Green building

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This article is about green building. For the building on the MIT campus, see  Green Building (MIT).

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Green building (also known as green construction orsustainable building) refers to a structure and using
process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting
to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This practice expands and
complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. [1]

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener
structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built
environment on human health and the natural environment by:
 Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources

 Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity

 Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation[1]

A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use
of natural materials that are available locally.[2] Other related topics include sustainable designand green
architecture. Green building does not specifically address the issue of the retrofitting existing homes.

Contents
 [hide]

1 Reducing environmental impact

2 Goals of green building

o 2.1 Siting and structure design

efficiency

o 2.2 Energy efficiency

o 2.3 Water efficiency

o 2.4 Materials efficiency

o 2.5 Indoor environmental quality

enhancement

o 2.6 Operations and maintenance

optimization

o 2.7 Waste reduction

3 Cost and payoff

4 Regulation and operation

5 International frameworks and assessment

tools

6 See also

o 6.1 Green building by country

o 6.2 General

7 References

[edit]Reducing environmental impact

Green building practices aim to reduce the environmental impact of new buildings. Buildings account for a large
amount of land

[edit]Goals of green building

the Blu Homes mkSolaire, a green building designed by Michelle Kaufmann.

The concept of sustainable development can be traced to the energy (especially fossil oil) crisis and the
environment pollution concern in the 1970s.[3] The green building movement in the U.S. originated from the
need and desire for more energy efficient and environmentally friendly construction practices. There are a
number of motives to building green, including environmental, economic, and social benefits. However, modern
sustainability initiatives call for an integrated and synergistic design to both new construction and in the
retrofitting of an existing structure. Also known as sustainable design, this approach integrates the building life-
cycle with each green practice employed with a design-purpose to create a synergy amongst the practices
used.

Green building brings together a vast array of practices and techniques to reduce and ultimately eliminate the
impacts of new buildings on the environment and human health. It often emphasizes taking advantage
of renewable resources, e.g., using sunlight through passive solar, active solar, andphotovoltaic techniques
and using plants and trees through green roofs, rain gardens, and for reduction of rainwater run-off. Many other
techniques, such as using packed gravel or permeable concrete instead of conventional concrete or asphalt to
enhance replenishment of ground water, are used as well.

While the practices, or technologies, employed in green building are constantly evolving and may differ from
region to region, there are fundamental principles that persist from which the method is derived:Siting and
Structure Design Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Materials Efficiency,Indoor Environmental
Quality Enhancement, Operations and Maintenance Optimization, and Waste and Toxics Reduction.[4][5] The
essence of green building is an optimization of one or more of these principles. Also, with the proper synergistic
design, individual green building technologies may work together to produce a greater cumulative effect.

On the aesthetic side of green architecture or sustainable design is the philosophy of designing a building that
is in harmony with the natural features and resources surrounding the site. There are several key steps in
designing sustainable buildings: specify 'green' building materials from local sources, reduce loads, optimize
systems, and generate on-site renewable energy.

[edit]Siting and structure design efficiency

See also:  Sustainable design
The foundation of any construction project is rooted in the concept and design stages. The concept stage, in
fact, is one of the major steps in a project life cycle, as it has the largest impact on cost and performance. [6] In
designing environmentally optimal buildings, the objective is to minimize the total environmental impact
associated with all life-cycle stages of the building project. However, building as a process is not as streamlined
as an industrial process, and varies from one building to the other, never repeating itself identically. In addition,
buildings are much more complex products, composed of a multitude of materials and components each
constituting various design variables to be decided at the design stage. A variation of every design variable
may affect the environment during all the building's relevant life-cycle stages. [7]

[edit]Energy efficiency
Main articles: Low-energy house and Zero-energy building

Green buildings often include measures to reduce energy use. To increase the efficiency of thebuilding
envelope, (the barrier between conditioned and unconditioned space), they may use high-
efficiency windows and insulation in walls, ceilings, and floors. Another strategy, passive solar building design,
is often implemented in low-energy homes. Designers orient windows and walls and place awnings, porches,
and trees[8] to shade windows and roofs during the summer while maximizing solar gain in the winter. In
addition, effective window placement (daylighting) can provide more natural light and lessen the need for
electric lighting during the day. Solar water heating further reduces energy loads.

Onsite generation of renewable energy through solar power, wind power, hydro power, or biomass can

significantly reduce the environmental impact of the building. Power generation is generally the most expensive
feature to add to a building.

