Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources — energy, water, and materials — while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building's lifecycle, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal.
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 environmental degradation.
A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally. Other commonly used terms include sustainable design and green architecture.
The related concepts of sustainable development and sustainability are integral to green building. Effective green building can lead to 1) reduced operating costs by increasing productivity and using less energy and water, 2) improved public and occupant health due to improved indoor air quality, and 3) reduced environmental impacts by, for example, lessening storm water runoff and the heat island effect. Practitioners of green building often seek to achieve not only ecological but aesthetic harmony between a structure and its surrounding natural and built environment, although the appearance and style of sustainable buildings is not necessarily distinguishable from their less sustainable counterparts.
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 environmental degradation.
A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally. Other commonly used terms include sustainable design and green architecture.
The related concepts of sustainable development and sustainability are integral to green building. Effective green building can lead to 1) reduced operating costs by increasing productivity and using less energy and water, 2) improved public and occupant health due to improved indoor air quality, and 3) reduced environmental impacts by, for example, lessening storm water runoff and the heat island effect. Practitioners of green building often seek to achieve not only ecological but aesthetic harmony between a structure and its surrounding natural and built environment, although the appearance and style of sustainable buildings is not necessarily distinguishable from their less sustainable counterparts.
External links
Common Fire - Overview of Green Building (a companion site to one of the certified greenest buildings in the US)
Green building at the Open Directory Project
NEF — the National Energy Foundation
WBCSD Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) project
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Building Website
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Building Blog
U.S. Green Building Council
Sustainable Building Alliance
Green Building - a short introduction
American Institute of Architects Top Ten Green Projects
Code for Sustainable Homes (via the UK Government's Planning Portal)
Proceedings From Water and Cities, Simon Fraser University
Common Fire - Overview of Green Building (a companion site to one of the certified greenest buildings in the US)
Green building at the Open Directory Project
NEF — the National Energy Foundation
WBCSD Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) project
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Building Website
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Building Blog
U.S. Green Building Council
Sustainable Building Alliance
Green Building - a short introduction
American Institute of Architects Top Ten Green Projects
Code for Sustainable Homes (via the UK Government's Planning Portal)
Proceedings From Water and Cities, Simon Fraser University
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