The Sustainability Study Done for a Consolidation Work on a Historical Building

Abstract

A very important problem encountered all over the world and increasingly widespread is represented by sustainability. The construction field is responsible for a high environmental impact, for the entire duration of a building’s operation, from the construction stage until its demolition. This paper presents a sustainability study, performed on an old historical building located in Romania—Arad County, which implied the consolidation of its resistance structure as a result of visible degradation. The study was performed using the Bob–Dencsak Calculation Model, which involved research into several specific parameters for each dimension separately (ecological, economic and social). Besides establishing the sustainability class for the consolidated building, an analysis was done on the impact that metal has as compared to reinforced concrete, thus resulting in the finding that metal is less sustainable than reinforced concrete, achieving growths of up to 42% for embodied energy and 28.50% of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. Finally, the paper offers recommendations for future sustainability assessment research with the aim of increasing the quality of life and minimizing the negative impact on the environment with minimal costs.