Benefits of Green Buildings
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"If you can not measure it, yon can not improve it" - Lord William Thompson Kelvin
"Recently - being GREEN - started to be very trendy. Majority of companies advertising their sustainable (green) products or practices, and consumer is most likely becoming a victim of so called "greenwashing".
Sustainability is a complex issue, and needs interdisciplinary attention. Rating systems (like LEED, BREEAM, DGNB or SB tool) allow us to segregate our knowledge and take holistic approach to issues associated with building construction and operations. Our knowledge about factors connected with sustainability (and their interaction) is growing exponentially, and each day we are discovering something new. Sustainability is by far, one of the fastest developing scientific disciplines.
At the best - we can describe role of the rating system as current iteration of whatever we can bring down into simplified equation, checklist and third party certification - to provide comprehensive tool for demanding building industry.
The key element here is balancing and weighting particular Issues to bring attention to most important ones (globally and locally), and as fast as it possible reflect updated level of worldwide knowledge within this interdisciplinary science… " from Rafal Schurma lecture at Harvard University.
"The built environment is not only the largest industrial sector in economic terms, it is the largest in terms of resource flow".
(Paul Hawken - The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design)
Buildings are the largest users of energy:
- 65.2% of total U.S. electricity consumption
- 36% of total U.S. primary energy use
- 30% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (USGBC)
As for European countries, the situation in most of them is very similar.
"Buildings are not just where we work, play, and sleep; they are where we invest most of our financial and natural capital".
(Paul Hawken - The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design)
Buildings are responsible for: 136 million tons of construction and demolition waste in the U.S. (approx. 2.8 lbs/person/day)
- 12% of potable water use in the U.S.
- 40% (3 billion tons annually) of raw materials use globally (USGBC)
- 25% of harvested wood in the U.S.
- 50% of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) production in the U.S. generation of
- 40% of landfill material as a result of construction waste in the U.S. (Worldwatch Institute)
Environmental benefits Reduce the impacts of natural resource consumption and environment devastation Economic benefits Improve the bottom line Health and safety benefits Enhance occupant comfort and health Community benefits Minimize strain on local infrastructures and improve quality of life (USGBC)
