Sustainable engineering: new objectives for construction projects

Abstract

Impacts on ecosystem services, due to human activity, are already a fact. The objectives of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the alleviation and adjustment proposals from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their consecutive reports, as well as the proposals by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) cannot go unnoticed for general projects and for particular construction projects. The amount of waste material generated by the sector, as well as the amount of resources consumed (energy, raw materials) by the whole life cycle (construction, exploitation, maintenance and deconstruction) definitely contributes to increase the human ecological footprint. The goals and requirements for the Integrated Project Management must change. The objective is no longer the achievement of a triple goal (time, costs and quality) and the performance established by the developer. Nowadays there are new sustainability goals and requirements for construction projects. Tools and development techniques are analyzed in the construction field, in order to get a construction achievement in a more sustainable way; and a methodological framework for sustainable management according to standards of Integrated Project Management is proposed.