In this post guest author Bob Faulhaber does a little bit of self examination, using his own personal life to illustrate the many ways and the many habits we may have that might make us considerably less green than we would like to think we are. He takes stock of how he lives; in what kind of house; his work; his car; his kids and his personal habits.
Biomimicry has probably been practiced by humans for as long as we have been walking the earth. In our current cultural context, Janine Benyus, has popularized this design philosophy and coined the term biomimicry, helping to generate a new wave of interest in this design approach. Biomimicry seeks to mimic the evolved design solutions arrived at by nature and adapt them to and incorporate them into the design of structures and products. It uses nature as a model to inspire design solutions; it uses nature as a measure of elegance and rightness of a design; and it seeks to promote the notion of nature as mentor that we may learn from, rather than as an inert object to exploit.
This post highlights how facilities management is an important, if often unsung part of so many businesses… any businesses with facilities, in fact. Sustainable facilities management is an area that can have a profound and near term impact on overall business sustainability. Very large potential energy savings and hence carbon footprint reduction could be realized in facilities management areas such as HVAC or lighting for example; the embodied energy of facilities — their materials and recurring requirements; how runoff is handled and so forth all are areas in which sustainable facilities management can really impact the triple bottom line in a positive way.
Many architects feel that the civil engineer is the hardest one to get onboard with green buildings or that they contribute the least among the design team toward a LEED project. It shouldn’t be that way, civil engineers should be an enthusiastic and integrated contributor to the LEED process and the project is likely missing a lot of opportunities for true collaboration and integrated design. The credits that can benefit from the civil engineer’s input are: construction activity pollution prevention, site selection, development density and community connectivity,brownfield redevelopment,alternative transportation,site development,stormwater design,heat island fffect,light pollution reduction,water efficient landscaping,innovative wastewater technologies,optimize energy performance ,construction waste management, recycled content, regional materials,innovation in design,and regional priority.
It is a common myth that green building costs are often much most expensive than they really are. Often you can save money when going green. When considering the costs to green building, the key is to consider the whole cost of the systems involved, as sustainability is about the big picture and the long view, not just the individual components.
Drew Tulchin talks about how to finance green businesses in the U.S. in terms of capital options and sources. He gives step by step practical advice for green entrepreneurs and suggests various things that can be done to help obtain financing. Drew Tulchin talks about how to finance green businesses in the U.S. in terms of capital options and sources. He gives step by step practical advice for green entrepreneurs and suggests various things that can be done to help obtain financing.
A pending lawsuit alleges that the USGBC and its LEED standards are false advertising. Bob Faulhaber, who is himself a LEED, AP defends this green building certification system pointing out how it has succeeded in raising awareness and increasing involvement in developing and promoting green building techniques and that it has helped to promote an integrated approach to design and construction that has in fact lead to more sustainable buildings.
In this a rebuttal post to The Green Building Adoption Rate is Slow, Find Out The Practical Reasons Why, Richard argues that in fact the growth rate has been very high, citing for example that in late 2010, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) celebrated its first billion square feet of LEED certified green buildings. He makes the argument that the growth rate in the green building space is actually quite high especially considering the background of economic recession and tight capital in which it has occurred.
Company management should evaluate and prioritize green options while remaining aligned with their organization’s overall business mission. In this post, Susan Buchanan advises organizations that are just beginning the approach to sustainability to start with the low hanging fruit, i.e. the relatively achievable and lower cost green initiatives that can deliver short-term paybacks by reducing energy and natural resource consumption. Starting with an objective evaluation of their current state of sustainability and the options for change both in terms of financial metrics of course, but also looking at other metrics such as footprint and life cycle costing. Once these baseline metrics are established then the many green opportunities become more clear.
