- The book’s topic is eco-friendly materials for construction.
Dr. Iván Oropeza Pérez, Research and Graduate Studies Coordinator in the Architecture Department at Universidad de la Américas Puebla, was named editor of the book Sustainable Building Materials by IntechOpen publishing company.
“I was invited directly by IntechOpen, the publisher, to edit the book whose main topic is sustainable materials for buildings. I accepted the invitation fully understanding the responsibility of editing a book,” stated the UDLAP professor.
He said that the editing responsibilities include activities such as establishing and developing a theme on which the book’s objectives will be focused, review proposals and detect their relevance for the topic, give a positive or negative verdict of the completed chapters, review the chapters and establish their order, write the introduction, edit it and review the scientific quality to make sure it meets the publishers’ standards, to finally be able to publish the book.
Regarding the importance of editing the book, Dr. Iván Oropeza said that it is due to the topic, since it is focused on building materials. “The chapters revolve around materials that are sustainable for building. Today, everybody is concerned with the environment, and we receive a lot of article proposals for new materials that use less energy in their manufacturing process, as well as in their use at a global level,” he said.
It is important to mention that the main objective of this book is to show the benefits of the use of construction materials in a sustainable context. The benefits could be environmental, economic or social and the building materials are evaluated with different tools and methods and are carried out in terms of design, structure, thermal comfort, life cycle, mitigation of greenhouse gases and social development, among many others that consider social, architectural, and engineering aspects.
Dr. Iván Oropeza has a distinguished professional career which has led him to different activities: he co-authored a book on the potential of natural ventilation in Mexico; he has presented papers at different national and international meetings; published different scientific, peer-reviewed research articles; reviewed articles related to passive air conditioning of buildings and its energy consumption. He is currently the president of the International Building Performance Simulation Association in Mexico (IBPSA-México), member of the National Association of Solar Energy (Asociación Nacional de Energía Solar – ANES), member of the Decent and Sustainable Housing Network (Red de Vivienda Digna y Sustentable CONACYT), and a member of the editorial committee of the American Journal of Energy Engineering.