Green buildings are structures designed to have minimal impact on the environment during their design, construction and operation – they conserve natural resources while minimizing waste production.
Eco-friendly structures include materials that are recycled, reused or harvested from renewable resources, while also helping to reduce energy usage through effective insulation, solar-powered water heating systems and day lighting methods that reduce electric lighting needs.
Energy Efficiency
Green buildings use less energy and water by including features like solar and wind power, energy-saving lighting appliances and water recycling systems to lower energy use and water consumption. They also lower air pollution by employing eco-friendly building materials while providing effective indoor climate control systems.
Heating and cooling account for about 43 percent of commercial building energy consumption. Green buildings aim to lower this figure with insulation, natural ventilation systems, smart controls that turn lights on/off/dim depending on time of day and occupancy patterns and smart controls which automatically switch on/off lights or dim them depending on time/day and occupancy patterns.
Eco-friendly buildings typically employ rain gardens or bioswales – depressions planted with vegetation that allow water to infiltrate into the soil and recharge aquifers – as well as green roofs to collect rainwater and prevent runoff, or photovoltaic panels on rooftops that generate electricity via sunlight – with the latter even producing power themselves! Green buildings are increasingly evaluated using life cycle analysis that considers impacts from birth-to-death for construction materials used, their processing, manufacture, use, maintenance and eventual disposal.
Indoor Air Quality
Making healthy indoor spaces requires thoughtful consideration of both energy use and air quality. Many green building strategies aim to reduce carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds; others focus on decreasing pollutants that enter such as smoke, moisture, odors, or bacteria.
Studies have reported that occupants in green buildings tend to report high satisfaction with the indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Unfortunately, most of these studies used subjective measures rather than directly measuring pollutant concentrations and exposures.
Studies have also demonstrated that certain green practices compromise indoor air quality (IAQ) by creating new sources of pollution – recycled products and energy efficiency strategies are two examples that increase outdoor pollution levels. Furthermore, green certification schemes often do not account for cross-category interactions, allowing positive credits earned in one category to negatively affect IAQ ratings for other categories – all factors which severely diminish IEQ ratings in green buildings. Nonetheless, immediate actions can improve IAQ through ventilation controls or using low emitting materials and cleaning products.
Durability
Green building is an approach to construction that considers all phases of its lifecycle, including siting, design, construction, performance evaluation and renovation or demolition (read more: Green Building and its Life Cycle). Green buildings use environmentally sustainable materials that remain in use after being completed (more info: Green Building Materials and Sustainability).
Green buildings aim to reduce waste through material reuse, recycling initiatives and other sustainable measures that avoid landfills. Furthermore, many green buildings boast energy efficient systems and water conservation strategies which further help conserve shared resources.
As green buildings use non-toxic and biodegradable materials, such as wood from responsibly managed forests or rapidly renewable plants for flooring, as well as non-toxic cleaning products with less environmental impact, their construction methods help significantly decrease VOCs in indoor air environments and help improve air quality. Furthermore, many green buildings utilize energy sources like solar or wind that produce cleaner electricity than traditional oil-based fuels.
Health and Safety
Facility managers who seek to construct green buildings, renovate existing ones or pitch them to executives and investors must put health and safety at the top of their priority list. Research suggests that employees who work in green buildings tend to be healthier and more productive than their counterparts in traditional structures.
Studies have demonstrated that green buildings reduce symptoms of sick building syndrome while simultaneously improving occupants’ ability to concentrate and make decisions, leading to greater productivity.
Construction workers involved with green projects such as roof installation, solar panel installations, skylight installations and atrium construction projects may face various hazards and risks when working on them. New research offers a comprehensive plan to identify, analyze, evaluate and control such risks associated with green building projects – the researchers developed a Holistic Z-numbers Risk Management Framework or HZRMF that integrates Z-numbers method and Delphi technique in order to systematically identify, analyze and control safety risks involved with green building projects.