The Portal of Sustainable Construction (PSC) was founded in 2010 by the hand of an architect passionate for nature and during a period when the construction sector was in deep crisis. Overbuilding was an inescapable reality and the need for quality in construction became increasingly imperative. Therefore, the implementation of measures to reduce the consumption of resources (such as energy or water) is an urgent need, due to both environmental and social issues.

The PSC project intends to respond to this need, and since its foundation its activity has been based on:

• reports about the building sector, focusing on constructive quality, energy efficiency and rehabilitation;
• awareness-raising actions about this new reality, through online tools and awareness projects, to consumers and construction related companies;
• sharing of information about products and/or services that help respond to the need of an increasingly sustainable construction.

The PSC is aimed at consumers in general, promoters and designers, associations and construction industries, companies and professionals in the construction sector, organizers of fairs and congresses, public bodies and other related entities.

The PSC intends to bring together as partners all companies and entities which products or services comply with at least four of the 10 Principles of PSC, which are considered imperative to contribute to an environment built with quality, and consequently more sustainable.

The Portal of Sustainable Construction (PSC), relying on a team of professionals with proven experience in architecture, construction, environment and energy, aims to respond to the need for a new path in the construction sector, in the direction of its increasing sustainability, acting as consultant for the companies of the sector and developing and promoting actions that privilege good practices for quality construction, energy efficiency and rehabilitation.

These actions are based on marketing and communication initiatives, such as the dissemination of information (continuously updated in our Portal) and through the participation in national and international fairs, where we represent our partners and show their products, and where we present the principles by which we rule our policies and actions towards an increasingly sustainable construction. PCS also organizes seminars, in an open class format in Universities and Higher Education Institutes, as well as training actions recognized and certified by Associations and Professional Orders, with qualified trainers.

The PSC is already a reference in Portugal in Architecture and Construction, involving environmental, economic and social matters in a perspective of dissemination and share of knowledge aimed at the sustainability of the construction sector. It intends to do so also on an international level, having already taken its first steps.

And reality is just one: either we change our way of being, thinking and making our buildings – where we spend about 90% of our life time – more efficient regarding the use of resources, or the costs for keeping them environmentally friendly and economically viable will become, in due time, unbearable.

It is based on the premise that environmental, social and economic concerns play a key role in a society that augurs for sustainable development, that PSC works daily in order to contribute for the change of the current paradigm.