Fire resilience and sustainability in buildings: initiatives and future directions

Fire resilience and sustainability in buildings have a common goal to help make buildings safer and more sustainable. The topic covers a wide range of subtopics including sustainable fire-protection products and systems, sustainable building design and development, resilient buildings and development, and communities. It also covers fire risks introduced by innovations and technologies in response to environmental sustainability and carbon emissions. These concepts are well presented in many scientific documents including the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) Foundation Grand Challenges Initiative and Fire Safe Europe Sustainability Policies.^1–11

Fire-safety considerations are integral to resilient and sustainable building design and installation. This is because a fire could impact the overall sustainability of a building by (i) releasing embedded carbon and other toxic gases, (ii) polluting water and soil, (iii) generating solid wastes, and (iv) further impacting the environment due to rebuilding. Fire prevention, passive and active fire protection installations, building and fire regulations, fire risk analysis and hazard mitigation studies, and appropriate emergency response measures, are part of these fire safety design considerations. The application of artificial intelligence and information technology also has the potential to further improve fire resilience and sustainability in buildings. This application can provide better prediction and visualization of the risks and hazards, and their impact on people and the environment. Health, safety and environmental regulations also influence the resourcing, manufacturing and transportation of construction, and fire product and system assemblies used in the built environment. Costs associated with the selection and implementation of sustainable solutions are an important factor influencing design decisions as well as the development and timeliness of implementation of regulatory changes. This article presents a review of (i) current global initiatives, and (ii) future directions to support fire resilience and sustainability in buildings. The goal is to provide an overall perspective improving awareness, knowledge mobilization and cooperation among various stakeholders.

Current initiatives:

It has been estimated that 6 billion people will live in cities by 2045 due to rapid urbanization. This creates challenges for governments supporting new construction activities while there are significant concerns about land use, conservation of the environment and sustainable management of resources. To address these challenges, several global initiatives are underway in the built environment sector by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank (WB).¹ For example, the WHO initiatives include (i) the Decade of Healthy Aging, which focuses on an age-friendly environment, and (ii) Global Emergency and Trauma Care to ensure timely care for acutely ill and injured people.¹² The UN initiatives include (i) the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and (ii) the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.¹ In addition, the WB initiatives include (i) the Building Regulations for Resilience Program, and (ii) the Urban FRAME (Fire Regulatory Assessment and Mitigation Evaluation) Diagnostic.¹ Besides this recently, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development published its Vision 2050 to promote sustainability and resilience in the built environment, and how businesses can help achieve this target.¹³ Recently, the European Union published its ‘Renovation Wave Strategy’ and formulated the European Green Deal. This deal is aimed at ensuring net-zero emissions by 2050 and economic growth decoupled from resource use.¹⁴ Green building designs have an impact on the environment, economy and social sustainability. However, these designs are not necessarily focused on fire resiliency. A recent Fire Protection Research Foundation study on the ‘Fire safety challenges of green buildings and attributes’ found that fire-safety considerations come relatively late in the design process. The adoption of new green features and/or technologies could result in unexpected consequences if proper fire-safety considerations were not implemented in the early stage of the design process. For example, there were several major fire incidents in buildings with green features and/or technologies such as combustible insulation, photovoltaic panels and lightweight timber framing.¹⁵ The European Fire Safety Alliance, which is an independent alliance of fire professionals, published the ‘European Fire Safety Action Plan: 10 actions to improve fire safety in residential buildings’.¹⁶ The reduction of fire risk was given prime importance as there are more than 5,000 deaths and a multitude of burn survivors per year in Europe. The Modern Building Alliance, which is an alliance of trade associations and companies representing the plastics industry in the construction sector, proposed a regulatory framework for plastic applications to improve fire safety and sustainability in buildings for people across Europe.¹⁷ The Phosphorus, Inorganic and Nitrogen Flame Retardants Association, which is a Sector Group within the European Chemical Industry Council and comprises manufacturers and users, has a similar vision of continuously improving the environmental footprint and health profile of its flame-retardant products. A recent article on ‘SMART Sprinkler for Highly Challenging Fires’ reported that the SMART Sprinkler system could suppress fires faster with less damage and less water than the traditional Sprinkler system.¹⁸

Earlier, the International FORUM of Fire Research Directors published a position paper on sustainability and fire safety. This article discussed the (i) fire performance of materials, products and new technologies used to improve sustainability in the built environment, and (i) issues related to fire-safe building design.¹⁹ In 2019, the International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) published the ‘IAFSS Agenda 2030 for a Fire Safe World’. The agenda identified research needs couching to two broad Societal Grand Challenges: (i) climate change, resiliency and sustainability, and (ii) population growth, urbanization and globalization.²⁰ In 2022, the SFPE Foundation and its partners (institutes and government agencies) formed a working group on resilience and sustainability (R&S WG) consisting of 36 participants from seven countries. The intent was to find the critical global challenges related to resilience and sustainability in the built environment, and how fire engineering could help mitigate those challenges.¹ They also created the Grand Challenges Initiative (GCI) to develop a 10-year plan for multi-disciplinary collaboration in research, education and outreach promoting fire resilience and sustainability in the built environment. Under this initiative between 2022 and 2023, the SFPE Foundation organized several virtual meetings on various topics related to resilience and sustainability. Very recently, the R&S WG published a white paper summarizing their efforts and GCI activities.¹ The paper discussed (i) existing knowledge, research gaps, challenges and barriers, and (ii) a 10-year implementation plan on various topics related to resilience and sustainability. These topics include (i) quantification of the costs and benefits of resilience and sustainability, (ii) building materials, (iii) fire risk reduction and protection measures, (iv) community risk reduction, and (v) inspection, testing and maintenance of fire-protection systems. In 2021, the International Fire Safety Standards Coalition developed a global plan called ‘Global Plan for a Decade of Action for Fire Safety’, which gives an overview of the (i) global fire problem, (ii) benefits of global efforts to reduce fire risk and increase fire resilience, and (iii) initiatives to connect other global activities and actions.²¹ The goal of this global plan is to stabilize and reduce the forecast level of fire fatalities, injuries, economic cost and environmental impact worldwide by 2032. Very recently, the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden published a report that discussed the need for developing measurable sustainability indicators (MSI) for the fire-safety community.²² This study aimed to determine if MSI, focused on fire safety and sustainability of projects, ideas and decisions, would be beneficial for various fire-safety stakeholders including fire-safety engineers, researchers, municipalities, authorities, policymakers, first Responders, etc.

