Green Building

Should the implementation of “green building” principles be applied to construction/design industries on a national or global scale?

Although some say that transitioning to “green building” through national building codes is advantageous due to the varying regulations based on their region, there is no incentive to encourage countries to enforce any new policies. Instead, implementing “green building” principles through an international building code can encourage collaboration and productive competition between countries which will significantly reduce the negative impact of the building industry on the environment.

The process of green building is not new. In fact, in the United States, the first research of green building was around the 1970s due to oil price increases, alongside the environmental movement, which inspired designers to think about energy-efficient solutions (1). A green building is one that uses sustainable materials and has been built in a way that reduces the environmental impact of processes involving water, energy, and waste. I like to think of it as transitioning a building into an environmentally friendly lifestyle. It isn’t a drastic change, but making an effort to be more environmentally friendly can make a significant positive difference in climate change. Unlike the green lifestyle though, the process of creating a green building requires many people who are on the same page and looking towards creating each building with the goal of making it sustainable throughout.

To fully implement this idea of green building, it is necessary to start with a universal building code with policies that will not affect the necessary requirements of the building depending on its location. One such building code that can qualify is LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED is a rating system that determines the sustainability level of a building (2). This system is just one that is currently used worldwide and allows companies to review the effectiveness of their buildings in being more sustainable with how they are made and when in use. Although the number of projects that implement policies like these is growing, it begs the question, why doesn’t every project intentionally use these policies along the way? Shouldn’t it be something basic or as common as using push bars on exit doors in case of an emergency? The main reason for lack of use is that there is no incentive for companies to start using any of these policies beyond their own personal goal of wanting to become a more sustainable company and feeling better about “saving the earth”. It should be a selling point to say that they value the environment and their consumers have a better experience because of what these standards provide. Essentially, the codes and policies we need for green building worldwide are there, but the issue now is how do we make this something mandatory and second-nature, not something optional for the greater good.

This is where it becomes more difficult for many situations to improve regarding sustainability. At what point can you encourage people to be more eco-friendly, until you have to use some sort of force? The best way for this is some friendly competition and drive among countries themselves. Examples of this method include the Space Race, where the U.S. and Soviet Union competed to see who had the better technology to send their citizens into space. Using fines and suspending companies who ignore these policies is one way; however, just like people ignore fines for jaywalking and littering, it’s hard to truly enforce these on a large scale. Starting at the global level, making it an initiative among all countries to tackle the building industry’s lack of sustainability will instill a certain drive and hunger to produce top research and solutions beyond just LEED. Already there are many complaints that LEED does not make enough of a difference for how expensive and difficult it is to implement. To combat this, other organizations and groups have created alternatives including Living Building Challenge, PassivHaus, NAHBGreen, and Green Globes that are easier for companies to implement, while creating an even greater reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases produced. By applying any of these policies on a global scale, there is bound to be a significant difference in the impact of these buildings on the world.

Now that we have all these policies, what are the actual environmental benefits of creating green buildings? A study conducted at UC Berkeley in 2014 discovered that buildings that follow LEED standards showed they made a significant reduction in the amount of waste they produced (4). In 2016, the UN Environment Program or UNEP claimed that through these changes of becoming more sustainable or green in the building industry, 50% or more energy savings can be achieved by 2050, while also “limiting global temperature rises to 2°C.“ (5) These are just two of the numerous objective ways that green building can be beneficial to the environment. Benefits can be applied to many other areas since these buildings affect the people on an economic and social level. There is an improved atmosphere in these buildings due to the ventilation, leading to better air quality, which causes improvements in work performance. Even the concept of having an energy-efficient building can instill a sense of responsibility and civic duty in the users to carry on these morals into other aspects of their lives. Imagine what difference it would make if there is a consistent worldwide effort to use an effective policy and any additional design efforts on every construction project.

What about thinking more locally? LEED was created by the United States and may not be as friendly to other countries with the requirement they ask for. Technology varies significantly from place to place, so why can’t green building codes do the same. Many might say that since every place has specific building codes, it should be catered to the region how energy efficient it will be. Some places that are already off the grid or being energy efficient might not even have the need for such codes in the first place, and doing so would only become a hassle for the designers and construction workers. However, what about the places that are really struggling? Places that have rapidly growing populations that need to deliver houses quickly and efficiently so they take shortcuts on the energy side in order to create livable and functioning houses on the fast side. What will happen once these families outgrow these quick building solutions. Other families may replace them but the harmful consequences are already there. The increasingly wasteful amount of energy, the increasingly deteriorating building that cannot be fixed due to lacking nonrenewable resources This is why green building technology needs to be researched rapidly and efficiently. By creating better building solutions, these buildings can continue to be produced quickly and efficiently, but with better resources, less harmful processes, and function with less of a negative impact on users and the environment. Implementing policies to create these on a global scale can allow countries to assist one another in providing the proper resources, technology, and knowledge to improve sustainability together. Without a large effort, the previous benefits that have been researched cannot be fully realized and we will continue to create buildings that speed up the deterioration of our earth.

Implementing green buildings goes beyond just making buildings that are sustainable with materials. It is the people that design, that construct, that fund, that inhabits these spaces that emulate sustainability through their goals and actions.

Resources:

1. “Green Building.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, https://archive.epa.gov/greenbuilding/web/html/about.html#:~:text=Green%20Building%20History%20in%20the%20U.S.,-Some%20practices%2C%20such&text=The%20oil%20price%20increases%20of,experiments%20with%20contemporary%20green%20building.
2. “LEED Rating System.” LEED Rating System | U.S. Green Building Council, https://www.usgbc.org/leed.
3. Leon, Erwin de, and Joseph Schilling. “RESEARCH REPORT: Urban Blight and Public Health.” Urban Institute, 11 Apr. 2017, https://www.urban.org/research/publication/urban-blight-and-public-health/view/full_report.
4. Mozingo, Louise, and Ed Arens. “Quantifying the Comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Co-Benefits of Green Buildings.” Quantifying the Comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Co-­Benefits of Green Buildings, 10 Feb. 2015, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/935461rm.
5. “The Benefits of Green Buildings.” World Green Building Council, https://www.worldgbc.org/benefits-green-buildings.