Thursday 22 March 2012

GREEN BUILDING


    GREEN BUILDING (ECONOMICAL BUILDING)

    "A green building is one which uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building."

    The green building based on 5 elements of nature
    •  Earth
    • Water
    •  Fire
    •     Air
    •  Space


    Reducing environmental impact

    Green building practices aim to reduce the environmental impact of buildings, and the very first rule is, do not build in sprawl .No matter how much grass you put on your roof, no matter how many energy-efficient windows, you use, if you build in sprawl, you've just defeated your purpose. Buildings account for a large amount of land. According to the National Resources Inventory, approximately 107 million acres of land in the United States are developed. The International Energy Agency released a publication that estimated that existing buildings are responsible for more than 40% of the world’s total primary energy consumption and for 24% of global carbon dioxide emissions. 
    The concept of sustainable development can be traced to the energy crisis and the environment pollution concern in the 1970s. The green building movement in the U.S. originated from the need and desire for more energy efficient and 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.

    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: Sitting and Structure Design Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Materials Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality Enhancement, Operations and Maintenance Optimization, and Waste and Toxics Reduction. 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.

    Energy efficiency
    Green buildings often include measures to reduce energy consumption – both the embodied energy required to extract, process, transport and install building materials and operating energy to provide services such as heating and power for equipment.


    As high-performance buildings use less operating energy, embodied energy has assumed much greater importance – and may make up as much as 30% of the overall life cycle energy consumption. Studies such as the U.S. LCI Database Project show buildings built primarily with wood will have a lower embodied energy than those built primarily with brick, concrete or steel. 


    To reduce operating energy use, high-efficiency windows and insulation in walls, ceilings, and floors increase the efficiency of the building envelope, another strategy, passive solar building design, is often implemented in low-energy homes. Designers orient windows and walls and place awnings, porches, and trees to shade windows and roofs during the summer while maximizing solar gain in the winter. In addition, effective window placement (day lighting) 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.

    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 personnel are part of the project's planning and development process will help retain the green criteria designed at the onset of the project. Every aspect of green building is integrated into the operations and maintenance phase of a building's life. The addition of new green technologies also falls on the operations and maintenance 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 operations and maintenance phase that green practices such as recycling and air quality enhancement take place.

    Cost and payoff
    The most criticized issue about constructing environmentally friendly buildings is the price. Photo-voltaic, 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. The stigma is between the knowledge of up-front cost 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. 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. Confirming the ratability 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.


    Regulation and operation
    As a result of the increased interest in green building concepts and practices, a number of organizations have developed standards, codes and rating systems that let government regulators, building professionals and consumers embrace green building with confidence. In some cases, codes are written so local governments can adopt them as bylaws to reduce the local environmental impact of buildings.
    Green building codes and standards, such as the International Code Council’s draft International Green Construction Code, are sets of rules created by standards development organizations that establish minimum requirements for elements of green building such as materials or heating and cooling.
    Some of the major building environmental assessment tools currently in use include:


    IPD Environment Code

    The IPD Environment Code was launched in February 2008. The Code is intended as a good practice global standard for measuring the environmental performance of corporate buildings. Its aim is to accurately measure and manage the environmental impacts of corporate buildings and enable property executives to generate high quality, comparable performance information about their buildings anywhere in the world. The Code covers a wide range of building types and aims to inform and support the following;
    §  Creating an environmental strategy
    §  Inputting to real estate strategy
    §  Supplier management
    §  Information systems and data population
    §  Compliance with regulations
    §  Communicating a commitment to environmental improvement
    §  Creating performance targets
    §  Environmental improvement plans
    §  Performance assessment and measurement
    §  Life cycle assessments
    §  Acquisition and disposal of buildings
    §  Team and personal objectives
    IPD estimate that it will take approximately three years to gather significant data to develop a robust set of baseline data that could be used across a typical corporate estate.











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