There’s no question that construction sites can heavily disrupt the environment. Not only do they add noise and traffic to a specific area, but they can also have a direct impact on the soil, air, and vegetation. As sustainability is on the rise in construction, there are luckily many ways to make a construction site more environmentally friendly. Here is a guide on how to reduce the environmental impact on your construction site.
Site Evaluation
One way you can start to prep your construction site and determine your environmental impact is during your site evaluation. The site evaluation is a crucial step in preparing your construction site. This step ensures that you have all of the right permits and are following all of the rules and regulations of the area you are doing construction in. Some places will have more strict regulations regarding the environment that you’ll be able to learn about during the site evaluation.
The evaluation will involve a field assessment as well that ensures your site won’t directly impact the environment around you and mitigate any potential damage that may be caused by the work site. You can work on strategies to mitigate any environmental impact during the evaluation as this could affect the overall design of the project and site. Learn more about site evaluations in this handy step-by-step guide.
Source Energy Efficient Equipment
Once your site is ready for construction, you can begin taking steps to reduce your environmental impact while on site. One way to do this is to use energy-efficient equipment. Energy-efficient equipment will ensure that you are conserving energy on-site. This will also eliminate extra carbon emissions from solely gas or diesel-powered equipment.
When you switch to energy-efficient equipment you will use machines that are electric or hybrid powered. While not every piece of equipment might be set up to be energy efficient, making an effort to have some equipment can make a huge difference in the carbon footprint of your construction site.
Proper Waste Management
Construction sites create a lot of waste and debris. Having an improper waste management plan could cause waste to run into the environment or crowd the area around the site. One way to mitigate the amount of waste that is benign created on site is by creating a waste mitigation plan. A waste mitigation plan can help minimize the amount of waste that’s created on-site. It can also make it easier to dispose of waste in an environmentally conscious way. Having a plan in place versus no plan is a step in the right direction to having a more environmentally friendly construction site.
Strategic Transportation
Another way to reduce your carbon footprint is to optimize the transportation on the construction site. When you start a new site you’ll have a lot of shipments coming to the site. As well as deliveries of equipment and any auxiliary materials. Creating a strategic transportation plan can cut down on the amount of trips and vehicles that have to visit the construction site.
You can try to bundle material shipments together or source more materials from one place versus multiple locations. You can also try to source materials locally to avoid large shipments from far away places. Ensuring that shipments of materials all come together rather than in batches can also cut down on your environmental impact.
Keep the Noise and Dust Under Control
Construction sites are loud, there’s no question about it. They can also kick up a lot of dust that can affect the air quality of the surrounding area. Noise and dust pollution are environmental issues that can heavily impact the quality of life for people, wildlife, and vegetation.
Some strategies can help mitigate noise and dust. You can employ noise barriers on site to lessen the impact of loud repetitive noises that carry. You can also use dust control measures to ensure that there isn’t too much dust and debris escaping from the site. These aren’t just great ways to be environmentally conscious but to respect the people that are around the construction site.
Stay on Schedule
The closer you can stick to a schedule for your construction project the less environmental impact you’ll have. When construction projects get pushed longer and longer, more machines have to be used, and more carbon emissions could be released on site. Instead of adding more pollution throughout the life of a construction site, sticking to the schedule to get everything done can greatly affect how much your project will affect the environment.
Conclusion
There are many measures to take that will not only make your construction site more environmentally friendly but also more efficient. Sticking to a schedule, switching to energy-efficient equipment, and working closely with local suppliers are only a few things that can greatly affect the environmental impact of a construction site. Sticking to these strategies can ensure that your building goes up while respecting the environment.
