Building for a sustainable future: construction without depletion (1999)

Sustainability of the built environment requires multidisciplinary, international and interdisciplinary work over many decades using both technical and humanistic approaches.
Sustainable development needs a living language that is readily understood by all people. It also calls for an ethical stance and, very often, the confidence to depart from the norm.
This places `design` - by planners, developers, architects, engineers, constructors, users and manufacturers - at the centre of a process that is understandable and holistic and focuses human ingenuity.

This report intends to guide structural engineers and other construction professionals in the process of sustainable development around the world.
Development is itself the product of urban and rural planning, architectural processes and construction activity followed by years of use, adaptations for different use and eventual recycling.
It uses natural materials, consumes energy and affects local and remote habitats in the short term and is likely to have more significant future impacts.
Much development is concerned with upgrading, adaptation and reuse of the building stock.

In the creation and management of buildings, the structural engineer can participate by:
- understanding the effects of structural engineering decisions on global warming, acid rain, ozone generation and resource depletion
- seeking an appropriate location for the development
- choosing a built form and orientation that contribute to environmental economies and future adaptability, flexibility of use and reuse
- selecting structural materials and systems with low embodied energy and easy reuse
- selecting construction methods that minimise the effects of construction and deconstruction in terms of land take, waste and pollution

Sustainable development in the built environment is not just for the altruistic. It has to be a process driven by the narrowing gap between the economic realities of life-cycle costing and the ecological necessities of life-cycle assessment.
Sustainable development is for all cultures, climates and geographical locations and for all disciplines.