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A physical environment that ensures the proper utilisation of resources, continued growth and environmental resilience.
Sub themes on this page: Materials, Energy, Water
Materials
Ensure efficient utilisation of local materials and reduce the demand for virgin materials.
Assess an optimised whole life cycle approach towards the handling of existing materials, especially pertaining to reconstruction, by exploring strategies that utilise debris, reduce waste and divert waste from landfills.
More information
Strategies:
- Optimise material use (Life cycle Approach)
- Select environmentally sustainable local building materials
- Promote upcycling / recycling/ reuse
- Implement comprehensive waste management
Please contact mena@worldgbc.org for further technical details related to each of these strategies across the building lifecycle.
Alignment with WorldGBC principles:
- Net Zero Embodied Carbon
- Health & Wellbeing Framework – 6.1 Commit to Climate Change Mitigation, 6.4 Ensure Resource Efficiency
Stakeholders to involve:
- Municipality urban planners and architects
- Experts: Environmental impact assessment (EIA) specialist, solid waste management experts, architects, structural engineers, heritage experts, social experts
- Material suppliers and local manufacturers
- Geographic and natural resources centers
- Funding agencies
- Affected population
- Certification bodies for infrastructure
- Contractors, procurement engineers, and officers, construction product manufacturers and suppliers
- Engineers – structural and material
- Transport logistics
- Recycling companies
- Municipalities
- Contractors
- Waste haulers
- Citizens and building users
Energy
Use reconstruction to build sustainable energy infrastructure for buildings and cities as a whole.
Ensure proper utilisation of available energy resources, including optimising energy demand and performance through passive and active methods.
Maximise the reliance on renewable energy sources in meeting the demands while ensuring optimum performance when commissioning and monitoring energy systems to reduce overall emissions, operating costs, and reliance on fossil fuels.
More information
Strategies (SDG Alignment: SDG 7.1-7.3, SDG 12.1-12.4, SDG 13.3):
- Prioritise energy conservation
- Utilise energy modeling and analyses
- Maximise energy efficiency
- Capitalise on renewable energy
- Implement monitoring and management
- Consider local resources and conditions
Alignment with WorldGBC principles:
- Net Zero Operational Carbon
- Health & Wellbeing Framework – 6.1 Commit to Climate Change Mitigation, 6.4 Ensure Resource Efficiency
Stakeholders to involve:
- Ministry of energy and/or energy regulatory commission
- Energy generation and/or energy distribution companies
- Municipalities
- Ministry of environment
- Engineers
- Urban planners
- Design engineers
- System engineers
- Project managers
- Commissioning engineers
- Facility managers and technicians
- End users
- Building occupants
- Clients
Water
Ensure proper utilisation and protection of water resources, which includes optimising the demand on freshwater, protecting natural water resources, maximising water reuse, and managing water operations to rescue the depletion of available freshwater in the long term.
More information
Strategies:
- Ensure water conservation
- Efficiently manage water resources extraction, generation and collection
- Apply holistic water management
- Prioritise environmentally friendly wastewater treatment
Alignment with WorldGBC principles:
- Net Zero Operational Carbon
- Health & Wellbeing Framework – 6.3 Ensure Water Efficiency, 1.2 Improve Water Quality
Stakeholders to involve:
- City Management
- Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation
- Water Supply companies
- International development agencies and environmental/green building NGO’s
- Academia
- Informal water sector
Page references
Sub theme: Materials
Arora, M., Raspall, F., Cheah, L. and Silva, A., 2020. Buildings and the circular economy: Estimating urban mining, recovery and reuse potential of building components. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 154, p.104581.
Hauschild, M.Z. and Huijbregts, M.A., 2015. Introducing life cycle impact assessment. In Life cycle impact assessment (pp. 1-16). Springer, Dordrecht.
Umar, U. A., Shafiq, N., Malakahmad, A., Nuruddin, M. F., & Khamidi, M. F. (2017). A review on adoption of novel techniques in construction waste management and policy. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, 19(4), 1361–1373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-016-0534-8
Sub theme: Energy
Berkun, M. (2010). Hydroelectric potential and environmental effects of multidam hydropower projects in Turkey. Energy for Sustainable Development, 14(4), 320-329 (European Commission, unknown)
Ehrhardt-Martinez, K., Donnelly, K. A., & Laitner, J. A. (2015). Advanced Metering Initiatives and Residential Feedback Programs: A Meta-Review for Household Electricity-Savings Opportunities.
Geelen, D., Mugge, R., Silvester, S., & Bulters, A. (2019). The use of apps to promote energy saving: a study of smart meter–related feedback in the Netherlands. Energy Efficiency, 12(0), 1635–1660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-019-09777-z\
Khalil, H. A.E.E. (2009). Energy Efficiency Strategies in Urban Planning of Cites. ResearchGate. 10.2514/6.2009-4622
Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I. Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
RenÖFÄLt, B. M., Jansson, R., & Nilsson, C. (2010). Effects of hydropower generation and opportunities for environmental flow management in Swedish riverine ecosystems. Freshwater Biology, 55(1), 49-67.
Sims R., R. Schaeffer, F. Creutzig, X. Cruz-Núñez, M. D’Agosto, D. Dimitriu, M. J. Figueroa Meza, L. Fulton, S. Kobayashi, O. Lah, A. McKinnon, P. Newman, M. Ouyang, J. J. Schauer, D. Sperling, and G. Tiwari, 2014: Transport. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental
Turney, D., & Fthenakis, V. (2011). Environmental impacts from the installation and operation of large-scale solar power plants. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15(6), 3261-3270.
Refer to International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards such as IEC 62738:2018 for ground‐mounted photovoltaic power plants.
Sub theme: Water
Hofste, R. W., Reig, P., & Schleifer, L. (2019, August 6). 17 Countries, Home to One-Quarter of the World’s Population, Face Extremely High Water Stress. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/17-countries-home-one-quarter-worlds-popula…
World Bank. 2018. Beyond Scarcity: Water Security in the Middle East and North Africa. MENA Development Report. Washington, DC: World Bank. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27659 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO
World Resources Institute. (2019, August 6). Aqueduct Country Rankings. Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas. Retrieved June 1, 2021, from https://www.wri.org/applications/aqueduct/country-rankings/