Within the industrial activities, construction (and its associated industry) is the largest consumer of natural resources: timber, minerals, water, energy… In Europe, just the construction process represents 40% of the solid waste that ends up in landfills or dumps. Buildings, once constructed, continue to be a direct cause of pollution due to emissions resulting from energy consumption, and because the impact on the territory.
In Europe, buildings represent 40% of total energy consumption (30% in Spain, due to its milder climate), and are responsible for 30% of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Transport represents 32% and industry the 28% remaining. [EUROSTAT 2003]. Besides, a large part of the energy consumed in these buildings comes from finite and limited resources, such as oil, gas or coal, which have a high environmental impact and increase the greenhouse effect. Moreover, the scarcity of these fossil resources means that external energy dependence is very high. At an European level, it is expected that outside sources of supply will increase from 50% in 2001 to 70% in 2030, which will likely result in higher prices of energy.
It is estimated that there are about 25 million homes in Spain that were built without any energy efficiency criteria. The implementation of the Building Technical Code in 2006 was too late and inadequate on this aspect.
That is not all. It is estimated that urban areas consume a not insignificant amount of 14% of the total water available for use in Spain (the industry uses 6%, and the remaining 80% is used in agriculture).
Citizens in Europe spend 90% of their time inside buildings. However, many buildings create unhealthy and / or dangerous indoor conditions to its occupants, and a significant part of the new and renovated buildings suffer from “sick building syndrome”. Airtight buildings without proper ventilation can retain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from materials that can reach concentrations hundreds of times higher than outdoors. In Spain, about 10% of children and adolescents suffer from asthma, being this the most common chronic disease in this age group.
Therefore, for environmental, social and economic issues, a development is needed in the construction process. In Neoglobal we are fully aware of these new needs, so we try to do our bit to achieve it.
