Corporate sustainability in construction and its socio-spatial implications: The example of MRV Engenharia in Uberlândia/MG

Civil construction companies have considerable importance for the economy of Brazil and municipalities, generating impacts on the environment, as well as on the physiognomy of cities. The discussions made throughout this thesis sought to demonstrate these facts in the context of the urban space of Uberlândia/MG, a good example of this action. Such corporations are relevant social agents for the municipality, modifying its geographical space. For a construction to be sustainable, it is essential to adopt a series of actions, capable of reducing the consumption of energy, water and various natural resources, so that they compose the basic raw materials of construction. This should occur not only in the design of projects, but also in the phases of construction and occupation of real estate by its residents. The central objective of this study is to analyze the corporate environmental sustainability practices of the civil construction sector with a focus on MRV Engenharia in Uberlândia. The methodological procedures used were: bibliographic survey on the concepts of environmental sustainability, sustainable development and corporate sustainability; research of secondary data on construction companies, environmental sustainability practices collected on their websites and their sustainability reports. Thus, it was possible to compose a panorama of MRV Engenharia's performance in Brazil and Uberlândia. In addition, online interviews were conducted with representatives of the company and liquidators of the 11 buildings built by the company in the city. Through location images of these projects, in 2007 and 2022, we identified changes in the urban space of Uberlândia. This contributed to the expansion of allotments for the insertion of vertical condominiums in the southern, western, eastern and southern regions of the city. The interviews showed that their environmental practices are complied with to meet legal requirements through the use of new construction technologies; life cycle analysis of enterprises; responsible and efficient management of water, energy and emissions; use, reuse and disposal of materials; protection of the environment; reduction of possible environmental impacts. However, we found that many of these and other practices focus on the construction process, on specific social initiatives, with few transformative impacts in the context of the cities that host their enterprises. Based on the data and information collected, we also verified that MRV Engenharia's sustainable focus actions are relatively modest, given its performance in 163 cities in different Brazilian regions and with broad demand in different areas. In turn, the interviews with liquidators indicated that the most significant practices in the11 buildings were: selective collection of solid waste, reduction of water consumption, as well as use of solar energy in common spaces. In general, the liquidators showed a simplistic view of the real meaning of environmental sustainability, largely restricted to the selective collection of waste and deployment/supply of solar energy. We also found problems in the management of waste collection, done in a disjointed way from the city. In addition, in many cases, so-called good practices (selective collection and energy saving) were usually restricted to the internal space of the condominiums. Therefore, there were few developments of actions to change social and economic conditions comprehensively, that is, with an impact on the structure of the city, as well as on the living conditions of its population.