Efforts to disseminate the concept of sustainability

Nowadays, the buzzword in the construction field is sustainability. Defined by experts as a concept which includes such principles as energy efficiency, environmental protection and socio-cultural aspects, sustainability is used to emphasise the necessity of saving resources in a world where these are more and more characterized by scarcity. The concept was initially developed in the United States of America and Great Britain although, in recent years, the German specialists also provided significant improvements. The most popular organisations specialised in the assessment of specific features of sustainable constructions are LEED, BREEAM and DGNB. A national association (RoGBC), affiliated to WorldGBC has been developed lately in Romania. About 20 years ago, another idea in the area of efficiency appeared in Germany, when, in the city of Darmstadt, the Passive House Institute was established. The local specialists defined a new way to build residential and commercial projects, starting from the idea of reducing energy consumption for heating, cooling and hot water producing. Another important aspect of the analysed matter is the legislation. Lately, in Europe, the authorities were having a very intense law-drafting activity in order to establish the general rules that the buildings of the future will have to follow. The most important law is the European Directive 31/2010/EC, which defines the concept of "near zero energy building" (nZEB). The member states of EU must decide as soon as possible on the national levels of energy performance related to this concept. Therefore, beginning with 2020 all new buildings (public and private) have to respect this regulation. Romanian designers have already been reluctant about the compliance of the mentioned deadlines, but system suppliers are more optimistic. The good news is that Romanian construction market is saturated with performance materials, even if the demand on this segment had not reached yet the same level. This represents a strong evidence that international companies identified a good potential of the national market, and took into consideration a good future development of their own companies in Romania. For further information and a detailed analysis of the current Agenda Constructiilor issue, click here!