The construction industry is a huge consumer of energy and generator of greenhouse gases. Thus, it is important to pursue green building to reduce these negative impacts. In Slovakia, green buildings and ecological construction make up 20-25 percent of all newly built real estate commented Martin Pribila, an expert in construction and green building in the discussion programme Tablet TV, hosted by the TASR newswire.
“People are pushing architects and developers in this direction as they want to live ecologically,” said Pribila. “Simultaneously, they want to work in green buildings. Figures also show that they are healthier for it. Green architecture is a trend that is beginning to come to the forefront in cities as well as in the countryside.”
He recalled that development and new constructions have brought a lot of concrete to cities over the last decades and that they cannot retain water any more. This results in negative phenomena especially during torrential rains, such as the ones that hit Bratislava in early September.
Western Slovakia hit by torrential rain Read more But ecological architecture can retain water in cities. For example, a green roof can absorb as much as 170 litres of water and reduce sewage costs by 5 percent. Moreover, a green roof cools the building during the summer and thus reduces the cost of air conditioning.
The European Union is beginning to push through the so-called Life-cycle assessment (LCA), a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance and disposal or recycling. This way the carbon and water traces should near zero. Pribila recalled that for now the EU does not have a clear system of support for green construction with subsidy programmes targeting smart technologies rather than solutions closer to nature.
