A Global View of Sustainability

Social sustainability goes beyond adaptive and universal design. According to ESP Design, an online resource for sustainable product design, the idea of social sustainability involves five basic precepts:

1. Protect the mental wellbeing of all stakeholders.
2. Protect the physical health of all stakeholders.
3. Encourage community.
4. Treat all stakeholders fairly.
5. Provide all stakeholders with essential services.

This definition reframes the meaning of environmental degradation and energy efficiency as “community” and “stakeholder” considerations in the broadest sense. In this way, social sustainability takes a global view — and a long view — of reducing energy use.

“Green certifications like LEED will eventually be more about carbon footprint than other measures,” says Wally Johnson, vice president of marketing and sales for U.S. Concrete, a producer of ready-mix, precast, and other concrete solutions. “For example, supplementary cementitious materials, or SCMs, can help earn points under LEED, but if it’s slag imported from China for a building project in Houston, you’re defeating what you’re trying to accomplish.” With that in mind, the company provides information on carbon footprint for every mix it brings to market, says the 40-year industry veteran, cognizant of the fact that Portland cement may make up as much as 9% of all carbon emissions in the world.

LEED projects such as the Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas used supplementary cementitious materials, or SCMs, instead of Portland cement to help the projects earn points under LEED and also to reduce carbon footprint. Photo courtesy of U.S. Concrete, Inc.

“Cement manufacture requires high temperatures and lots of energy and CO2, including for the decalcification of lime, which is ground up and processed into cement,” says Johnson. For every pound of cement, the manufacturing processes produce as much as a pound of CO2 — close to a 1:1 ratio. For this reason, some manufacturers have developed operational processes that use alternative cementitious materials. Johnson adds, “This not only produces greener and more sustainable concrete mixes, but also stronger and more durable concrete products.”

This global view is essential to social sustainability, but so is a long-term view. Proponents like Harvard’s Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who created the United Nations Human Development Index, also argue that social sustainability requires thinking about intergenerational equity. Sustainable human development, Sen has said, can be seen as development that “promotes the capabilities of present people without compromising capabilities of future generations.”

The drive for intergenerational sustainability has boosted the emphasis on renewable material and energy sources, notes John J. Bailey, Jr., senior vice president of sales and marketing with ClimateMaster, which manufactures water-source heat pumps. “The best renewable technologies are those that are widely and easily applied regardless of building constraints,” he contends. “Many renewable approaches, such as for geothermal, need a flat roof or a cooling tower, or they conflict with skylights. But there are distributed systems that are ideal for retrofit and renovation projects because they are small, individual units scattered throughout the building.”