Sustainable development in construction - Use functions

The purpose of this report is to provide an initial overview of constructive approaches to the challenges posed by incorporating sustainable development into the built environment.

• If the concept of sustainable development is taken in its most immediate sense, then it must be acknowledged that any action undertaken from this perspective must first and foremost be resource-efficient. The prudent use of available resources is, in fact, a guarantee of “responsibility” toward future decision-making capacity.

  Three possibilities can then be considered, with varying levels of effort required to implement them:

  • First, it is essential to “re-examine” current practices to improve their efficiency, which must result in reduced needs and reduced impacts (this is the systems approach);

  • second, it is possible to view the practice as a phase within a broader cycle—that of ecology (this is the closed-loop approach);

  • finally, technical innovation must make it possible to consider not only the extraction of resources but also a positive contribution (this is the proactive approach).

  Each of these paths can be broken down into two possible actions, resulting in six scenarios (Figure 1 a).

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• However, sustainable development is also understood in the long term. The issue is not only about being responsible in the use of resources...