LEED Test
The mission of USGBC
"to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life."8 USGBC supports achievement of this mission through education programs, advocacy, research, an extensive network of local chapters, and the LEED green building program
When assessing and designing a site, the team must consider
-Is there adequate open space surrounding the project -What is the local climate of the project?
When selecting a location
-The team must consider many attributes of the overall system • Has the site been previously developed? • Is it connected to local infrastructure and public transportation? • What is the nature of the street life in the area, and how can the project contribute to the community? • Where do people in the area live and work, and how do they travel?
OBSERVING A SYSTEM
-What are the general climatic patterns of the site? -• What are the soils like on the site? -How does energy get to the site? -What plants and animals exist on the site? -Are there roads? -What kind of buildings are on the site?
Charrettes
-are intense workshops designed to produce specific deliverables. - assist in establishing goals - They energize the group and promote trust through productive dialogue
less appropriate for development
-development of sites that have been in agricultural use, called greenfields, and sites that are far from existing development and infrastructure will increase the total regional development footprint, reduce the amount of land available for open space or agriculture, and fragment wildlife habitat -Development is also discouraged on wetland areas, floodplains, steep slopes, and endangered species habitat.
USE COMPACT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
.Consolidate development by increasing the number of units of residential space and square feet of commercial space per acre.
LEVERAGE POINTS
12. Constant, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards) 11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows 10. The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures) 9. The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change 8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against 7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops 6. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to what kinds of information) 5. The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints) 4. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure 3. The goals of the system 2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system—its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters—arises 1. The power to transcend paradigms
In the United States, buildings account for
14% of potable water consumption • 30% of waste output • 40% of raw materials use • 38% of carbon dioxide emissions • 24% to 50% of energy use • 72% of electricity consumption
green office buildings rented for
2% more; this adds more than $5 million to the market value
How much power more power is expended by office working commuting to and from the work place.
30% more than the building consumes itself.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, transportation accounted for
33% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2008. 20 Globally, transportation is responsible for 13.5% of total carbon dioxide emissions
People in the United States spend, on average
90% of their time indoors
PLANET (NATURAL CAPITAL)
All the costs and benefits of a project on the natural environment, locally and globally
PEOPLE (SOCIAL CAPITAL)
All the costs and benefits to the people who design, construct, live in, work in, and constitute the local community and are influenced, directly or indirectly, by a project
PROFIT (ECONOMIC CAPITAL)
All the economic costs and benefits of a project for all the stakeholders (not just the project owner)
THE PRIUS EFFECT
Delivering real-time energy information in a convenient way by installing meters where operators can act on the information and make changes to use energy more efficiently.
EPA
Environmental Protection Agency
DESIGN WALKABLE STREETS
Focus on building frontage, ground-level façade, building height-to-street-width ratio, and sidewalks. Limit street speeds.
Unchecked, positive feedback loops can create chaos in a system
For example, if urban temperatures rise too high, local populations may suffer or abandon the area. In nature, positive feedback loops are typically checked by stabilizing negative feedback loops, processes that shut down uncontrolled growth or other destabilizing forces.
INCLUDE AND COLLABORATE
Green building demands that a multidisciplinary team of professionals join with members of the community involved or affected by the project to look at the big picture, not just the individual elements that concern each of them most immediately.
PROCESS MATTERS
How you approach projects is crucial to what you do and are able to accomplish. In other words, a good process is essential to good outcomes.
The location of a building is as important as how it is built.
If people can take public transportation, ride bicycles, or walk to the building, the project helps reduce the carbon emissions associated with commuting.
PROVIDE DIVERSE LAND USES
Include a wide mix of services, such as shops, restaurants, schools, religious centers, grocery stores, parks, civic buildings, and recreational facilities.
SUPPORT ACCESS TO SUSTAINABLE FOOD
Include community gardens, farmers markets, urban farms, and community-supported agriculture programs.
LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
LCA
Life Cycle Assessment
PROMOTE CONNECTIVITY
Limit culs-de-sac, prohibit gated communities, and use a street grid pattern.
iterative process obstacles
Meetings can be expensive to run and hard to schedule • Communication between meetings often breaks down • People may be resistant to green goals • Participants can balk at the iterative, integrative process • Traditionalists may resist the up-front loading of modeling, testing of assumptions, and analysis • People may be reluctant to embrace new technologies
CREATE A DIVERSE COMMUNITY
Provide housing types for a wide range of incomes and abilities. Incorporate, rather than segregate, affordable and senior housing.
SUSTAINABILITY GOALS DURING CONSTRUCTION
Reducing the amount of fossil fuels used in construction equipment by minimizing grading and earth moving, as well as using biodiesel or other alternative fuels. • Preventing air and water pollution by addressing dust and implementing a construction activity pollution prevention plan. • Ensuring indoor air quality by following an indoor environmental quality management plan for protecting ductwork and pervious materials, preventing dust, and protecting any occupied spaces from pollutants. • Minimizing landfill waste by reducing construction debris and following a waste management plan that addresses waste separation and hauling, also saving costs.
Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 1992
Select EPA WaterSense and ENERGY STAR products
EVALUATING STRATEGIES
Set goals • Benchmark performance • Identify improvement opportunities • Prioritize and align improvement opportunities with the project goals • Implement the program • Measure performance and undergo third-party verification • Set revised or new goals
GET IN EARLY
The commitment to green building should be made as early as possible so that it can assist in framing effective goals. Trying to add green features to a project late in the process is the most expensive and least effective approach. For community or neighborhood projects, the commitment should be made at the beginning of the land-use planning phase so that it can inform land-use decisions and zoning, design of transportation systems, and layout of infrastructure. For new construction, early means before the site is selected and before the team is selected, if possible. For operations and maintenance projects, commitments need to be established before any action toward change is taken.
FOLLOW THROUGH
The commitment to green needs to continue throughout the life of the project. The green building process does not end when the project team hands the site over to the owner, facility manager, or tenant. Follow-through is needed at all stages to ensure that the strategies and technologies are maintained or adapted as necessary to remain effective. Additionally, ongoing training ensures knowledgeable operation and maintenance of these strategies and technologies, as well as an opportunity to provide feedback on the challenges faced and lessons learned.
Look Beyond First Costs to Long Term Savings
This new process doesn't typically cost more, but it does shift costs earlier. Increased efficiency and savings come later.
USGBC
U.S. Green Building Council
That example illustrates four important points.
When systems thinking is applied to sustainable design, it is often necessary to consider information beyond cost. A wide range of tools can help teams evaluate components of a system, including modeling, life-cycle analysis, and life-cycle cost analysis, as well as inventorying. These tools and technologies will be discussed in Section 4. • Even if the system is evaluated using a complex computer model, the best solution may depend on the team's goals, metrics, and targets, as well as their resources. The alternatives must be analyzed and evaluated against the goals. • Although alternatives are often viewed as an either-or choice, there may be more than two options. In the waste hauler example, the question is about more than which hauler to select. When deciding between two alternatives, the project team must ask whether there is a third option (or a fourth or a fifth ...). The question can spark the creativity needed to find new solutions that lead to sustainability. • Sometimes other variables, besides goals, targets, and costs, may make certain solutions inappropriate for the site. Sustainable design means finding not only the measures that perform best in a model but also the solutions that will perform best over the life of the project.
Value engineering
a formal review based on the project's intended function and conducted to identify alternatives that reduce costs and improve performance, is a critical part of the sustainable design process.
integrated pest management (IPM),
a sustainable approach that controls pest infestation and damage in an economical way while minimizing hazards to people, property, and the environment.
high-level goal needs
accompanied by metrics, things that can be measured, and targets, levels
Brownfield sites, in particular, can
actually improve environmental performance
construction activity pollution prevention plan
addresses measures to prevent erosion, sedimentation, and discharges of potential pollutants to water bodies and wetlands.
waste management plan
addresses the sorting, collection, and disposal of waste generated during construction or renovation. It must address management of landfill waste as well as recyclable materials.
Climate change
another positive feedback loop
low-impact development (LID) and Green Infrastructure (GI)
approaches to land management that mimic natural systems and manage rainwater as close to the source as possible.22 Common strategies include minimizing impervious surfaces, protecting soils, and enhancing native vegetation
STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS
are held with neighbors, community members, and others with a vested interest in the project. They enhance a project team's interaction with and understanding of community issues, concerns, and ideas.
POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOPS
are self-reinforcing: the stimulus causes an effect, and the effect produces even more of that same effect
Feedback loops
are the information flows within a system that allow that system to organize itself.
Ideally, evaluation of bids is based on
best low bid rather than the lowest bid
Green building is fundamentally
best practices" become tomorrow's standard practices
TEAM MEETINGS
can allow the group to work together creatively on new synergies.
Geographical information systems (GIS)
can help illustrate how different elements intersect and overlap.
solar reflectance (SR) or solar reflectivity index (SRI)
combines reflectivity with emissivity, or the ability of a material to emit energy through radiation. The use of reflective materials and those with high SRI values reduces heat gain, thus increasing comfort and reducing demand for air-conditioning. Materials that help reduce the heat island effect include open grid paving, white roofs, and vegetated "green" roofs.
carbon neutrality
emitting no more carbon emissions than they can either sequester or offset
Green Building
encompasses planning, design, construction, operations, and ultimately end-of-life recycling or renewal of structures
On-going measurement and verification
essential to identifying opportunities for improvement.
Building commissioning
helps project teams ensure that systems are designed efficiently, are installed appropriately, and operate as intended.
The team process favors a design-build or integrative project delivery (IPD) contracting process rather than traditional design-bid-build
in which the contractors are brought in after many elements of the project have been determined. Design-build and IPD enable team members to participate from the early project stages, including goal setting and initial brainstorming.
Green Buildings By
increase in workers' and students' productivity
open systems
into which materials and resources are constantly brought in from the outside, used in some way, and then released outside the system in some form of waste. For example, in most urban American communities, water, food, energy, and materials are imported into the city from sources outside the municipal boundaries
Retrocommissioning
is a tune-up that identifies inefficiencies and restores high levels of performance.
