Green building

Green building is the practice of:

1. increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials, and
2. reducing building impacts on human health and the environment,
3. through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle. [1]

Green building is an essential component of the related concepts of sustainable design, sustainable development and sustainability.

Environmental impacts of buildings

Buildings of the world consume:

• 40% of the world's energy & materials
• 25% of the wood harvested
• 17% of our water

In the US, buildings account for:

• 39% of total energy consumption
• 68% of total electricity use
• 38% of carbon dioxide emissions
• 136 million tons of construction and demolition waste in the U.S.
• 12% of water use

[2]

Our buildings, and how we use them, have an impact on the Earth's resources.

They also influence our own health: Most of us spend at least 90% of our time indoors, where the air is often twice — and sometimes as much as a hundred times — more polluted than outside air. [3]

U.S. Green Building Council

The U.S. Green Building Council has developed some definitions of what constitutes sustainable design of green buildings through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED [4] green building rating system. The USGBC just one of the organizations in the World attempting to define what green building design should entail. The Green Building Council of Australia has its own green buildings standard known as Green Star [5].

Legislation

In 2005, Washington State became the first state in the U.S. to enact green building legislation. According to the law, all major public agency facilities exceeding 5,000 sq. ft., including state funded school buildings, are required to meet or exceed LEED standards in construction or renevation. The projected benefits from such a law are

• 20% annual savings in energy costs
• 20% reduction in water costs
• 38% in waste water production
• 22% reduction in construction waste

References

• Article on green building law and benefits

External links

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Building Website
• International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment
• U.S. Green Building Council
• Building Green.com
• The Pangea Partnership – Green-building workshops in the developing world