Benefits of Green Building

I just want to share guys some important things about green architecture. I got this from a Filipino engineer who is promoting green architecture. I hope we will learn something from this.

You can pm me if you want a copy of the pdf file.


BENEFITS OF GREEN BUILDING

Introduction

Energy consumption has become one of the most important global issues today, aside from the money
wasted in inefficient use of energy and depleting finite resources. There are major environmental
concerns with regards to the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and its contribution to the well-known
Greenhouse Effect. The greenhouse gas emissions from the building are generally resulting from the
electricity and gas usage. The two major energy sources are mainly used for appliances, lighting, small
power, lifts, equipment and ancillaries for heating, ventilating and space conditioning requirement of the
building.

The built environment in the US, Australia, Middle East and other developed nation has become one of
the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emission. Study shows that energy used for building
accounts for almost 40% of all energy related greenhouse gas emission. This alarming figure indicates
that the building industry requires significant energy efficient measures in reducing overall greenhouse
gas emission.

Majority of the developed nations have taken steps to implement energy and resources saving initiatives.
For example, in UAE the Ruler of Dubai mandated all new building construction shall be certified to
become a green building, in America the National Energy Policy Act of 2005 contains increased incentive
in renewable energy and efficient building fabric. As a result, there has been a “sea changes” in the
building industry for these developed countries in terms of industry practices, regulation and economics.
Green Buildings

A “Green Building” is part of larger concept of sustainable development; it is defined as building
practices that substantially reduces or eliminates building industry’s negative impact towards the
environment and human health but improve productivity, community and economic benefits. It
should be designed to use less energy and water (relative to regulatory and industry standard)
and consider the life cycle of the material used. All these can be achieved through better site
development practices, integrated design, construction, operation, maintenance and removal and
possible material reuse.

Generally, a commercial Green Building is considered one to be certified by the internationally
recognized authorities such as United States Green Building Council (USGBC) under Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or BREEAM from UK, Green Star from Australia,
CASBEE system by the Japanese, GB Tool by the Europeans and etc.

USGBC-LEED Rating System

USGBC-LEED Green Building rating system as defined by USGBC “is a voluntary, consensusbased,
market-driven building rating system based on existing proven technology. It evaluates
environmental performance from a whole building perspective over a building’s life cycle,
provided with a definitive standard for what constitutes as a “green building”.
The rating system is organized into five environmental categories:

Table 1

Category of Concern Issues evaluated by the LEED system

Sustainable Sites

Site selection, land use, transportation, site impacts
of construction, storm water management, urban
heat island effect and night time light pollution

Water Efficiency

Water conservation in surface irrigation and
domestic water fixtures

Energy use reduction and Atmospheric protection (EA)

Low energy performance buildings; renewable energy systems; implementation of building
commissioning process; reduced use of ozone
depleting chemicals; energy management and use
of green power.

Materials and Resource Conservation (MR)

Use of existing building elements for major
renovations; recycling practices of building
occupants, construction waste reuse and recycling,
reuse of salvaged materials, recycled content
materials, use of locally produced materials to
minimize the embodied energy; use of agricultural
based materials and certified wood products.

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

Improved ventilation and Indoor air quality (IAQ),
use of non-toxic finishes and furniture’s; green
housekeeping; use of passive systems such as
natural daylight, and natural ventilation, enhanced
views.

Innovation and Design Process

Exemplary performance in exceeding to meet the
LEED prescriptive requirement and use of
innovative design approach; commissioning LEED
accredited professional in the project.

LEED and other building evaluation systems/tools are design to encourage “integrated design”
process, where building engineers are brought into the process with the architectural and interior
teams at an early design stage. Integrated design allows the project to explore and optimize good
engineering practice which results to a minimal or eliminate cost impact to the project.

Potential Benefits of Green Building

There is still a perception that “Green Building costs too much”, it has been one of the top
obstacles for the developers and building owners adapting to principles of green building.
Analyzing building costs should include not only first cost, but also future costs that may occur
over the life of the facility and its systems. To date, there has been a number of LEED projects
achieving certified to platinum certification and has proven that green buildings can be developed
without additional cost (first).

