Green Building Importance and Sustainability

What is Green Building?

• “Green” Buildings are high performance structures that also meet certain standards for reducing natural resource consumption.
•Basically green building refers to a structure and the processes involved in that structure that are environmentally responsible and resource efficient throughout building’s life cycle : from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition.
•Green building design involves finding the balance between homebuilding and the sustainable environment.

Objective

The common objective is that 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

Why switch to Green Buildings?

•While the planet heats up, policymakers should embrace one of the cheapest ways of cutting the air pollution: by making buildings more efficient.
•Buildings account for about one-third of global energy use. Transportation, mostly cars, accounts for roughly another one-third. Factories and mines make up the rest.
•Greener buildings are particularly important for Asia.
•Asia's share of global energy consumption has doubled in the past 30 years, and its buildings' share of energy use is growing at similar rates, with China and India alone constructing more than half of all the world's new floor space.

Conventional vs Green

•Site selected may meddle with environment.
•Different building materials of different natures are used.
•Wastage of construction materials is more during construction.
•Site interferes least with existing ecosystem. Native plants do grow in and around the building with less interference.
•Locally available , eco-friendly and recyclable materials are used.
•Less or no wastage.

Water Conservation

•Design for dual plumbing to use recycled water or a Grey water system can be used.
•Minimize the wastewater by using Ultra-low flush toilets ,low flow shower heads.
•Use recirculating systems for centralized hot water distribution.
•Install point-of-use hot water heating systems for more distant locations.
•Use state-of-the-art irrigation controllers and self-closing nozzles.

Nothing stands in the way of change except the unwillingness to change old patterns. Everyone in the building and construction industry needs to be more creative.