This post explores the concept of an end-to-end ‘green’ power, water, and community eco-system based around mega-watt scale power and cooling requirements in a real world environment of limited financial resources and stringent system availability requirements. It suggests that huge power hungry data centers should consider incorporating on-site biomass electricity generation as an integral part of their operations systems.
This post, a part of five part series on green building regulation looks at the anatomy of green building regulations identifying three main types of regulations, which are command and control, in other words building codes and such; financial incentives, like tax breaks; and non-financial incentives such as increases in floor to area ratio, building height or density for building green.
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.
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.
Our buildings are central to our lives, and we put a tremendous amount of our wealth and skills into making them. The modern green building movement is a highly tuned, intensive, and measured approach to building that values efficiency, health and durability.The success of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has not been based on their radical agenda but on the practical results of the types of building they have helped shape. The improvement in productivity in LEED commercial buildings alone can pay for the entire building. These large projects have demonstrated the value gained by investing in green building principles
Green buildings provide long-term savings and solid returns on investments. they also command much more than similar non-LEED buildings due to the economic benefits they offer. Soon Class A office buildings that do not attain LEED certification will see their property value decline as LEED becomes the de facto benchmark in measuring quality in construction.
Michael Favicchio tell Tony Brown story on how he transitioned a new university graduate with a degree in English to a green building project manager at Chapman Construction in Newton, MA.
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in partnership with the The Princeton Review, recently announced the release of “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges.” It is the first, free comprehensive Guidebook solely focused on institutions of higher education who have demonstrated a significant commitment to sustainability in terms of campus initiatives, infrastructure and initiatives.