PhD student helps construction firm win sustainability award

Author: Press Office

Date Article Written Tuesday 20 December 2011

A PhD research student in GMIT has helped a construction firm win an international award for sustainability in the construction sector.

Donall Dowd, who is in the final year of his PhD research in Environmental Science, assisted John Sisk & Son in winning

“Sustainable construction and demolition project of the year” for the Mater Adult Hospital in Dublin.

This was one of a range of environmental awards presented by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) at a recent ceremony in London. These reward best practice innovation in the waste and recycling industries in Ireland and the UK.

The Mater Adult Hospital won the award for its approach to designing ‘out waste’ prior to construction, by using innovative technologies and by altering design details to improve efficiency during construction.

Donall is working on this development as part of his research into elimination of construction waste at the design stage of construction projects. The aim of this project is to help architects and engineers at the planning stage before it becomes an issue on site.

This is part of the work of the GMIT construction and demolition waste research group, lead by Dr Mark Kelly and John Hanahoe, lecturers in construction and environmental studies in GMIT Engineering School. This project is funded by the EPA under the STRIVE initiative.

These waste prevention strategies are beneficial financially, as the amount of material purchased is reduced, and environmentally, as fewer natural resources are required. This type of strategy changes the focus from recycling the waste that is produced to not creating the waste in the first instance.

Dr Mark Kelly says the GMIT Dept of Building & Civil Engineering is delighted with Donall’s achievement as “it demonstrates the potential of collaborative research between industry and the third-level sector to have a positive impact on the built environment, specifically focusing on resoure efficiency at a time when innovative approaches to sustainability will play a key role in competitiveness of the Irish construcion sector.”

“One of the main aims of this ongoing collaboration with industry is to align our research activities to our teaching practice and this has led to the development of a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in the Dept of Building and Civil Engineering that focus on the potential of the built environment sector to have a postive and regenerative environmental impact for a (hopefully) future sustainable world.” adds Dr Kelly.