CIVIL ENGINEERING

SUSTAINABILITY IN
THE FUTURE
What is SUSTAINABILITY?
❑ to sustain
❑ to endure
❑ to maintain
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

- Focuses on meeting the needs of the

present without comprising the ability
of future generations to meet their own
needs.
Sustainable Development, was born from concerns about
population growth beyond the carrying capacity of the planet
and the environmental impact of rapidly growing populations.

Environmental Impact is a result of three factors: Extraction,

use, and disposal of natural resources.

Consequently, sustainable development emphasizes reduction

of the environmental impact because, such reduction:
1. slows depletion of resources;
2. reduces pollution by slowing the flow of energy and matter in
the environment;
3. saves money.
 THE VISION FOR CIVIL
ENGINEERING IN 2025
Entrusted by society to create a
sustainable world and enhance
the global quality of life, civil
engineers serve competently,
collaboratively, and ethically as
master:
• planners, designers, constructors, and
operators of society’s economic and
social engine — the built environment;
• stewards of the natural environment and
its resources;
• innovators and integrators of ideas and
technology across the public, private,
and academic sectors;
• managers of risk and uncertainty caused
by natural events, accidents, and other
threats; and
• leaders in discussions and decisions
 1. PLANNERS, DESIGNERS,
CONSTRUCTORS, AND OPERATORS
2. STEWARDS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
3. INNOVATORS AND INTEGRATORS OF
TECHNOLOGY
4. MANAGERS OF RISK
5. LEADERS IN PUBLIC POLICY
SUSTAINABLE
CONSTRUCTION
- Reduce the industry’s impact on the
environment.
REASONS WHY CONSTRUCTION HAS
A DIRECT IMPACT ON THE
ENVIRONMENT:

- Generation of waste materials

- Emissions from vehicles, machineries
- Noise pollution due to construction
machineries
- Releases wastes and pollutants into water,
ground and atmosphere.
IN ORDER TO PERFORM
SUSTAINABILITY IN
CONSTRUCTION, THE
FOLLOWING MUST BE SATIFIED
1. BIODIVERSITY ENHANCEMENT
2. SUPPORT TO THE COMMUNITY
3. EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES
4. POLLUTION REDUCTION
5. CREATING HEALTHY
ENVIRONMENT
6. PROCESS MANAGEMENT
 1. Biodiversity Enhancement
• Discovering and evaluating deposits of industrial minerals such as sand and
gravel
• Planning open-pit and underground mining operations
• Petroleum engineering and designing offshore oil platforms
• Water resource planning of all kinds including dams, irrigation systems and
wells
• Agricultural engineering in land reclamation, drainage and improved farm
operations
• Designing tree plantations and managing forests
• Designing fish farms and supporting aquaculture
• Improved land planning to protect the best farmland and natural resources
from the impact of urban sprawl
2. Support to the community
• Creative land planning and development to minimize negative environmental
impacts
• In emerging mega-cities, helping to establish local organizations that can
provide the necessary infrastructure
• Providing treatment facilities and distribution systems for potable water
• Designing systems to collect and store food and other supplies
• Designing housing and commercial buildings
• Developing streets, utility lines, public transportation and other infrastructure
• Using underground space for recreation and other uses
• Providing technologies and facilities for heating and air conditioning
• Creating high-quality treatments for liquid and solid waste
• Reducing the risks of damage and loss of life from natural hazards such as
hurricanes, floods and earthquakes
3. Effective use of resources
• Developing instrumentation to measure and monitor pollution
• Changing industrial processes to reduce the use of energy and other
resources and to eliminate waste wherever possible
• Considering the total input/output of operations over their complete life-
cycles
• Designing products and packaging for re-use or resource recovery
• Collaborating with other industries by creating “eco parks” or applied
industrial ecology. With this approach, several industries work together so
that each industry’s waste products can be used as the raw materials for
others. This also makes possible more efficient use of waste heating and
cooling water and using combined waste treatment facilities.
• Restoring and modifying old industrial sites for other uses
4. Pollution reduction
• Improving ways to recycle and reuse domestic waste
• Designing better solid waste collection and storage facilities
• Improving methods to collect and reuse construction materials such as
concrete and asphalt from roads, and ways to reuse scrap metal and other
natural and synthetic materials.
• Improving treatment facilities for urban organic waste and human waste so
that the treated fluids and solids may be used safely for agriculture and
other purposes.
• Recovering, reusing and remanufacturing products from resource
development and industrial processing
5. Creating healthy environment
• Treating and restoring old industrial waste sites
• Reclaiming old mine properties
• Treating polluted groundwater, lakes and streams
• Restoring the ecology of lakes and wetlands
• Renewing aging urban areas in large cities
• Reclaiming and restoring eroded or damaged farmlands
6. Process management
• Project Initiation
• Project Planning
• Project Execution
• Project Monitoring and Control
• Project Closure
 In the future, engineers can be of even
greater help in achieving the goals of
sustainable development if they are able
to finance and execute programs such as
the following:
• Creating a comprehensive program to identify and
provide the information that engineers in developing
countries need to meet energy requirements, as well
as food, health and other basic human needs.
• Expanding global educational programs on
sustainable development for students and practicing
• Becoming actively engaged in the full range of
decision-making processes in addition to performing
projects.
• Improving methods for identifying and considering
all of a project’s environmental costs and impacts
throughout a project’s life cycle.
• Creating programs to provide hands-on-help, share
knowledge and provide assistance on technically
viable, commercially feasible and socially sustainable
projects in developing countries.
• Supporting well-cra ed policies and creative
applications of engineering principles, and
committing to partnerships with social and physical
Indeed, we should all remember that civil engineers are supposed to be first and
foremost “problem-solvers” and not mere “erectors”. After all, civil engineers being
“problem-solvers” sounds better and more decent and dignified than the other one,
anyway. -Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.

Never mind the traditional jokes about civil engineers and architects. Sabi nila, ang
arkitekto daw magdo-drawing lang nang magdo-drawing ng mahirap na design, tapos,
ipapasa sa mga civil engineer para problemahin kung paano ito itatayo. But there is no
reason to be in conflict with one another. Anyway, under Article 1723 of the New Civil
Code, the civil engineer and the architect who drew up the plans and specifications will
be both liable for damages if the building collapses due to defects within fifteen (15)
years from completion. Misery loves company, so they say. -Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.

Indeed, it needs no elaboration that civil engineers and architects are effective partners
in attaining the Millennium Development Goal of ensuring environmental sustainability
in our infrastructures. -Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.