The Global Transition to Green Building
Should the implementation of “green building” principles be applied to construction/design industries on a national or global scale?
Climate change has been one of the biggest concerns of Gen Z who wonder what will become of this Earth in the very near future. Most of the time efforts towards sustainability focus on fast fashion and big-name brand businesses that everyone knows use unethical methods. However, one industry that does not get enough attention for its detriment to the environment is the building industry.
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.
Currently, there is little incentive or motivation for countries to partake in making this shift to green building. There are many building codes that have already been created that combat the issues of sustainability in building design and functionality. 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. Many places have no reason to join and likely find it difficult to change their systems. 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. There are already many complaints that LEED, one rating system for buildings that determine the sustainability levels (2), does not make enough of a difference for how expensive and difficult it is to implement.
What about thinking more locally? 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. However, what about the places that are really struggling? Places that have rapidly growing populations take shortcuts on sustainability to produce buildings and housing at a much faster rate. 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 at the same rate, but with better resources, less harmful processes, and function with a lesser negative impact overall.
To fully transition to 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. Due to LEED’s inefficacy, 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 number 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. In regards to actually driving countries, using a global environmental council and incentives such as monetary support for research and continued effort will work because there are benefits for all countries involved. Smaller countries who have difficulty producing their own resources can work with larger countries to gain some of them. Additionally, countries that are already or reaching net zero carbon usage in their buildings can share these strategies with other countries that are struggling. Creating this exchange of resources and information will help all these countries grow socially and economically, elevating standards of living and buildings worldwide. Countries will participate because they want to be part of the future of a greener building world.
Now that we have all these policies and systems in place, 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 (3). 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.“ (4) 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.
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:
- “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.
- “LEED Rating System.” LEED Rating System | U.S. Green Building Council, https://www.usgbc.org/leed.
- 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.
- “The Benefits of Green Buildings.” World Green Building Council, https://www.worldgbc.org/benefits-green-buildings.
