Thank you Bill Gates for shedding light on the construction sustainability crisis
26 February 2019
Bill Gates projected in his 2019 annual letter that the global volume of buildings will double by 2060. This is an equivalent to a whole new New York City built every month from now until 2060. It is crucial that all these new buildings are resilient and sustainable as much as possible. Also we must not neglect the existing buildings which also have a lot of space for improvement.
Here is how our solutions can help:
IMPROVING RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY OF EXISTING BUILDINGS
Our solutions are easily added to existing structures, improving their sustainability, climate change resilience, and thermic performances. In existing buildings, green and water solutions improve conditions of the whole site or even larger urban area providing flood prevention and more efficient water management in existing sewage infrastructure.
Green solutions
– Green roofs reduce energy use,
– Green facades regulate micro climate and provide thermal and acoustic isolation for the building,
– Lawn protection allow use of green areas without grass damaging.
Example project: Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa
Water solutions
– Rainwater accumulation tanks protect urban areas with more efficient water management,
– Irrigation of public parks prevents urban flooding,
– Rainwater sub-dispersion efficiently replaces sewage systems in areas without sewage.
Example project: XX Settembre square, Rovigo, Italy
IMPROVING RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY OF NEW BUILDINGS
New buildings must improve sustainability during all phases, from initial design through construction, and finally throughout use. Green and water solutions offer the same benefits to new as to the existing building. Additionally foundations, slabs, and formwork solutions substantially improve the building and urban sustainability and resilience.
Foundations solutions
– Time-saving and energy due to fast installation,
– Lightening mass of the foundations due to reduced mass of concrete and steel,
– Create barrier between building and soil in areas at risk of frequent flooding.
Example project: Symbiosis Business District
Slab solutions
– Reduce mass of concrete and steel,
– Time-saving and energy due to fast installation,
– Improved seismic resilience.
Example project: Ericsson Headquarters in Italy
Formwork solutions
– More sustainable than traditional formwork due to use of recycled material,
– Reduces use of energy due to easy handling, with no additional machinery needed,
– Reusable for more than 100 times.
Example project: Manukau shopping center, New Zealand
Building a whole new ‘New York’ every month will be a battle for a more resilient and sustainable future. If our products are applied to all new and existing projects global CO2 emissions would be drastically lowered not only from reduced use of concrete but due to reduced use of energy and machinery, and better water management.
Thank you Bill Gates for shedding light on the construction sustainability crisis.
