The role of a structural engineer in sustainable design

The structural engineer has an important role to play in addressing the growing demand by building owners and tenants for sustainable buildings. The waste hierarchy of Reduce; Reuse; then Recycle is one that can be utilised to play their part in producing a more sustainable building. This paper examines how the rating tools from the Green Building Council of Australia (Green Star tool) and the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (IS tool) support this waste hierarchy in relation to designs utilising steel as a building material. To quantify how these rating tools recognise sustainable design, examples of building designs with a specific focus on sustainability are compared to an appropriate reference case. This comparison provides structural engineers with an insight into how to balance an environmentally sustainable design with the ever-present demand of an economical design.