2.6. LEED Rating System Under the supervision of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED is running and LEED means (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an ecology-oriented building certification program. LEED is focusing its efforts to improve the performance in five main areas in the environment and human health: efficiency of the energy, the quality of indoor environment, choosing materials, water saving and the development of sustainable site, a tool of green building that is dealing with the whole building lifecycle that is recognized by best-in-class building strategies. By the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) the building certification process was developed which it is a nonprofit organization (it is not government agency) where it's location in Washington and started …show more content…
Classification systems are available for new building and major renovations as well as existing buildings. LEED is depending on opinion of The USGBC define it " an acceptable nationally benchmark for designing, building and operation for high-performance green buildings " and " Building owners and operators with tools they need to provides a direct effect and measurable influence on the performance of their buildings ". Depending on the institute of the American Architects and LEED have initiative at the US departments in Agriculture, Defense, Energy and State drive activity at the federal level. In addition, there are different types of LEED projects which are presently ongoing in more than 40 other countries including Canada, Brazil, India and Mexico. Whereby LEED Reference Guide in (2009) which is confirmed on a whole-building approach for sustainability by assessing the performance in six main groups. The certification LEED based on the number of "points" (table) that for each building able to get in each of six
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
However, the success of the building schemes relied on the construction methods and innovations that are now attributed as bei...
Without state “required” measures of green, sustainable standards in the awarding and allocation of LIHTC funds and in the absence of review sanctions (e.g., deduction of application review points) for non-adherence to existing sustainable development specifications, the LIHTC program falls considerably short of addressing the overwhelming need to develop “green” in many of our state-subsidized low-income multi-family developments. The purpose of this policy brief is to show and recommend that 1). TDHCA needs to formally adopt mandatory green or sustainable standards to which all applicants seeking funding must adhere to; and 2). With the adoption of these mandatory green, sustainable standards, all LIHTC funded projects will reap the lifelong benefits that energy-efficient and environmentally, susta...
LEED is building the future of our construction field and it is growing rapidly. Green building through LEED is bringing about lifetime of returns that start with lessening operation costs, reducing energy, and decreasing water bills as much as forty percent. Businesses across the world are using LEED to increase the efficiency of their buildings as well as freeing up resources that can be used elsewhere to create new jobs, expand building operations, and investing in up and coming technologies. Green building technologies are drastically shaping how buildings are constructed making them more stimulating to look at as well increasing the retail values of many homes. LEED certified projects is the construction of tomorrow and will be for many more years to come.
As the environmental problems become more and more serious these years, especially that intense negative impact that buildings in modern cities bring to the cities, the concept of Green Building is being more and more important considered by local and federal government. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a green building is one that utilizes design and construction practices that significantly reduce or eliminate the negative impact of buildings on the environment and the building's occupants. Besides the more and more advanced building structure and technology, the main goal of green building is to protect the health of the occupants, save energy and reduce pollution to environment. There are many certifications of green buildings to judge whether the building meets the standard of green buildings and what environmental performance level is this building at, to help government regulators, building professionals and consumers to see better how this building can be improved and what is its impact on human beings and environment. Such green building programs include Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB Green), etc. Among them, LEED is one of the most popular certification programs that give the building credits for its environmental performance. In this essay, I will discuss the costs and benefits of different types of building projects that were certified by LEED.
When starting construction on a new building, there are plenty of things that can and will go wrong. You will start to lay out the plumbing and find that it clashes with a wall or beam that cannot be moved. To finish your project, you must take more time and more money to adjust to the new layout. Another scenario is the owners won’t let you start construction because they can’t see the end result or where the specific design implements that had asked for are located. For the past few decades the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry has been looking for a solution to this problem. Projects would be set back due to design oversights. Without anything to predict these problems before they happen, these little setbacks were a common occurrence. Once building information modeling (BIM) was born, it was like their prayers had been answered. The future was here.
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.
Another alternative that emerged by the increasing practice of eco-friendly spaces is the LEED certification by the US Green Building Council. This certification is a demanding and rigorous program, which is constantly evaluated and incorporates new concepts periodically, mainly based on the new technologies that have arisen and the studies that have been carried out on green buildings that have been operating for several years.
Another important aspect of green architecture is the integration of energy efficient mechanical systems and conservation methods. Green buildings are designed to reduce or eliminate the dependence on fossil fuels. Additionally, green designs further help to minimize waste through the use of gray water recycling and other sustainable energy strategies. Grey water is conserved or saved to be recycled to water gardens.
The use of green materials is better for the environment because they have a positive impact on the planet. Looking at our environment today we see a place that has been facing a massive climate change. Scientists have been concerned over global warming for decades. The ongoing increase of the earth’s temperature is believed to be caused by the greenhouse effect (“Global Warming” 27). Building with green materials produces significantly lower greenhouse gas emission. Specifically, wood as a material for building products, requires considerably less energy than other building products such as steel and concrete. Wood product manufacture results in fewer greenhouse gas and other air-polluting emissions (“Green Building Benefits”). Green building also results in waste reduction. In the United States, construction and demolition creates a huge amount of solid waste. Green building limits the waste prod...
In this regard, city authorities all over the world are increasingly adopting energy efficiency measures in a quest to become sustainable into the future. Consequently, this has led to the emergence of the term ‘green cities’ (Aulisi & Hanson, 2004). New York City, viewed by many as an urban, concrete jungle, was recently named the “greenest city" in the United States. This is mainly because most of its residents live in energy-efficient buildings, and use public transport, bicycl...
Green Building may be defined as the processes of planning, designing, constructing and operating a building, while taking into consideration: the quality of the indoor environment, selection of the materials used, the way of using energy and water and the effect of the building on the site.
Architecture is dependent on current trends. It was comparable with any other form of art, whether it is music, fashion design or painting. There is great demand for the incorporation of the latest and greatest advances in architectural design into the modern structures. Many people would want their structures to be at-per with the latest designs, but maintain a classic sense that will ensure the look is in, no matter what year it is (Burden, 2000).
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.
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