News

Sustainable Civil Construction Committee Brings Together Industry’s V.I.P

2008-05-14

C2S – Sustainable Civil Construction Committee is already operative in Paraná.

The Committee was officially launched at the end of April as an initiative of IPD – Development Promotion Institute, to promote sustainability in the civil construction industry and its productive chain, identifying priority action areas and tearing down barriers to the sector’s full development.

C2S’s founding member was Guido Petinelli, from WGBC – a supranational non-profit umbrella organization for companies interested in achieving sustainability in the civil construction industry (GBC – Green Building Council). Later, other members joined in, including Eduardo Schulman (Top Imóveis); Glacy Gabardo (HSBC); Sandra Pinheiro (Baggio & Schiavon); and Euclésio Finatti (Braengel Engenharia).

Carlos Alberto Gloger, IPD’s CEO, explains the importance of creating the Committee, by quoting data from GBC/Brasil, showing that the civil construction industry has a very significant environmental impact. Between 50-70% of noise pollution comes from civil construction; 15-50% of the natural resources are harvested and used by the industry and, concerning wood, this figure reaches 90%, most of which illegally. GBC also reports that for every ton of cement produced, 600 kg of CO2 are released into the atmosphere. And another worrisome piece of information: 25 to 30% of the planet’s CO2 emissions are generated by the civil construction industry.

For Guido Petinelli, implementing any kind of change can only result from local action, and hence the importance of creating the committee in Paraná. “Our focus will be on turning sustainable building practices into reality”, he adds.

He also points out that, in Brazil, the main hurdles to green or sustainable construction are its fragmented market; the need for professional and technical capacity-building; and poor access to sustainable materials in the market.

He goes on saying that the civil construction industry is segmented and lacks integration, particularly in the design and pre-building stages, where the potential for implementing sustainable concepts is easier and economically feasible. “We have to reverse this way of thinking and start using an integrated start process (integrated design process – IDP), he emphasizes.

He insists that education is critical in changing the market and that wide-ranging dissemination of sustainable construction practices, technologies, and strategies is still lacking. He champions a solution derived from two initiatives: first, using the knowledge produced in local universities more efficiently and practically; and establishing a more systemic mode of transferring information, experience, and technology produced abroad. He believes that Brazil can benefit from the experience of other markets that have already overcome the stage Brazil is still going through.

According to Petinelli, access to sustainable materials is very difficult and the Brazilian productive chain is still unable to produce the necessary information to achieve product sustainability. “This, and the lack of an easy specification system to evaluate and catalogue products, creates a bottleneck”.

Kelly Zeni, coordinator of Paraná’s Sustainable Civil Construction Committee, said that the committee congregates a group of individuals capable of overcoming obstacles and providing solutions. Moreover, it will be an open forum for experience exchange.