Sustainable energy and water use plus recycling & reducing waste at home. Save money on home heating and cooling and learn about energy efficiency. Markham Energy Retrofit Program. This full day event focused on how to market sustainable. The Sustainable Housing Foundation is a lead sponsor. FISH (Foundation for Indigenous Sustainable Housing) Facilitating the creation of appropriately built environments to sustain Indigenous living. Green building - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. US EPA Kansas City Science & Technology Center This facility features the following green attributes. Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the using of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource- efficient throughout a building's life- cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the design team, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages. Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8) Work with HUD. Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Green Building Council. Other certificates system that confirms the sustainability of buildings is the British BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) for buildings and large scale developments. Currently, World Green Building Council is conducting research on the effects of green buildings on the health and productivity of their users and is working with World Bank to promote Green Buildings in Emerging Markets through EDGE Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies Market Transformation Program and certification. Sustainability may be defined as meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Green construction principles can easily be applied to retrofit work as well as new construction. A 2. 00. 9 report by the U. S. General Services Administration found 1. In addition, occupants were overall more satisfied with the building than those in typical commercial buildings. These are eco- friendly buildings. The building sector has the greatest potential to deliver significant cuts in emissions at little or no cost. Buildings account for 1.
If new technologies in construction are not adopted during this time of rapid growth, emissions could double by 2. United Nations Environment Program. Green building practices aim to reduce the environmental impact of building. Since construction almost always degrades a building site, not building at all is preferable to green building, in terms of reducing environmental impact. The second rule is that every building should be as small as possible. The third rule is not to contribute to sprawl, even if the most energy- efficient, environmentally sound methods are used in design and construction. Buildings account for a large amount of land. According to the National Resources Inventory, approximately 1. United States are developed. The International Energy Agency released a publication that estimated that existing buildings are responsible for more than 4. There are a number of motives for 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 existing structures. 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 among the practices used. Green building brings together a vast array of practices, techniques, and skills to reduce and ultimately eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and human health. It often emphasizes taking advantage of renewable resources, e. Many other techniques are used, such as using low- impact building materials or using packed gravel or permeable concrete instead of conventional concrete or asphalt to enhance replenishment of ground water. While the practices or technologies employed in green building are constantly evolving and may differ from region to region, fundamental principles 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. 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. Life cycle assessment. Impacts taken into account include (among others) embodied energy, global warming potential, resource use, air pollution, water pollution, and waste. In terms of green building, the last few years have seen a shift away from a prescriptive approach, which assumes that certain prescribed practices are better for the environment, toward the scientific evaluation of actual performance through LCA. Although LCA is widely recognized as the best way to evaluate the environmental impacts of buildings (ISO 1. LCA methodology), it is not yet a consistent requirement of green building rating systems and codes, despite the fact that embodied energy and other life cycle impacts are critical to the design of environmentally responsible buildings. In North America, LCA is rewarded to some extent in the Green Globes. LCA is also included as a pilot credit in the LEED system, though a decision has not been made as to whether it will be incorporated fully into the next major revision. The state of California also included LCA as a voluntary measure in its 2. Green Building Standards Code. Although LCA is often perceived as overly complex and time consuming for regular use by design professionals, research organizations such as BRE in the UK and the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute in North America are working to make it more accessible. In the UK, the BRE Green Guide to Specifications offers ratings for 1,5. LCA. In North America, the ATHENA. They allow designers to experiment with different material mixes to achieve the most effective combination. Siting and structure design efficiency. 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. 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. Studies such as the U. S. They also specify high- performance windows and extra 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. 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 costs. 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. Water efficiency. 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 or by using water for washing of the cars. 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. Philadelphia's Comcast Center is the tallest building in Philadelphia. It's also one of the tallest buildings in the USA that is LEED Certified. Their environmental engineering consists of a hybrid central chilled water system which cools floor- by- floor with steam instead of water. Burn's Mechanical set- up the entire renovation of the 5. Materials efficiency. For concrete a high performance or Roman self- healing concrete is available. The LEED IEQ category addresses design and construction guidelines especially: indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal quality, and lighting quality. Buildings rely on a properly designed ventilation system (passively/naturally or mechanically powered) to provide adequate ventilation of cleaner air from outdoors or recirculated, filtered air as well as isolated 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 VOC emissions will improve IAQ. Most building materials and cleaning/maintenance products emit gases, some of them toxic, such as many VOCs including formaldehyde. These gases can have a detrimental impact on occupants' health, comfort, and productivity. Avoiding these products will increase a building's IEQ. MAS Certified Green is a registered trademark to delineate low VOC- emitting products in the marketplace. These IAQ standards have been adopted by and incorporated into the following programs: (1) The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in their LEED rating system. Water intrusion through a building's envelope or water condensing on cold surfaces on the building's interior can enhance and sustain microbial growth.
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