoltaic cells that directly convert
sunlight into electricity. Lastly, the library also
captures rainfall to conserve water. Its roof
was designed to catch rainwater and store it
for use in the library’s toilets.
 ?
THE VISION FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING IN THE FUTURE

What will the

civil engineering
world be like in
THE FUTURE
Entrusted by society to create a sustainable world and enhance
the global quality of life, civil engineers serve competently,
collaboratively, and ethically as master:

§ planners, designers, constructors, and operators of

society’s economic and social engine — the built
environment;
§ stewards of the natural environment and its
resources;
§ innovators and integrators of ideas and technology
across the public, private, and academic sectors;
Entrusted by society to create a sustainable world and enhance
the global quality of life, civil engineers serve competently,
collaboratively, and ethically as master:

§ managers of risk and uncertainty caused by

natural events, accidents, and other threats; and
§ leaders in discussions and decisions shaping
public environmental and infrastructure policy.
LEADERSHIP THROUGH VISION
The aspirational Vision challenges you, the
civil engineer, to rise to a new level of
leadership and professionalism—to be
entrusted by society to achieve a sustainable
world and raise the global quality of life.
END