What is "green building"?
Green building - also known as sustainable or high performance building - is
the practice of:
- Increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and
harvest energy, water, and materials; and
- Protecting and restoring human health and the environment, throughout the
building life-cycle: optimize site, design, construction, operation, maintenance,
renovation and deconstruction.
What makes a building "green"?
A green building is a structure that is environmentally responsible and
resource-efficient throughout its life-cycle. These objectives expand and
complement the classical building design concerns of economy, utility,
durability, and comfort.
Green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built
environment on human health and the natural environment by:
- Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
- Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
- Reducing waste, pollution and environment degradation
For example, green buildings may incorporate sustainable materials in their
construction (e.g., reused, recycled-content, or made from renewable resources);
create healthy indoor environments with minimal pollutants (e.g., reduced
product emissions); and/or feature landscaping that reduces water usage (e.g.,
by using native plants that survive without extra watering).
What are the benefits of green building?
Buildings have an enormous impact on the environment, human health, and the
economy. The successful adoption of green building strategies can maximize both
the economic and environmental performance of buildings.
Research continues to identify and clarify all of these benefits and costs of
green building, and of how to achieve the greatest benefits at the lowest costs.
How is green building related to smart growth and sustainable
development?
Smart growth is development that serves the economy, the community, and the
environment by supporting healthy communities while creating economic
development and jobs. Sustainability, or sustainable development, is the ability
to achieve continuing economic prosperity while protecting the natural systems
of the planet and providing a high quality of life for its people.
How do buildings affect natural resources?
Buildings and development have significant environmental impacts on our
natural resources, including:
- According to surveys conducted in 2002, 107.3 million acres of the 1.983
billion acres of total land area in the U.S. is developed, which represents
an increase of 24 percent in developed land over the past 10 years.
- In terms of energy, buildings accounted for 39.4 percent of total U.S.
energy consumption and 67.9 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption in
2002.
- Building occupants use 12.2 percent of the total water consumed in the U.S.
per day.
- Buildings, and the transportation infrastructure that serves them, replace
natural surfaces with impermeable materials, creating runoff that washes
pollutants and sediments into surface waters. Urban runoff constitutes a major
threat to water resources, as it has been identified as the fourth leading
source of impairment in rivers, third in lakes, and second on estuaries.
How do buildings affect climate change?
The energy used to heat and power our buildings leads to the consumption of
large amounts of energy, mainly from burning fossil fuels - oil, natural gas and
coal - which generate significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most
widespread greenhouse gas. Buildings in the U.S. contribute 38.1 percent of the
nation's total carbon dioxide emissions.
Reducing the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions produced by buildings is
therefore fundamental to the effort to slow the pace of global climate change.
Buildings may be associated with the release of greenhouse gases in other ways,
for example, construction and demolition debris that degrades in landfills may
generate methane, and the extraction and manufacturing of building materials may
also generate greenhouse gas emissions.
What building types can be green?
Any type of building has the potential to become a green or sustainable
building, however every building type has different design and efficiency needs
depending on its particular function. New buildings may be designed, built and
operated to be green buildings. Existing building can also become green through
remodeling, retrofitting and improved operations. The EPA offers helpful tools
for improving the environmental performance of new and existing:
What is Life-cycle Assessment?
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is the science of measuring the environmental
effects of a building "from cradle to grave," from the harvesting and extraction
of the materials used to make the building to its ultimate disposal.
What are the economic benefits of green or sustainable
building and development?
Well-designed, constructed, operated and maintained green buildings can have
many benefits, including durability; reduced costs for energy, water, operations
and maintenance; improved occupant health and productivity; and the potential
for greater occupant satisfaction than standard developments.
A green building may cost more up front, but can save money over the life of
the building through lower operating costs. These savings may be more apparent
through life-cycle assessment (LCA).
Cost savings are most likely to be fully realized when incorporated at the
project's conceptual design phase with the assistance of an integrated team of
building professionals. The integrated systems approach aims to design the
building as one system rather than a collection of potentially disconnected
systems.
Are green buildings more expensive to construct and operate?
Perhaps surprisingly, good green buildings often cost only a few percentage
points or no more to build than conventional designs. Integrated design
processes that identify the most efficient, holistic approaches to building
green can reduce these initial costs. For example, in some cases, when buildings
are carefully designed to be energy efficient, heating/ventilation/air
conditioning (HVAC) equipment can be downsized for significant savings. There
are also many green products and materials that cost the same or even less than
conventional ones.
The General Services Administration (GSA) did a cost study evaluating the
U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) standards, estimating the cost to develop "green" federal facilities. The
study looks at two types of buildings (a courthouse and office building) and the
costs associated with renovating each to the three different LEED levels: gold,
silver and certified. More information is available in the final report:
GSA LEED Cost Study (PDF).
Where can I find sources of funding for my green building
project?
EPA has developed a
list of funding opportunities for green building on the national, state, and
local levels for homeowners, industry, government organizations, and nonprofits.
Can I get a tax break for building green?
There are some federal tax credits for specific energy efficiency projects in
buildings. More and more states are beginning to introduce and pass legislation
establishing green building tax benefits, including New York and Maryland. Links
to more information regarding tax breaks for green building are available in our
list of funding opportunities for green building.
Where can I find more information about the components of
green building, like energy efficiency or reduced waste?
Please see the
Components of Green Building
Web page for links to EPA programs addressing energy efficiency and renewable
energy, water efficiency, environmentally preferable building materials and
specifications, waste reduction, toxics reduction, indoor air quality and smart
growth and sustainable development.
What standards exist for green building?
Several voluntary consensus-based standards organizations are developing
standards for green buildings, including:
- ASTM International's
Technical Subcommittee E06.71 on Sustainability and Performance of Buildings has
developed several green building standards .
- The American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
Engineers (ASHRAE) is partnering with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
and Illuminating Engineering Society of North American (IESNA) to develop
Standard 189, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except
Low-Rise Residential Buildings.
How are buildings certified as green in the U.S.?
EPA does not have a green building certification program. However, EPA and
the U.S. Department of Energy's
ENERGY
STAR® addresses one of the most important aspects of green building, energy.
ENERGY STAR qualifies new and renovated buildings as energy efficient, and
awards the ENERGY STAR label.
