Sustainability vs. Durability

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   Hi,
I am doing a thesis on durability and its correlation to sustainable development. The construction industry today, makes a lot of its decisions based upon the cost-effectiveness of the outcome. Factors such as environmental impacts, economic impacts and social impacts are often overlooked and sometimes disregarded. As a result, we are imposing a huge strain on our planet and jeopardising future generations. 

Durability is basically the length of time that a particular structure can continue to be used effectively without maintenance. Increased durability implies a lower maintenance frequency and could possibly reduce life-time costs of projects. But is there any correlation between durability and sustainability? And is there a way to provide evidence for this?

An example of providing evidence of a correlation, would be to design 3 similar structures for the same expected life, usage and exposure conditions but with varying durabilities. Comparing these 3 structures with different durabilities based on their sustainability would provide us with some sort of correlation right?

I am wondering if anyone has any other ideas of experiments or ways of providing some sort of evidence for a correlation between sustainability and durability.

Many Thanks,

Eugene Lim

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euglcs Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 03 Mar 2010 Location: London Online Status: Offline Posts: 1	Quote Reply Topic: Sustainability vs. Durability Posted: 04 Mar 2010 at 12:00am
	Hi, I am doing a thesis on durability and its correlation to sustainable development. The construction industry today, makes a lot of its decisions based upon the cost-effectiveness of the outcome. Factors such as environmental impacts, economic impacts and social impacts are often overlooked and sometimes disregarded. As a result, we are imposing a huge strain on our planet and jeopardising future generations. Durability is basically the length of time that a particular structure can continue to be used effectively without maintenance. Increased durability implies a lower maintenance frequency and could possibly reduce life-time costs of projects. But *is there any correlation between durability and sustainability?* And is there a way to provide evidence for this? An example of providing evidence of a correlation, would be to design 3 similar structures for the same expected life, usage and exposure conditions but with varying durabilities. Comparing these 3 structures with different durabilities based on their sustainability would provide us with some sort of correlation right? I am wondering if anyone has any other ideas of experiments or ways of providing some sort of evidence for a correlation between sustainability and durability. Many Thanks, Eugene Lim