ACE TECHZION 2K15

Implementation and explanation of the Green Building concepts

PRESENTED BY
Y.SAI KRISHNA
138P1A0137

Towards the implementation and explanation of the Green
Building concept
Y.SAI KRISHNA
(1256sai@gmail.com)
Abstract: The “Green Building” is an interdisciplinary theme, where the green building concept includes a multitude of elements, components and procedures which diverge to several subtopics that intertwined to form the green building concept.
Generally, the green building is considered to be an environmental component, as the green building materials are manufactured from local eco-sources, i.e. environmentally friendly materials, which are then used to make an eco-construction subject to an eco-design that provides a healthy habitat built on the cultural and architectural heritage in construction while ensuring conservation of natural resources.

This ensures disassembling the building components and materials, after a determined

building lifetime, to environmentally friendly materials that can be either re-used or recycled.

During their lifecycle, the green

buildings minimize the use of resources (energy and water); reduce the harmful impact on the ecology, and provide better indoor environment.

Green buildings afford a high level of environmental, economic, and engineering performance.

These include energy efficiency and conservation, improved indoor air quality, resource and material efficiency, and occupant's health and productivity.

This study focuses on defining green buildings and elaborating their interaction with the environment,

energy, and indoor air quality and ventilation.

Furthermore, the present study investigates the green building materials (e.g.

biocement, eco-cement and green concrete), green designs, green roofs, and green technologies.

Additionally, the present

study highlights the green buildings rating systems, the economics of green buildings, and the challenges that face the implementation. Eventually, the interdependency between the green buildings and agriculture has been discussed.
Keywords: green building, agricultural buildings, biocement, eco-cement, green concrete, green roofs, low-energy building, zero-carbon building, eco-construction

embodied energy efficiencies, and minimize energy and

1 Introduction

wastes (Kwok et al., 2011).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Green building practices

can play a key role in achieving sustainability in the

(IPCC) claimed that greenhouse gases generate impact

construction industry (Chatterjee, 2009).

large enough to change global climate.

over the last two decades the construction industry has

Some industries

Therefore,

are beginning to reduce carbon emissions from their

made efforts to develop green building practices (Gluch,

designs and manufacturing processes in order to comply

2006).

with IPCC recommendations around the world.

lifecycle effects, and building performance.

construction

industry

environmental industries. impacts

generates among the all The greatest the

other

Green building designs and standards are

developed to improve building operation energy and

Green buildings are about resource efficiency,
Smart

buildings, whose core is integrated building technology systems, are

about

construction

and

operational

efficiencies and enhanced management and occupant functions. There are several commonalities between

integrating

building's

technology

systems

and

constructing a sustainable or “green” building (Sinopoli,
2008).

Many factors are promoting the rapid development of

resource and material efficiency, and occupant's health

green buildings, including the increasingly serious

and productivity.

environmental problems, the constant improvement of

“sustainable building” or “green building” as an outcome

demands on architectural environment’s quality, the

of a design which focuses on increasing the efficiency of

introduction and development of a variety of green

resource use - energy, water, and materials - while

building technologies, the successive implementation of

reducing building impacts on human health and the

accompanying “green building evaluation criteria” and

environment during the building’s lifecycle, through

other relevant policies and regulations.

better

All is well

Kamana and Escultura (2011) defined

location,

design,

construction,

operation,

known, green building’s design is the premise and

maintenance, and removal.

Pan et al. (2011) added that

necessary conditions of green building development,

a green building is an outcome of a design philosophy

which is itself a concept of sustainable development, and

which focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource

it emphasizes the adaptation to local conditions, times

use.

and issues (Zhang et al., 2011).

buildings, often defined as those featuring natural

Deuble and de Dear (2012) stated that green

Unfortunately, the implementation of green building

ventilation capabilities, i.e. low-energy or free-running

concept in agricultural buildings (e.g. livestock barns,

buildings, are now at the forefront of building research

greenhouses, forage storages,etc.) are still limited.

and climate change mitigation scenarios.

Some studies implemented similar approaches to that

presents a comparison between “green buildings” and

adopted by green buildings, but they neither fully

“non-green buildings” or “traditional buildings”.

addressed the concept of green buildings nor achieved its core. Table 1

Comparison between “green buildings” and

Therefore, this study aims at introducing the green

“non-green buildings”

buildings -into agriculture- and their properties as well as

Building Type

the different environmental, economic, and engineering

Energy Consumption

aspects.

Indoor Environment Quality

Eventually,

this study discusses the

Green Buildings

Non-Green Buildings

Low

High

Very Good

Good

agriculture.

