Sinduscon-Ba Project Description The Sinduscon-Ba Headquarters is located in the city of Salvador-Bahia-Brazil and built where the former headquarters once stood. The 10-story commercial building occupies an area of 594.70 m2 with a built area of 2449.06 m2, consisting of 5 office floors, an auditorium, a flexible corporate space with meeting rooms for seminars, lectures and events, a roof top with garden and 2 floors for car parking. The construction process lasted 16 months, from July 2012 to November 2013. It was built with a reinforced and prestressed concrete structural system, double concrete block cavity walls and steel column foundations with reinforced concrete blocks.
The Sinduscon-BA Headquarters was built under the AQUA-HQE sustainability certification criteria incorporating technologies and sustainable solutions throughout the design concept stage, construction stage and during its operation and use stage. Building solutions include: solar panels, wind turbines, elevated floors, building management systems, bioclimatic facades, Dali system for natural light optimization, LEDs, light sensors, green roofs, green walls, natural gas central air conditioning system, enthalpic wheel, CO2 control for indoor air quality, electric vehicle charging points, showers for cyclists and cycle racks, rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse, water and energy economizing gadgets, real time energy monitoring, centralized vacuum system and use of ventilated facades with high performance glass.
The AQUA-HQE Certification for Sustainable Buildings, granted by the Vanzolini Foundation evaluates the environmental quality of a building in 14 categories. Performance in each category is classified as good( minimum acceptable level), superior( corresponding to best practices level) and excellent( based on the maximum performances found in Sustainable Developments). The building was certified in the execution phase achieving excellent performance in six categories, superior in six and good in two categories. Two AQUA categories are concerned with the construction phase, Category 2- Integrated selection of Products, Systems and Construction Processes and Category 3- Low Environmental Impact Construction Sites.
Implementation, Monitoring and Learning of Sustainable Practice on Jobsite Initially, a selective deconstruction plan in order to remove the former headquarters and guarantee optimal valorization of materials and minimization of impacts was elaborated. All electrical and air conditioning equipment, frames, railings, removable liners, lamps and lighting fixtures, switches / sockets, etc. were donated to employees and NGO’ S. The remaining wood was sent to a ceramic industry for heat energy generation, plastic and glass was recycled by cooperatives. The waste masonry, slabs, mortar, blocks, floors, etc. went to a recycling company for the production of aggregates. 24.4 % of the construction waste aggregate was used in the basement floor of the building, replacing natural aggregates thus preventing the need to extract new resources and reducing waste disposal in landfills.
From the viewpoint of consumption, a materials selection policy was adopted based on performance criteria guaranteed through appropriate certification, durability, life cycle concepts, distance( privileging materials produced within a 300 km radius) and ease of maintenance, which was monitored by a spreadsheet. Training of the materials procurement staff and workers on respective policies was required. Practices to reduce energy and water consumption were implanted such as using energy and water efficient equipment and appliances, insertion of procedures for switching off gadgets as well as the energy and water supply at the end of each day, and monthly monitoring of energy and water consumption. These guidelines were also passed on to the subcontractors and suppliers of equipment. Figure 1 presents water and energy consumption indicators, showing that despite the high progress of construction from June to September 2013,
Deployment of sustainable practices on construction sites 425