Interview with Dr. Ronny Glaser
Why did Inros Lackner decide to set up the “Sustainable Construction” working group?
Our society has largely recognised that our current way of life is not sustainable and is therefore not an option for future generations. The construction industry’s need for resources and energy, its use of land and its generation of waste is above average. Against this background, everyone involved in construction is called upon to analyse all relevant aspects – be it in the production of construction materials or building products, the planning and design process, the construction process or the structure’s service life, for example – and to identify and implement potential savings. In the future, every architect and engineer must have good knowledge of the fundamentals of sustainable construction. Only in this way can it be ensured that the right decisions, in the interests of sustainability, are made early in the planning and design process. Our working group is dedicated to this complex multidisciplinary planning and design topic, with the aim of sensitising Inros Lackner’s staff to the importance and principles of sustainable construction. They should develop an understanding of the complexity of this topic, and increasingly implement sustainable planning and design solutions in agreement with our clients.
Who is involved?
We are a diverse group, since the lifecycle-based assessment of the sustainability of structures is a new field of work. Sustainable planning and design includes a process of weighing up various needs and priorities, in which clients, residents and users are involved and a wide range of criteria are evaluated and coordinated in close collaboration with all participating specialist trades. As a result, the optimal solution from the point of view of any particular specialisation may not be the one that is implemented. For this reason, the working group was established with staff from a wide range of fields such as building construction, civil engineering, technical systems, infrastructure, environmental design and contamination/pollutants.
How is the knowledge shared within the company?
The working group transfers knowledge to the rest of the company in different ways. The central communication platform is the working group's SharePoint. Here, the fundamentals of the individual aspects of sustainable construction are described, along with project examples, further reading and helpful links. This information is accessible to all employees. Another way of sharing information is internal training events, during which members of the working group inform their colleagues about current developments in the field of sustainable construction.
What approaches does Inros Lackner take?
While the topic of sustainable construction has been a focal point for our colleagues in complex building design for over ten years already, and Germany’s Sustainable Building Rating System (BNB) defines criteria that provide excellent guidance for their planning and design work, the fields of infrastructure design and maritime engineering, for example, have no binding specifications. The working group aims to encourage these other specialisations in particular to integrate sustainability into their ongoing planning and design work. With the help of environmental lifecycle assessments in the course of preliminary planning, the various options can be evaluated with regard to their environmental impacts and resource consumption or the impacts can be optimised during further lifecycle phases. It is appropriate to consider the entire lifecycle costs, not just the construction costs, when selecting the preferred option. And topics such as conservation of biodiversity and the circular economy can already today be considered in planning and design work outside the field of building construction. Every step, no matter how small, counts.