Definition of green building

Low

High

Waste Management

Highly Efficient

Efficient

Building Materials

possibilities of coupling both green building and

2

Table 1

Emissions

Environmentally
Friendly

Not Environmentally
Friendly

Project Practices

Sophisticated

Normal

>5% than Threshold

Feasibility

Threshold

The terms ‘sustainable architecture’, ‘green building’ and ‘ecological design’ have emerged, along with a host of similar

permutations,

in

recent

practice

as

There is deference between “green building” and
“eco-construction”,

where

the

concept

of

environmentally friendly modes of design, construction

eco-construction is a part of the whole concept of green

and operation geared towards producing healthy enduring

building.

communities.

development and use of natural resources in local

However, the terms are still vague and

The charter of the network for the

lead to much ambiguity in their implementation

construction

(Zachariah et al., 2002).

Eco-construction and Sustainable Development defined

Chatterjee

(2009)

defined

the

“green

building

of

the

Mediterranean

Cluster

on

the “eco-construction” as a holistic and integrated

and

approach that aims to support access to a healthy habitat,

infrastructure in such a way that minimize the use of

primarily in rural areas, while ensuring conservation of

resources, reduce harmful effects on the ecology, and

natural resources and to build on the cultural and

create better environments for occupants.

architectural

practice”

as

a

process

to

create

buildings

Green

heritage

in

construction.

The

buildings exhibit a high level of environmental, economic,

eco-innovation in construction leads to the marketing of

and engineering performance.

products, providing services and innovative solutions

These include energy

efficiency and conservation, improved indoor air quality,

which include bioclimatic architecture, and enhancing use

of local natural resource and highlight the skills of man

of building impacts on the ecological capacity of a site, a

and enterprise.

common language between architectural and ecological

3

disciplines can be found as well as useful analyses for

Green building and environment

establishing sustainability parameters can be generated.

“Sustainable Development” is a necessary condition

This method offers the additional benefit of generating

for continuation of the earth; “Healthy and Comfortable”

environmental design criteria that can reduce the

is a necessary condition for the continuation of life.

environmental impacts of construction.

Additionally, we are facing serious energy and natural

ecosystems services criteria is a simple and effective

resource shortage, where global climate change is the

method for objectively assessing the ecological impacts

problem cannot be ignored (Hsieh et al., 2011).

of a building.

Green

The use of

The overall size of the impact is

building concept has been adopted by many nations as the

measurable, as well as the ecological efficiency of the

best way forward in preserving our resources and

building (Olgyay and Herdt, 2004).

sustaining our environment (Al-Kaabi et al., 2009).

The changing environmental effects have an impact

This is about how to minimize environmental degradation

on building behavior and performance.

caused by building practices and to learn how to deliver

affected are energy use and emissions, inefficiency and

Planet Earth to the next generation so that it will be a

malfunction caused by systems confronted with a shift in

cleaner and more energizing place than the planet we

operation

inherited (Kamana and Escultura, 2011).

overloading.

conditions,

and

problems

Typical areas

caused

by

Furthermore the environmental effects

Building sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas

might cause issues, like failures in the electrical grid,

emissions around the globe (Wu and Low, 2010), e.g. the

which can cause problems for buildings that in

energy used for heating the building, lighting, operating

themselves are functioning properly (Editorial, 2012).

devices etc.

Therefore, being green or sustainable is one

The impact of climate change on buildings is deeply

pressing issue coming from both internal and external

intertwined with consequences for the building occupants

drivers

and key processes that take place in those buildings.

for

construction

and

engineering

As

companies. Accordingly, green building has experienced

buildings have different functions, climate change impact

rapid growth in the past several years (Wu and Low,

assessment studies must be tailored towards the specific

2010).

needs and requirements at hand.

Environmental indicators for buildings have the

potential

to

serve

environmental

as a

impacts

means

(and

of

possibly

buildings visible to all relevant factors.

making

the

exist for instance between the comfort as experienced by

benefits)

of

occupants, control settings in the building, and energy

In addition,

consumption of heating and cooling systems (Nicol and

indicators facilitate the consideration and management of an array of environmental issues in the relevant decision-making situations.

Complex interactions

The broad acceptance of

Humphreys, 2002).
For the building sector, numerous energy-efficiency market changes and benchmarking resolutions, like the

indicators across different groups of decision-makers in

mandatory

different phases of a building’s life cycle is especially

(NET-ZEB’s) 2018 and 2020 regulations” for all new

important when indicators are not mandatory, but are to

buildings are now set up to help minimizing carbon

be used in voluntary bottom-up initiatives (Dammann and

emissions and reverse the negative impact (Spiegelhalter,

Elle, 2006).

2012).

