Green building
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Green building is the practice of:
- increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials, and
- reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle. [link]
In addition to sustainability, another common goal of green building is aesthetic harmony between a structure and the surrounding natural area.
Green Building is also sometimes known as "sustainable building" or "environmental building," and it can lead to benefits including reduced operating costs (e.g, by using less energy and water), improved occupant health (due to improved indoor air quality), and reduced environmental impacts (e.g., by lessening storm water runoff and the heat island effect) [Expert Village: Environmental Building Video Series] Teaches how to make your own green building in the form of a straw bale house in a free video series.
- 1 Green building in the U.S.
- 1.1 U.S. Green Building Council
- 1.2 Green Building Initiative
- 1.3 U.S. State and Local Programs
- 1.4 Noted Green Designers & Builders
- 2 Types of Green Buildings
- 3 Standards and ratings
- 4 Sustainable town developments
- 5 Green Building Elsewhere Around the World
- 6 References
- 7 See also
- 8 External links
Green building in the U.S.
U.S. Green Building Council
The [U.S. Green Building Council] has developed influential definitions of what constitutes sustainable design of green buildings through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED [link] green building rating system. USGBC has attracted over 6200 organizations as members to date. The USGBC is one of the organizations in the World attempting to define what green building design should entail. In 2003, Canada and the USGBC formed the [Canadian Green Building Council] to adapt the LEED standard to Canadian circumstances.
Green Building Initiative
The [Green Building Initiative™] is a non-profit network of building industry leaders committed to bringing green to mainstream residential and commercial construction. The GBI believes in building approaches that are environmentally progressive, but also practical and affordable for builders to implement.U.S. State and Local Programs
The U.S. Green Building Council maintains a list of state and local green building programs and initiatives in the U.S. [link]
In 2005, Washington 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 square feet (465 m²), including state funded school buildings, are required to meet or exceed LEED standards in construction or renovation. 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
Noted Green Designers & Builders
- Advanced Environmental, Australia
- Rocky Mountain Institute
- J. Baldwin
- Tom Bender
- Peter Calthorpe
- Buckminster Fuller
- William McDonough
- Sim Van der Ryn
- James Wines
- Ken Yeang
- Eric Corey Freed
- Steve Baer
- Glenn Murcutt
- John Boecker
- Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates
- [Bob Fox]
- [Paulina Wojciechowska]
Types of Green Buildings
Straw Bale Houses
Straw bale is actually the dry leftover part of the plant after harvest. Wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice and others are mostly used in straw bale houses to construct walls which are then covered by stucco.Any type of hay or straw can be used for this for construction, although the less roughage that's still on the straw stems, the better (because moisture in the roughage can cause mold, which can spontaneously combust). The preferred straw is actually clean, white straw, like oat straw, barley straw- that's going to be the best types to build with.
Three string bales are more optimal to build with because they're more solid.[Video on Preparing to Build a Straw Bale Home]
Extruded Straw Panel Houses
Straw Panels are a commercial alternative to erecting labor-intensive Straw Bale Houses and require less deviation from the present home construction techniques that the existing workforce is comfortable with. Several workers can erect a single-family straw panel home in less than a day.Built from straw that is milled and super-compressed in a fiber extrusion mill, straw panels have the durability of concrete, the finish surface of gypsum, the insulating value of conventional glass insulation product and the sound absorption characteristics of sound insulating panels.
As fiber extrusion takes advantage of the plant fiber's own cellulosic 'glue' no MDI or polymeric chemicals are used in the panel and therefore there is no chemical offgassing into the environment where the panel is deployed. Upwards of twenty different agricultural waste fibers can be extruded into straw building panels, including switchgrass, rice and wheat.
Because the fiber extrusion process makes high-quality building material so inexpensively it is being reviewed for large housing projects around the world. A photogallery of a fiber extrusion mill can viewed [here.]
Standards and ratings
Many countries have developed their own standards of energy efficiency for buildings.- Green Star, Green Building Council of Australia
- House Energy Rating, Australia
- EnerGuide for Houses, Canada
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), USA and Canada
- [Cradle To Cradle http://mbdc.com]
Sustainable town developments
Green Building Elsewhere Around the World
The Green Building Council of Australia has its own green buildings standard known as Green Star [link].\The Confederation of Indian Industry is playing an active role in promoting sustainability in the Indian construction sector [link].
The Association for Environment Conscious Building has been promoting sustainable building in the UK since 1989 [AECB].
The Green Building Press publishes [daily green building news] on its central website
Canada has impleted "r2000" guidelines for new buildings built after the year 2000. Incentives are offered to builders to meet the r2000 standard in efforts to increase energy efficiency and promote sustainability.
References
See also
- Arcology - High density ecological structures
- Energy efficiency in British housing
- BedZED - Zero-carbon building in the UK
- Earthship
- Environmental planning
- Energy-plus-house
- Green technology
- Low-energy house
- Passive house
- Passive solar
- Sustainable habitat
External links
- [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Building Website]
- [American Institute of Architects Top Ten Green Projects]
- [International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment]
- [Use Of Eco-Friendly Bamboo Products On The Rise]
- [Green Building Initiative™]
- [U.S. Green Building Council]
- [Canadian Solar Buildings Research Network]
- [Straw Bale construction story]
- [Straw Bale construction pictures and commentary]
- [The Straw Bale House: Not For The Eastern United States]
- [Building Green.com]
- [Green Progress] - green building and sustainable development news
- [Green Energy and Global Warming]
- [The Pangea Partnership] - Green-building workshops in the developing world
- [Health House]
- [Low Impact Housing] - A Global Survey of Innovation in Residential Design
- [Living Home Structure] - Fab Tree Hab: An Edible Home for Humanity.
- [Building for a Future magazine] - Regular news and in-depth stories on green building in the UK.
- [Woods Hole Research Center] - Features performance data of a green building in MA.
- [Living Systems] - Living Machines technologies and architectural applications thereof.
- [ADPSR] - Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR).
- [Bioneers] - The Bioneers organization holds an annual conference in San Rafael, CA which is a gathering of scientific and social innovators who have demonstrated visionary and practical models for restoring the Earth and communities.
- [IEA Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Programme.]
- [Haryana Technology Park (HTP)] - The 1st Technology Park in India to be LEED Platinum certified
- [Green Buildings] Mapped on Platial.
- [Sustainable Building Centre]
- [Natural Homes] Extensive list of courses world wide and example homes
- [Enviro Board Corporation] California Straw Panel / Extrusion Mill Manufacturer
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