By: Roy Little, Senior Associate and Francesca Ravenhill, Senior Engineer and Analyst.

In reviewing several Professional Review Reports, as part of the Chartership application process, the sustainability section appears a difficult competence to address. As such we want to share some thoughts on the principles of sustainable development and how we as fire engineers apply them in our work.

Typically, the discussion surrounding sustainability is limited to environmental issues, reduction of material use etc, but sustainability can be thought of more widely.

For example:

• The loss of a school due to fire has significant impact on society.
• The evacuation of a trading floor has significant economic impact.
• Putting the wrong materials on the outside of 100s of buildings impacts everything in the short and long term.

We should relate sustainability to social, economic and environmental issues. The three-work hand in hand. Therefore, within the fire industry, we should consider how the decisions we make in our design choices, the guide documents we write, and the materials we use, impact on each of these issues.

For fire engineering, sustainability typically relates to the built environment. And as a result, the question ‘What do people want from their buildings?’

Society (or business) sets the agenda and decides what they are willing to pay (both financially and environmentally) to meet that agenda. We as engineers aim to meet the goals of the agenda with the resources and constraints put to us. By enabling the design of buildings to meet social (or business) requirements, we create a sustainable environment for society to operate in.

For example, enabling older building stock to be re-used or refurbished rather than rebuilding from scratch. As a result, the regeneration of an existing building can improve neighbourhoods, reinvigorate areas of cities that were downtrodden, improve local economies, and attract business back to an area.

Note that as engineers we can influence the social agenda, not just passively enact it.

Also, society will change its goals over time – there may be more of a focus on environmental issues with willingness to spend more to achieve these goals, or maybe society will become more risk adverse – and we need to adapt our approach and outlook to meet these needs.

The use of PV panels, timber structures, electrical vehicle facilities and green walls are more commonly introduced into buildings with an aim to reduce environmental impact – these come with complex fire safety considerations, to which our standards and designs must adapt.

For anything to be sustainable over the long term we need social buy-in. There is no point developing the most environmentally friendly or ‘safest’ design solution if the cost is so high no-one can afford it. For example, retro fitting sprinklers in all tower blocks would increase safety and reduce the environmental impact from fire (directly and indirectly), but no-one (society) seems willing to pay.

Whilst the above does not cover all possible examples of sustainability in the built environment, hopefully it allows people to think about sustainability in a wider context, with the different interlaced factors. By considering the wider picture this will hopefully help us to determine how we can achieve our goals as well as others, in both the short term and long term, regardless of what they are.