Safe - Sound - Sustainable
The need for integrating Structural / Seismic Upgrade of Existing Buildings, with Energy Efficiency Improvements
The European Council of Civil Engineers declares the Year 2020 as the Year of the 3S Approach Safe β Sound β Sustainable.
Opening event in Cyprus
ECCE President Aris Chatzidakis declared the year 2020 as the Year of the 3S Approach - Safe, Sound and Sustainable, aiming to raise awareness regarding the importance of reduction of the static and seismic vulnerability of existing buildings.
The official opening event was held on 14th December 2019, at Nicosia, Cyprus during the 27th General Assembly of the Cyprus Council of Civil Engineers.
The Civil Engineers of Cyprus welcome the effort and the declaration of ECCE, bearing in mind that their country is trying to adopt this goal, since the number of buildings that need improvements are high.
It is a basic and inalienable human right for everyone to live in a Safe, Sound and Sustainable house. That's why the "moto" of the European Civil Engineering Council for 2020, is that there needs to be primarily structural security in buildings in parallel with the energy efficiency and structural sustainability.
Kick-off event in Sofia "2020 The Year of the 3S Approach"
On 6th December 2019, a meeting-discussion on the topic "Sustainable Construction and Digitalization of Construction Sector, BIM implementation" was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. This event was attended by representatives of higher education institutions/engineering universities, engineers and architects from the Chamber of Engineers in the Investment Design, the Union of Civil Engineers in Bulgaria, the Chamber of architects of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Construction Chamber, the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization and the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works of Bulgaria.
Eng Maria Stefanova, Secretary of KIIP-Sofia, presented the current development of Level's - European Framework for sustainable buildings β overview of the testing phase and future action roadmap. Using existing standards, Level(s) provides a common EU approach to the assessment of environmental performance in the built environment.
The standards of CEN/TC350 'Sustainable Construction, BDS EN ISO 19650-1,2 related to the Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM), were discussed.
Eng. Dimitar Natchev, ECCE Vice President, presented the ECCE Manifesto "2020 The Year of the 3S Approach". The Manifesto is translated also in Bulgarian language.
During the discussion Ρhe participants expressed their positive opinion on the holistic approach on the rehabilitation of existing buildings including structural / seismic rehabilitation.
The representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works declared that they support this ECCE initiative on the 3S Aapproach, because we need safe, sound and sustainable buildings, not only energy efficient buildings. They pointed out that in Bulgaria this issue is legally resolved for the buildings of public sector. The Construction legislation clearly outlined the engineering approach to the renovation: before preparing the renovation project, a structural expertise (technical audit), must be prepared and if it is necessary restoration measures of damaged structural elements are performed.
It is positive to pay more attention on seismic safety of the buildings and to try to ensure political commitments of EU institutions to support the investments, as for energy efficiency of buildings.
We hope 2020 will be a successful and fruitful one for the engineering community and we can realize the benefits of the ideas contained in the, laid down in the ECCE Manifesto - Safe, Sound and Sustainable buildings (3S).
18.12.2019 :: Print Page