The role of sustainable construction in sustainable development

Abstract

Humans and the actions they take to improve their quality of life lead to the disturbance of the processes occurring in the natural environment. These processes should not be stopped while the solution should be found to help humans coexist with nature. The ecological and social problems and the resulting threats have become an inspiration for the development of the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development has led to the necessity to implement changes towards balancing all areas of human activity, including the construction sector. Factors affecting sustainable development are present in many phases of building creation and use. The most important of them have been characterized and discussed. The article describes the main requirements for sustainable development, contained in laws and regulations, at every stage of building construction. Furthermore, the study analysed the share of individual sectors of the economy in consumption of energy resources. The focus was on the consumption of raw materials in the sector of industry and construction and the sector of households. The analysis shows that the industry and construction sector has a large share in hard coal consumption, heat and electricity. The hard coal consumption is increasing in the sector of households.