A system
is an assemblage of elements or parts that interact in a series of relationships to form a complex whole that serves particular functions or purposes
Adaptive Reuse
is the practice of redesigning and using a structure for a use that is significantly different from the building's original use. Buildings can also be designed to prevent future obsolescence; for example, a flexible floor plan can accommodate offices today and apartments tomorrow.
Commissioning
is the process of verifying and documenting that a building and all its systems and assemblies are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained to meet the owner's project requirements.
Location is a critical element of green building
it can define appropriate strategies, yet it can also limit how green a project can actually be
LCC
life-cycle costing
life-cycle approach
looking at all stages of a project, product, or service
life-cycle approach
looking at the entire life of a project, product, or service, rather than a single snapshot of a system.
Sites without access to public transportation start at a disadvantage
may require additional attention to transportation, particularly local land use design and alternative fuels.
Regenerative
meaning that these sustainable environments evolve with living systems and contribute to the long-term renewal of resources and life.
designing a new waste management-first collect all the relevant information about the two waste haulers
might find that one costs less but that the other has a higher recycling diversion rate
United States uses how much water a day?
more than 400 billion gallons of water per day -including landscaping, accounts for approximately 47 billion gallons per day—12% of total water use.
The term stakeholder encompasses
more than just decision makers and includes those who must live with the decisions and those who must carry them out.
Maintenance of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems is essential
needs to be included in regular operations budgets
Davis Langdon found in a study
no significant difference between the average cost of a LEED-certified building and other new construction in the same category
Impervious surfaces, such as asphalt and concrete, prevent
percolation and infiltration and encourage water runoff, causing soil erosion and in some places sedimentation of local waterways.
Site lighting can
provide adequate nighttime illumination while preserving the integrity of the night sky
SMALL TASK GROUPS
provide opportunities to explore particular topics, conduct research, and refine the ideas for presentation at a later team meeting. They are generally composed of existing team members but may require outside experts
Pervious paving areas allow
rainwater infiltration and also reduce heat island effects.
Triple Bottom Line
recognition of the need for organizations to improve the state of people, the planet, and profit simultaneously if they are to achieve sustainable, long-term growth.
Built Environment
refers to any environment that is man-made and provides a structure for human activity.
integrative process
results that are based on whole systems across their entire life-cycle
Strategies for designing and maintaining a sustainable site can include
selecting native and adapted species that thrive without irrigation, pesticides, or fertilizers
If inexperienced people are on the team?
some training and orientation to the process will be necessary.
indoor environmental quality management plan
spells out strategies to protect the quality of indoor air for workers and occupants; it includes isolating work areas to prevent contamination of occupied spaces, timing construction activities to minimize exposure to off-gassing, protecting the HVAC system from dust, selecting materials with minimal levels of toxicity, and thoroughly ventilating the building before occupancy.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development found that respondents believed
that green features added 17% to the cost of a building, whereas a study of 146 green buildings found an actual average marginal cost of less than 2%
Rainwater management can also include
the collection and reuse of water for nonpotable purposes, such as landscape irrigation, toilet and urinal flushing, and custodial uses
linear design process
the solutions to one problem may cause other problems elsewhere in the system.
Goals should reflect
the spatial scales and time horizons that the project can affect, assuming a realistic rate of change.
The built environment accounts for more then __________ __ of all greenhouse gas emissions
two-thirds
Infill development makes
use of sites in previously developed areas, often filling spaces between existing structures.
Externalities
used by economists to describe costs or benefits incurred by parties who are not part of a transaction. For example, the purchase price of a car does not account for the wear and tear it will have on public roads or the pollution it will put into the environment.
net-zero
using no more resources than they can produce
Passive Design
using the positioning of your house and natural resources such as the sun and wind to control light, heat and air ventilation
Indoor water use encompasses
water for urinals, toilets, showers, kitchen or break room sinks, and other applications typical of occupied buildings
Community layout and planning influence occupants' and residents' behavior while setting a standard for future development
where culs-de-sac connect to increasingly wide connector roads, services are clustered into strip malls, and jobs are centered in office parks, the emphasis is on the private realm and the automobile. On the other hand, in communities with well-connected street grids, diverse land uses, and buildings facing wide sidewalks, the emphasis is on pedestrians and the public realm
U.S. General Services Administration surveyed 12 green buildings in its portfolio and found these savings and improvements
• 26% less energy usage • 27% higher levels of occupant satisfaction • 13% lower maintenance costs • 33% lower emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)
Iterative process
• Establish clear goals and overarching commitments • Brainstorm and develop creative solutions • Research and refine ideas • Explore synergies between specific strategies • Establish metrics for measuring success • Set new goals based on the work that has been done
Location includes these factors
• NATURAL CONTEXT Climate, sun, wind, orientation, soils, precipitation, local flora and fauna. • INFRASTRUCTURAL CONTEXT Available resources, materials, skills, and connections to utilities, roads and transit. • SOCIAL CONTEXT Connections to the community and other destinations, local priorities, cultural history and traditions, local regulations and incentives.