Moreover, a cost and benefit study of green building completed recently shows:

• Minimal upfront costs of approximately 2% of construction costs typically yields life cycle
saving of about 10 times greater than initial investment;
• LEED certification might add:
o Less than 1% to building cost to meet Certified level (LEED);
o 2.1 % to building cost to meet Silver level (LEED);
o 1.8 % to building cost to meet Gold level (LEED); and
o 6.5% to building cost to meet Platinum level (LEED).

Economic benefits are generally the prime driver of change in all new innovations; these benefits
may take a variety of forms. Some of the benefits of green building are:

Reduced Operating Cost

Majority of green building are designed to use 25-40 percent less energy in comparison to code
requirement (ASHRAE 90.1), in some cases some buildings may even achieve higher efficiency
and can be translated to operating costs.

Reduced Maintenance Cost

More than 120 studies have documented that a low energy performance building, properly
commissioned yields an additional of 15-20 % in energy costs. A recent studies shows that
payback from building commissioning in relation to energy savings alone is approximately 4 years
whilst the payback fell to about 1 year when other benefits were considered and complaints about
thermal comfort are much less.

Increased Building Value

Increased energy savings results to an increase in building value. In the recent years the
international corporate environment has been fostering sustainable development. In support of
this initiative, many of the multinational companies’ favors to lease on certified green buildings.
Insurance companies, banks and real estate property broker would normally appraise a higher
value to certified green buildings.

Tax Benefits

In America, Europe and Australia there are tax benefits for green initiatives. The US Federal
Energy Policy Act (2005) offers two major tax incentives for aspects of green buildings. Recently,
the President of the Philippines mandated tax benefits for renewable energy.

Productivity Gains and Health Improvements

There have been a number of studies showing a productivity gains for healthier indoor spaces.
For offices, reduced absenteeism, healthy environment may result anywhere from 1 to 5 percent
of employees costs. In schools, children who are studying in a green building perform far better
than a child studying in a normal building.

Risk Management

Green building certification may provide some measure of protection against future lawsuits
through third party verification of measures installed to provide good indoor air quality beyond the
code’s minimum requirement. Favorable assistance in permitting may also be considered as a
type of risk mitigation. In America, various states are providing special attention and assistance to
green building projects and speed up the permitting process.

Public Relations and Marketing

Building owners and developers are finding a considerable marketing and public relations
benefits from creating certified green buildings. For example, reducing the building’s energy
consumption favor the utilities provider; another example is a that a certified green building will
provide an excellent IAQ and IEQ ensuring the well being of the occupants within the occupied
space which may become attractive to developers and building owners.

Environmental Stewardship

The increasing awareness in global warming and greenhouse effect results to environmental
movement within the corporate environment. Majority of the multi national companies and
government authorities are committed to improving and enhancing the building industries impact
towards the environment. Many major companies have well established their sustainable
initiatives and commitment, which are appropriate not only for building owner, developer or end
user but also for larger community.

The benefits listed above are some of the obvious advantage of a green building and lists could
go on and on. These benefits could only be taken advantage by the occupants, investors, and the
developing the community.

In the developed countries “Green buildings” are no longer the “future”; it is the present practice
and could only get better. The international building industry’s practice and regulatory standards
are changing, for example ASHRAE requirement for efficient building has been developed and
the requirement in meeting the standard practice is increasing. In Australia and UK the Building
Code has been amended (Part J for Australia and Part L for UK) to foster the environmental
requirement.[u]

sir post ko lang, baka makatulong.

http://buildinggreenphilippines.org/

thanks sa link sir!!,,,pupunta ako dito for sure!!!

ayos. galing.

tama^^

This should be the way to go. I will show post here when i come back how we merged Landscape and Architecture together, creating a seemless and harmonious environment that has also reflected the local culture and scenes of the site ( Congqing, Sichuan China). The Senior Designer is also a Pinoy educated in the US and is now working in our Beijing office.

like..

pa-1st post po ako ayos po ung idea ^^