Assessing the environmental impacts of

buildings is inherently an interdisciplinary issue. concept of

ecological

capacity

extends

into

E.U. “nearly

Net-Zero-Energy-Building

In order to accommodate the global climate

The

change, the idea of constructing zero-carbon green

an

buildings has become the main stream and highest

architectural context, and is developed as a time and area

standard in building design in many countries.

dependent

of

energy consumption in the buildings can be reduced up to

environmental building design. By basing the measure

70% by using three major design strategies: selection of a

tool

to

evaluate

the

effectiveness

The

low air conditioning load location, using high energy

generate a variety of emissions and waste.

efficient appliances, and application of energy conserving

to overcome these problems will be to build them green

habits.

and smart.

Followed by renewable energy evaluation, it is

The solution

One of the significant components in the

possible to put zero-carbon green building into practice

concept of smart green buildings is using renewable

(Chang et al., 2011b).

energy.

Xing et al. (2011) stated that buildings account for

Solar energy and wind energy are intermittent

sources of energy, so these sources have to be combined

almost half of energy consumptions in European

with other sources of energy or storage devices.

countries and energy demand in building continues to

batteries and/or super capacitors are an ideal choice for

grow worldwide.

Fossil fuels are finite reserves.

short-term energy storage, regenerative hydrogen-oxygen

Impacts of peak oil will be perceived soon or later in the

fuel cells are a promising candidate for long-term energy

next decades.

storage.

The scale of the challenge in reducing

While

A green building energy system should consist

fossil fuel dependency in the built environment is vast

of renewable energy, energy storage and energy

and will require a dramatic increase in skills and

management, where the variety of energy source and

awareness

storage devices can be managed very well (Jiang

Building

amongst

the

refurbishment

construction towards professions.

zero-carbon

is

established itself as one critical aspect to decouple from

and Rahimi-Eichi, 2009).
4.1 Low-energy building

fossil fuels and tackle with future energy crisis.

The Kyoto protocol committed the developed

However, it is a very complex phenomenon cuts across

countries to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions at least

disciplines.

by 5% by 2008–2012 to tackle global warming and

Xing et al. (2011) categorized a range of

technologies for building refurbishment in a sequential

climate

manner.

They presented a hierarchical process with

governments to achieve this goal are to promote new

embedded

techniques

building constructions and to retrofit existing buildings

(insulations,

energy

efficient

change.

Some

of

the

measures

of

the

equipment and micro-generation) as a pathway towards

while satisfying low energy criteria.

This means

zero-carbon building refurbishment.

improving energy efficiency of buildings and energy

Terlizzese and Zanchini (2011) investigated two zero

systems, developing sustainable building concepts and

carbon plants, where the first is composed of air-to-water

promoting renewable energy sources. The design of a

heat pumps for space heating and cooling, PV solar

low energy building requires parametric studies via

collectors, air dehumidifiers, thermal solar collectors and

simulation tools to optimize the design of the building

wood pellet boiler; in the second, the air-to-water heat

envelope and HVAC systems. These studies are often

pumps were replaced by ground-coupled heat pumps.

complex and time consuming due to a large number of

The conventional plant was composed of a condensing

parameters to consider. Chlela et al. (2009) developed a

gas boiler, single-apartment air to air heat pumps, and

methodology that simplifies parametrical studies during

thermal solar collectors.

the design process of a low energy building.

The economic analysis showed

The

that both zero carbon plants are feasible, and that the

methodology is based on the Design of Experiments

air-to-air heat pumps yield a shorter payback time.

The

(DOE) method which is a statistical method widely used

exergy analysis confirmed the feasibility of both plants,

in industry to perform parametric studies that reduces the

and showed that the ground coupled heat pumps yield a

required number of experiments.

higher exergy saving.

stated that costs and benefits of building energy

Blackhurst et al. (2011)

efficiency are estimated as means of reducing greenhouse

4

Energy and green buildings
Green buildings are designed to save energy costs by

gas emissions.
Building designers are often limited in their ability to

Traditional buildings

reduce the environmental impact of buildings, due to a

consume more of the energy resources than necessary and

lack of information on the environmental performance of

reducing the energy consumption.

building components as well as inconsistencies in the way

framework for setting Net ZEB definitions. Evaluation of

in which this information is derived.

Whilst numerous

the criteria in the definition framework and selection of

tools exist to help facilitate the low-energy building

the related options becomes a methodology to set Net

design process, these typically require large investments

ZEB definitions in a systematic way.

of time and money that are often beyond those available

concept is central in the definition framework and two

within any particular project.

major types of balance were identified, namely the

(2011)

developed

a

Therefore, Crawford et al.

comprehensive

model

for

streamlining low-energy building design to reduce building life cycle energy consumption.

