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:
