Panel Intervention Transcript – Prof. Reuben Paul Bonello

SMEs National Forum 2021 - Report

PANEL INTERVENTION TRANSCRIPT

Prof. Ruben Paul Borg, Academic at the Faculty for the Built Environment. President of NGO Sustainable Built Environment Malta (iiSBE Malta Chapter) University of Malta

The truth is that we have to set the scene. The scene is such that we have a high consumption of natural resources in the construction industry and we generate large quantities of waste. With Malta being an island state, this problem is even more pronounced. Also because of the negative outlook of the sector, I do believe that there is a negative perception of construction also because of the way we consume materials and natural resources and generate waste. Why concrete? Can concrete and green co-exist? We talk about concrete because in truth it is consumed in large quantities and has a huge impact. In terms of human consumption globally, it is second only to water. The truth is that the trend shows that there is an increase in the consumption and production of concrete.

There is an increased reliance on the material. Therefore it is argued that slight contributions in this sector can lead to huge benefits overall in terms of a green economy because of the sheer large volumes we consume. Therefore there have been improvements in the way we produce the material, in the way we choose the ingredients, the constituents to produce the material, and this led also to important opportunities for the industry itself. Therefore the way we exploit waste, or rather, by-products from other industries. We try to avoid using the term “waste” because there is an opportunity in these waste by-products. This leads to lower consumption of non-renewable resources. We try to recycle aggregate; we use alternatives to cement because of its high embodied energy and impact. It was realised that when we go for this approach there is also an improvement in durability performance. This leads me to an important point. Through the exploitation of these alternative materials that contribute to a greener concrete there is a large improvement in the impacts, therefore a reduction in global emissions but a longer life-cycle approach that encourages improved durability of structures. Now, this is beneficial because this leads to lower needs of maintenance, improved and safer infrastructure and therefore in the end there are benefits. You gain by reducing waste, you gain by reducing consumption of non-renewable natural resources and at the same time, you have a longer lifetime performance with improved durability. This leads to lower maintenance costs and also generates new opportunities because there is the need for the retrofit of structures. There is also the need to measure well these improvements. Measuring is key because otherwise, we can fall into the trap of greenwash sometimes. How do we measure? There are sustainability assessment tools that help us measure correctly the true impacts. It is sometimes argued that the exploitation of timber as a renewable resource leads to benefits. It may be the case. But one needs to put into the equation for example the transport distances, the lifetime of the structure or building.

At the end of it all, if we manage the resources well, we get improved quality and also new opportunities for small and large industries to exploit new opportunities in recycling for example.