Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
they are not sure how best to implement these strategies. Initiatives to encourage
sustainable construction are an interesting example of how governments have
attempted to manipulate building activity and these are reviewed in the concluding
chapter of this topic, where we also take a further review of the role that
governments play in the management of the construction industry.
Key Points 13.6
❍
Regardless of the level of economic development, and a nation's culture
and tradition, the construction sector plays an important role in any
economy.
❍
In China, Japan and South Africa, the construction industry has provided
an engine for economic growth.
❍
Japan's construction investment in R&D is the highest of all OECD
countries. In most countries, however, it is left to governments to initiate
policies to promote long-term goals.
MEASURING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
As indicated in
Chapter 12
, for the past 50 years or more academics have debated
how to establish a standard international measure that effectively monitors the
broad usage of environmental resources. This is now becoming increasingly urgent.
Various ad hoc measures have been trialled, and many of these defer to GDP as
a reference point. For example, by expressing changes in real GDP in relation to
energy used (measured in million of tons of oil equivalent), it is possible to calculate
the amount of energy required to support a certain level of GDP or, more simply,
the energy consumed per unit of output. With efficiency gains it is possible for
energy, and emissions, per unit of output to decline. The formal way to refer to this
phenomenon is to say it is possible to 'decouple' growth from energy use, or in plain
English to accept that it is not inevitable that economic growth always produces an
equivalent deterioration in environmental quality.
Research into resource usage has been progressing since the 1960s, and the
final part of the
UK National Accounts
is now dedicated to environmental issues
by detailing oil and gas reserves, atmospheric emissions, energy use, etc. Much of
the data in the section is detailed in units of physical measurement or volume and
this leads to debates about its use or value. While there is some agreement that
governments need a yardstick to monitor and measure the total environmental
impacts placed by humanity on to the ecosystem, there is no accepted consensus
about the best way forward. In short, we need an authorised metric designed
to capture environmental activity, which functions in a similar way to GDP in
capturing economic activity.
The metric that currently perhaps has the best potential to meet this role is the
ecological footprint
. Accounts based on this metric already exist for 150 countries
