Green Building
The environmental, sustainability, or “green” movement has been around since the mid-20th century. However, due to various cultural, political, social, and technological factors, the trend towards going “green,” or becoming environmentally friendly, has almost become a norm in most industries, whether it is automobile manufacturing or home building. Global warming has been a growing concern all over the world, and green building has been one way to cease and, in some cases, combat some of the damage that has already been done to the environment. Green construction has been a rapidly growing industry, especially considering that the real estate market is currently in an early recovery stage, post-recession. Inc. recently ranked it as one of the top industries of 2014. Additionally, the US Green Building Council stated that “total revenue across the industry should grow to $245 billion by 2016” (Lapowsky).
Green building is producing a structure that has minimal to beneficial effects on the environment and human health in the most environmentally-friendly way. The goals of a green structure are to efficiently use water, gas, electricity, and other resources, while preserving the health of the inhabitants and improving their productivity. Additionally, green buildings strive to create no waste and pollution, resulting in minimal impact on the environment.
The greenest building is one that is not built, per se. The building process usually harms a project site, negatively affecting the environment around it. Also, it is for this reason that is very favorable to take on a retrofit project, where the builder rebuilds an existing structure to be more environmentally-friendly. Efficiency is paramount in green...
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...ignificant savings in energy costs. Additionally, the environmental benefits are beneficial to the owners and users of the project. Inhabitants will reap the benefits of improved health, thanks to efficient circulation, air, and HVAC systems. The lower overall operating costs offset the significant up-front costs of the project.
All in all, green building is gaining significant momentum as the new major trend in the construction industry. The payoff in employee health, community benefits, energy efficiency, construction process efficiency, and efficient use of waste is worth the significant up-front cost. This trend will proliferate, and green building will likely become an industry norm. According to the US Green Building Council, “Within the next two years, more than half of all commercial and institutional construction will have a decided tint of green.”
LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is a certification program for green buildings with stringent requirements for building energy efficient and environmentally responsible structures. Some requirements of this program include specific building materials, smart grid capable, gray water reclamation systems, green space minimums, high levels of insulation and low thermal transfer glass (US Green Building Council). Green buildings are a must if we are to sustain our current level of growth. Despite the higher initial cost of these buildings, the long term energy savings make these buildings a smarter choice for
This paper reports a feasibility study of constructing an extensive green roof on a future multi-storey carpark building in Singapore. In-depth technical analysis on each layer of the green roof, benefits analysis on society, environment and economy and financial analysis have been performed. Research on the contractor company to build this carpark in Singapore is also identified together with the local incentive schemes that support this green structure. Throughout the analyses, a conclusion based on cost-benefit analysis has been drawn which concludes that an extensive green roof on a carpark building will be a good investment.
A green building (also referred to as sustainable building or green construction) is a structure that employs an approach that is responsible for the environment besides being efficient in regard to resources all through its life cycle: This is from selecting the site to designing it, constructing, operating, maintaining, renovating and demolishing it. To achieve this, the client, the engineers, the architects and the entire design team closely cooperate at all stages of a project (Yan and Paliniotis, 2006). Practicing Green Building complements and expands the conventional building design areas of comfort, durability, utility and economy.
The beginnings of today's green revolution can be traced back to the environmental awareness of the 1960s and European design. New construction techniques have lead to the development of innovative materials and design concepts. Green buildings are designed, constructed and commissioned to ensure they are healthy for their occupants. Successfully designed green projects can involve an extensive array of factors, ranging from the resourceful use of materials, to careful consideration of function, climate, and location.
Globally, green buildings are being recognised and accredited, leading to the introduction of various tools and indices with one common objective that is to evaluate, measure, distinguish and sets apart this uniquely designed buildings from the rest. The Diamond Building carries a Green Building Index (GBI) accreditation, a first in Malaysia. Among the achievement of the ST Diamond Building are:
For the past thirty to forty years, construction, technologies, and practices had hardly changed. From the drawing boards to finished product, building science stayed very conventional and for the most part simple. According to Building Performance Construction Services, “Builders are adverse to change.”1 They had a system and it worked, so why change it? Statistically proven, over the past couple of years there has been a significant increase in competition and customer demand. Thus, forcing companies to use advanced building materials, techniques, and technology to keep up to date in the competitive world.
"Green Building: Advantages & Disadvantages." Green Building: Advantages & Disadvantages. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. .
The perfect green building would protect the environment which surround the project site, and could be used as a building that is going to achieve a purpose. The construction and operation levels of the green building will help to have a healthy environment without disrupting the land, water, energy and resources used inside the building and around the building in the project site; this is the actual definition of the green building.
Fowler, Stacey. Building the future: Sustainable building materials come of age. Environmental News Network. September 25, 2001. www.enn.com.
Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, the health and comfort of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objects of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimal waste, and create healthy, productive environments (“Sustainable Design”). Focusing primarily on the sustainable design principles, there are five, including: low-impact materials, energy efficiency, quality and durability, design for reuse and recycling, and renewability. As sustainability appears to become the necessary trend in architecture, the question concerning the cost versus outcome of “going green” really an investment or a waste of time and money comes to mind. With our research provided below, we believe the expenses may truly be with the investment in the end.
All in all, the efforts put in place help to ensure low energy rates for business and residents while also providing economic resources and opportunities for residents in my
The term “green” manufacturing can be defined in two ways. The first term is the manufacturing of “green” products, used in renewable energy systems and clean technology equipment of all kinds. The next term is the “greening” of manufacturing which reducing pollution and waste by minimizing natural resource use, recycling and reusing waste products. Green Manufacturing is a method for manufacturing that minimizes waste and pollution and conserve resources. It slows the depletion of natural resources and also lowering the extensive amounts of trash that enter landfills. Its emphasis is on reducing parts, reusing components and rationalizing materials to help make products more efficient to build. In addition, Green Manufacturing involves not just the use of environmental design of products and use of environmentally friendly raw materials, but also eco-friendly packing, destruction, distribution or reuse after the lifetime of the product.
Green energy is good because, its domains are economics, ecology, and politics, and it will benefits the environment and plays a big role in the society today. Green energy is so sustainable architects continue to envision the utopian cities of the future, but one thing is certain; innovation means sustainability. In the midst of a global ecological crisis, architects and designers are relentlessly pursing design strategies that manage to mitigate the toxic byproducts of our consumption habits, while maximizing our use of sustainable energy sources. Meeting these challenges means more deeply integrating green technologies like wind and solar power, natural climate controls and space age materials into the building processes (Macher).
The statistics shown by The Environmental Protection agency claim that buildings in the United States contribute about 40 % of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions (2). Green building is the process of construction that is done in a way to conserve natural resources and reduce the harmful impact that construction has on the environment. Green building includes environmentally sound design, construction, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. Greenhouse emission is the release of gases, like methane gas and carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere. Construction waste management is the concept of reducing, reusing, recycling, and design in a way that uses the least amount of resources as possible and minimizing the amount of waste.Environmentally friendly construction will have a positive impact on the environment by reducing pollution, reducing waste, conserving energy, conserving water, and using eco-friendly building materials.
Implementation of green concepts has been significant not only in design engineering but also in construction. Therefore the knowledge about green design has been a very important fact for the sustainable development in civil engineering. Concepts such as green buildings, carbon foot print, ecological foot print and LEED rating system have helped to achieve sustainable development for civil engineering