The case for sustainable construction

Seismic waves and hurricane winds intensify the case for sustainable construction

In the year just past, quite apart from the toll of life and limb, damage due to exceptional winds such as hurricanes and tornadoes accounted for losses of more than $100 billion.

That assessment by Europe's major reinsurance companies was made prior to the massive release of energy undersea on 2004-12-26 which set the tsunami or seismic wave running in all directions across the Indian Ocean with devastating effects.

Dr Gerhard Berz, who has spent 30 years investigating these geo-risks, fears that climate change triggered by human activity will lead to an increase in the frequency and intensity of exceptional weather events.

Losses of $100 billion a year due to a succession of ferocious winds are not the measure of a sustainable environment.

Events in Florida, hit by two hurricanes at almost the same point within three weeks last September, reveal the folly of unsustainable construction which leaves whole communities littered with ripped-off roofing and blown out windows.

CIOB is now committed to the cause of sustainable construction: the events of 2004 demonstrate how important this has become in an age when the world is waking up to the enormous risks generated by climate change.

The disastrous events of the past twelve months have made clear how much sustainable building can do to ward off the damage inflicted by wild and unpredictable elements.

This is a cause which the industry might well promote world-wide to its own advantage.

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