Future directions:

The Fire Protection Research Foundation report on the ‘Fire safety challenges of green buildings and attributes’ found that sustainability concepts and policy measures often lack a clear link to fire safety.¹ There is a strong need to make the connection between building regulations, security and environmental and health safety regulations to meet the design objectives related to fire resilience and sustainability. This is because:

Sustainable new building materials or technologies, including foam plastic insulation, combustible roof and cladding materials, photovoltaic panels and lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, may have lower fire performance or create new fire hazards; and
Fire protection systems or products may have high environmental footprints or health hazards or require declining resources such as halon, aqueous film-forming foam, water-based fire suppression, etc.

Also, community fire resilience and sustainability are contingent on socio-economic factors, education and sophistication of regulatory frameworks, which require further research and development. The Fire Protection Research Foundation report on the ‘Fire safety challenges of green buildings and attributes’ identified several research needs for future work.¹ This includes:

Incorporation of green building attributes into the fire incident reporting systems;
Development of required test methods to assess the fire performance of sustainable building materials, components and systems;
Raising awareness of the fire performance consideration of green building materials, technologies and/or features;
Development of robust fire risk and performance assessment methods and tools; and
Development of better holistic design and performance assessment tools, etc.

In addition, the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden report indicated a need for future work on MSI to make better and more informed decisions by various fire-safety stakeholders while considering sustainability in the built environment.²²

References:

Society of Fire Protection Engineers ‘Grand challenges in resilience and sustainability: A 10-year plan for strategic cooperation in research and education to advance fire engineering’, 2023.
Fire Safe Europe ‘Sustainability’.
B. Meacham, M. McNamee ‘Conceptual Basis for a Sustainable and Fire Resilient Built Environment’, Fire Technology, 2023.
B. Meacham, M. McNamee ‘Fire Safety Challenges of ‘Green’ Buildings and Attributes’, Fire Protection Research Foundation, 2020.
J.M. Allwood, J.M. Cullen ‘Sustainable materials: with both eyes open’, The Use Less Group, University of Cambridge, 2012.
W. McDonough, M. Braungart ‘Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things’, North Point Press, 2002.
M.J. Gollner, A. Kimball, T. Vecchiarelli ‘Fire safety design and sustainable buildings: Challenges and opportunities report of a national symposium’, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2010.
B.C. Roberts ‘Fire safety in sustainable buildings: Status, options, alternatives’, PhD Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 2017.
A.P. Robbins ‘Building sustainability and fire-safety design interactions: Scoping study’, BRANZ Ltd, 2012.
E.S. Oliver, M.A. Carter, M.K. Post, N.B. Lee ‘Promoting the design of buildings that are fire safe and sustainable’, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2011.
C.J. Walsh ‘Fire engineering: in the European context of sustainable human & social development’, CIB Working Commission 14: Fire – Discussion Document, 2014.
International Fire Safety Standards Coalition ‘Global plan for a decade of action for fire safety’, Version 2, 2021.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development ‘Vision 2050 – Time to Transform’, 2021.
European Commission ‘The European Green Deal’.
B.J. Meacham, M. McNamee ‘Fire safety challenges of ‘green’ buildings and attributes’, Fire Protection Research Foundation, 2020.
European Fire Safety Alliance ‘European fire safety action plan: ’10 actions’
Modern Building Alliance ‘Proposed regulatory framework for fire-safe buildings’
Y. Xin ‘SMART Sprinkler for Highly Challenging Fires’, Society of Fire Protection Engineers Europe, Issue 20, 2020.
U. Krause, W. Grosshandler, L. Gritzo ‘The International FORUM of Fire Research Directors: A position paper on sustainability and ﬁre safety’, Fire Safety Journal 49, 79–81, 2012.
M. McNamee, B. Meacham, P.V. Hees, L. Bisby, W.K. Chow, A. Coppalle, R. Dobashi, B. Dlugogorski, R. Fahy, C. Fleischmann, J. Floyd, E.R. Galea, M. Gollner, T. Hakkarainen, A. Hamins, L. Hu, P. Johnson, B. Karlsson, B. Merci, Y. Ohmiya, G. Rein, A. Trouvé, Y. Wang, B. Weckman ‘IAFSS agenda 2030 for a fire safe world’, Fire Safety Journal 110, 102889, 2019.
International Fire Safety Standards Coalition ‘Global plan for a decade of action for fire safety’, 2021.
F. Amon ‘Roadmap for measurable sustainability indicators for the fire safety community’, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, 2023.

About the Author

Rokib Hassan

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M. Rokib Hassan, PhD, Associate Research Officer, Fire Safety, Construction Research Centre, National Research Council Canada. Rokib.Hassan@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca