Several countries have developed tools with criteria and evaluations to grant, through the environmental certification, a more sustainable undertaking, with quality and productivity for its users. The tools were developed for different needs and objectives, which makes it difficult to make a direct comparison, in addition to having specific demands for each region. This study aims to make a comparative analysis between some tools of greater international knowledge and to propose new parameters for the water use and management category, taking into account the design and operational phase, the water distribution, and the demands for 2025. Consequently, this study proposed the creation of an exclusive environmental tool for the management and water use, providing a seal that may be applied to any project and adopted by water work systems as an incentive to reduce the consumption of drinking water, to use alternative sources, and to decrease liquid effluents.
RESUMO As áreas urbanas buscam novas opções de serviço de água, para garantir o abastecimento. A literatura acadêmica versa sobre o pensamento de que a crise hídrica está relacionada ao crescimento urbano; no entanto, o fator predominante é o aumento do consumo, independentemente do crescimento populacional, pois fatores comportamentais devem ser revistos a partir de simples hábitos diários. Os empresários não focam apenas nas questões de economia ou da discussão ambiental, de mais vale a garantia da autonomia, pois a insegurança hídrica é cada vez mais crescente. Empreendimentos como os shopping centers poderão consumir volumes de água equivalentes ao consumo de 5 mil pessoas. Para saber as percepções dos atores envolvidos no design e na gestão de shopping centers, este trabalho utilizou o método AHP, com a aplicação de questionários e resultados combinados. Dados resultantes demonstram que o conhecimento dos envolvidos nem sempre corresponde aos conceitos de conservação de água e que uma melhor sinergia entre a ciência e o mercado deve estar mais próxima.
Within the concept of sustainable construction, with sensible and conscious use of finite natural resources, every effort to save and reuse raw-materials is considered an important step to be adopted in buildings, from project, implantation and construction to operation and maintenance throughout their lifecycle. This study aims at showing the application of a system that reuses condensed water drained from air-conditioner evaporators (which are usually disposed of), and a plan to use this water for toilet flushing, reducing consumption of treated water bought from water companies. The authors verified that each air-conditioner specified in the project of a commercial building-used as reference here-produces 4.8 L of water per hour of operation. This result in a daily accumulated volume of 4,290 L, which represents a significant part of the amount needed to supply all the toilets in the building. A water capture system located at a strategic intermediate floor would be able to store this water and pump it into a special reservoir on the roof of the building, to be distributed into toilet flush pipes. By applying this technology, the authors seek to considerably reduce the expected treated water consumption and consequently decrease water bill costs.
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