In 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a roadmap for countries and societies to have the opportunity to improve everyone’s lives, leaving no one behind.
This 2030 Agenda sets seventeen goals, from the elimination of poverty, the promotion of education and gender equality, to the defence of the environment, the fight against climate change or the improvement of the design of our cities.
Precisely, engineering and architecture are called upon to play a relevant role in the achievement of some of the goals set by the 2030 Agenda. These are some of the solutions that these two disciplines can provide:
-Clean water and sanitation (goal no. 6): to improve access and infrastructures for water conduction and treatment, and their efficiency; guide the design so that projects make efficient use of water; at the same time, make responsible use of water in the execution of these projects.
-Affordable and clean energy (objective 7): to design projects with clean and renewable energy solutions; reduce energy consumption through the design of high efficiency systems; reduce energy demand through design solutions that include the most appropriate thermal insulation.
-Sustainable cities and communities (objective 11): to design urban spaces to be environmentally friendly and to enable people to live sustainably; prioritise open and green spaces; to plan for the reduction of travel involving the use of polluting vehicles.
-Responsible production and consumption (objective 12): to minimise waste generated in the construction process; select local materials that reduce transport needs, facilitate installation and have a long life span, to reduce the carbon footprint of construction.
To achieve these ambitious objectives, it is necessary to count on the collaboration of all the agents involved in the different stages of a project, from design, construction and operation until the end of its useful life.
By Ángel Ibáñez Pérez, senior MEP modeller in the Architecture Department of Amusement Logic