[edit]Water efficiency
See also:  Water conservation

Reducing water consumption and protecting water quality are key objectives in sustainable building. One
critical issue of water consumption is that in many areas, the demands on the supplying aquifer exceed its
ability to replenish itself. To the maximum extent feasible, facilities should increase their dependence on water
that is collected, used, purified, and reused on-site. The protection and conservation of water throughout the life
of a building may be accomplished by designing for dual plumbing that recycles water in toilet flushing. Waste-
water may be minimized by utilizing water conserving fixtures such as ultra-low flush toilets and low-flow
shower heads. Bidets help eliminate the use of toilet paper, reducing sewer traffic and increasing possibilities of
re-using water on-site. Point of use water treatment and heating improves both water quality and energy
efficiency while reducing the amount of water in circulation. The use of non-sewage and greywater for on-site
use such as site-irrigation will minimize demands on the local aquifer. [9]

[edit]Materials efficiency
See also:  Sustainable architecture

Building materials typically considered to be 'green' include (Expanded polystyrene) rapidly renewable plant
materials like bamboo (because bamboo grows quickly) and straw, lumber from forests certified to be
sustainably managed, insulated concrete forms, dimension stone, recycled stone, recycled metal, and other
products that are non-toxic, reusable, renewable, and/or recyclable (e.g. Trass,Linoleum, sheep wool, panels
made from paper flakes, compressed earth block, adobe, baked earth, rammed earth, clay, vermiculite, flax
linen, sisal, seagrass, cork, expanded clay grains, coconut, wood fibre plates, calcium sand
stone, concrete (high and ultra high performance, roman self-healing concrete [10]) , etc.[11][12]) The EPA
(Environmental Protection Agency) also suggests using recycled industrial goods, such as coal combustion
products, foundry sand, and demolition debris in construction projects [13] Building materials should be extracted
and manufactured locally to the building site to minimize the energy embedded in their transportation. Where
possible, building elements should be manufactured off-site and delivered to site, to maximise benefits of off-
site manufacture including minimising waste, maximising recycling (because manufacture is in one location),
high quality elements, better OHS management, less noise and dust.

[edit]Indoor environmental quality enhancement

See also:  Indoor Air Quality

The Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) category in LEED standards, one of the five environmental categories,
was created to provide comfort, well-being, and productivity of occupants. The LEED IEQ category addresses
design and construction guidelines especially: indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal quality, and lighting quality. [14]

Indoor Air Quality seeks to reduce volatile organic compounds, or VOC's, and other air impurities such as
microbial contaminants. Buildings rely on a properly designed HVAC system to provide adequate ventilation
and air filtration as well as isolate operations (kitchens, dry cleaners, etc.) from other occupancies. During the
design and construction process choosing construction materials and interior finish products with zero or low
emissions will improve IAQ. Many building materials and cleaning/maintenance products emit toxic gases, such
as VOC's and formaldehyde. These gases can have a detrimental impact on occupants' health and productivity
as well. Avoiding these products will increase a building's IEQ.

Personal temperature and airflow control over the HVAC system coupled with a properly designedbuilding
envelope will also aid in increasing a building's thermal quality. Creating a high performance luminous
environment through the careful integration of natural and artificial light sources will improve on the lighting
quality of a structure.[9][15]

[edit]Operations and maintenance optimization

No matter how sustainable a building may have been in its design and construction, it can only remain so if it is
operated responsibly and maintained properly. Ensuring operations and maintenance(O&M) personnel are part
of the project's planning and development process will help retain the green criteria designed at the onset of
the project.[16] Every aspect of green building is integrated into the O&M phase of a building's life. The addition
of new green technologies also falls on the O&M staff. Although the goal of waste reduction may be applied
during the design, construction and demolition phases of a building's life-cycle, it is in the O&M phase that
green practices such as recycling and air quality enhancement take place.

[edit]Waste reduction
Green architecture also seeks to reduce waste of energy, water and materials used during construction. For
example, in California nearly 60% of the state's waste comes from commercial buildings [17] During the
construction phase, one goal should be to reduce the amount of material going to landfills. Well-designed
buildings also help reduce the amount of waste generated by the occupants as well, by providing on-site
solutions such as compost bins to reduce matter going to landfills.

To reduce the impact on wells or water treatment plants, several options exist. "Greywater", wastewater from
sources such as dishwashing or washing machines, can be used for subsurface irrigation, or if treated, for non-
potable purposes, e.g., to flush toilets and wash cars. Rainwater collectors are used for similar purposes.

Centralized wastewater treatment systems can be costly and use a lot of energy. An alternative to this process
is converting waste and wastewater into fertilizer, which avoids these costs and shows other benefits. By
collecting human waste at the source and running it to a semi-centralized biogas plant with other biological
waste, liquid fertilizer can be produced. This concept was demonstrated by a settlement in Lubeck Germany in
the late 1990s. Practices like these provide soil with organic nutrients and create carbon sinks that remove
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offsettinggreenhouse gas emission. Producing artificial fertilizer is also
more costly in energy than this process.[18]

[edit]Cost and payoff

The most criticized issue about constructing environmentally friendly buildings is the price. Photo-voltaics, new
appliances, and modern technologies tend to cost more money. Most green buildings cost a premium of <2%,
but yield 10 times as much over the entire life of the building.[19] The stigma is between the knowledge of up-
front cost[20] vs. life-cycle cost. The savings in money come from more efficient use of utilities which result in
decreased energy bills. It is projected that different sectors could save $130 Billion on energy bills. [21] Also,
higher worker or student productivity can be factored into savings and cost deductions.

Studies have shown over a 20 year life period, some green buildings have yielded $53 to $71 per square foot
back on investment.[22] Confirming the rentability of green building investments, further studies of the
commercial real estate market have found that LEED and Energy Star certified buildings achieve significantly
higher rents, sale prices and occupancy rates as well as lower capitalization rates potentially reflecting lower
investment risk.[