Sustainable Materials
The Sustainable Materials Programme aims to provide industry with the skills needed to make better decisions, reduce environmental and health imacts, and aim for net benefit in the selection of eco-preferable materials.
The Centre for Design is involved with leading policy initiatives, design decision-making tool development and applied research for major projects, providing research capabilities to support initiatives by organizations from the Federal Government to architectural practices.
Key projects driving our current research include:
BAMS (Building Assembly & Materials Scorecard) an initiative to provide a common basis of assessment and comparison of the whole-of-life environmental performance of building materials.
Scoping study on materials in the building code a scoping study that provided crucial insight into the future needs of the Australian economy in the appropriate and optimal management of building product and system sustainability.
Our Sustainable Materials Programme delivers:
- practical on the ground solutions
- transfer of knowledge
- reliable, well researched tools
- a platform from which to move to a more sustainable built environment through collaboration with industry, designers, manufacturers, regulators and developers.
For more information about our Sustainable Materials Programme, contact:
Dr Usha Iyer-Raniga, Acting Manager, ph: +61 3 9925 9066, email: usha.iyer-raniga@rmit.edu.au
Materials Quick Facts
- According to research by the Federal Government, buildings are responsible for about 30 % of the raw materials used, 42 % of the energy, 25% of water used, 12% of land use, 40% of atmospheric emissions, 20% of water effluents, 25% of solid waste and 13% of other releases globally.
- In Victoria, approximately 40% of total landfill burdens derive from construction and demolition waste, or approximately 5.6M tonnes.
- The embodied energy of commercial buildings when fitout churn is included has been estimated to potentially exceed operational energy loads.
- In residential construction according to Australian research it takes as much energy to make a standard brick veneer house as it does to run one for fifteen years.
- The evidence is that our buildings are damaging our health. Modern buildings are such significant emitters of a range of poorly understood chemicals that a 2002 Clean Air Society report found ‘There is a clear and present danger. A significant proportion of our community is at risk, and will remain at risk until the governments of Australia tackle issues which affect the quality of air within the buildings where we work, live and study... by calculation the health of millions of people is being impaired by indoor air pollution’ with research shows that indoor air quality is often between 10 and 200 times worse than outdoor air (CASANZ) Air quality alone has been linked to productivity improvements of 4 – 10% in buildings.