The balance

import/export balance and the load/generation balance.
The concept of Net ZEB encompasses two options of

Building

supplying renewable energy, which can offset energy use

assemblies are ranked based on an assessment of the life

of a building, in particular on-site or off-site renewable

cycle energy requirements associated with their use

energy supply.

within a building.

This facilitates early stage assessment,

more popular than the off-site; however, taking into

negating the need for a resolved design before the relative

consideration the limited area of roof and/or façade, the

energy requirements of alternate design solutions are

weather conditions, the growing interest and number of

known.

They presented a sensitivity analysis of

wind turbine co-ops, the off-site renewable energy supply

variations to the floor area, shape and orientation of the

options could become a meaningful solution for reaching

model, to test the reliability and applicability of the

‘zero’ energy goal in the general context. Marszal et al.

ranking approach across a broad range of circumstances.

(2012) have deployed the life cycle cost analysis and took

They found that these variations did not influence the

private economy perspective to investigate the life cycle

ranked order of the assemblies in terms of their life cycle

cost of different renewable energy supply options, and to

energy requirements.

Thus, the ranking of assemblies

identify the cost-optimal combination between energy

appears

an

efficiency and renewable energy generation.

to

provide

appropriate

approach

for

Currently, the on-site options are much

Their

streamlining the selection of construction elements during

analysis includes five technologies, i.e., two on-site

the building design process. Mahdavi and Doppelbauer

options: (1) photovoltaic, (2) micro combined heat and

(2010) compared the performance of passive buildings

power, and three off-site options: (1) off-site windmill, (2)

with the performance of low-energy buildings.

share of a windmill farm and (3) purchase of green

They

found that passive buildings use significantly less heating

energy from the 100% renewable utility grid.

energy and offer slightly better indoor conditions.

results indicated that in case of the on-site renewable

Thereby, the required additional expenditure of resources

supply options, the energy efficiency should be the first

and environmental impact (CO2 emissions) are offset in a

priority in order to design a cost-optimal Net ZEB.

rather short period.

Moreover, the required additional

However, the results are opposite for the off-site

construction cost does not appear to be either excessive or

renewable supply options, and thus it is more

prohibitive.

cost-effective to invest in renewable energy technologies

4.2 Net zero energy building

than in energy efficiency.

Sartori et al. (2012) stated that the term Net ZEB (Net
Zero Energy Building) indicates a building connected to the energy grids.

It is recognized that the sole

The

4.3 Passive Building
Building energy efficiency can be improved by implementing either active or passive energy efficient

satisfaction of an annual balance is not sufficient to fully

strategies.

characterize Net ZEBs and the interaction between

conditioning (HVAC) systems, electrical lighting, etc.

buildings and energy grids need to be addressed.

It is

can be categorized as active strategies, whereas,

also recognized that different definitions are possible, in

improvements to building envelope elements can be

accordance with a country’s political targets and specific

classified under passive strategies.

conditions.

is what separates the indoor and outdoor environments of

Additionally, they presented a consistent

Improvements to heating, ventilation and air

A building envelope

a building.

It is the key factor that determines the

productivity through improving indoor environment

quality and controls the indoor conditions irrespective of

quality

transient outdoor conditions.

Various components such

invariably pointed out that green buildings were not

as walls, fenestration, roof, foundation, thermal insulation,

always more comfortable and productive than non-green

thermal mass, external shading devices etc. make up this

buildings.

important part of any building (Sadineni et al., 2011).

three buildings (two green buildings and one non-green

Aksoy and Inalli (2006) added that passive design

building) aiming to examine the actual performance of

parameters include building shape and orientation.

green buildings from occupant point of view.

Badescu and Sicre (2003) stated that a passive house

green buildings marked a higher satisfaction on the health

description uses a three-temperature zone approach.

and

The structure and physical properties of both high and

examinations on IEQs showed some weaknesses in the

low thermal inertia components of building’s thermal

two green buildings.

envelope should be considered.

with the indoor air and temperature, the two green

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in environmental-friendly passive building energy efficiency strategies. solution

the

problems

of

energy

crisis

and

However,

post-occupancy

studies

They presented a comparison study between

productivity

perception.

However,

The two in-depth On the comfort and satisfaction

buildings performed better in summer but worse in winter. They are being envisioned as a viable to (IEQ).

Indoor

air

quality

(gaseous

concentrations,

temperature, humidity…etc.) and ventilation of green

environmental pollution (Sadineni et al., 2011).

buildings and airflow, controlling natural light (building

5

orientation; design, materials and area of windows) are

Indoor air quality and ventilation of green

very important for air quality and thermal comfort inside

buildings

green buildings.

Buildings and their related activities are responsible for a large portion of the consumed energy. therefore worthwhile

to

investigate

It is

methods

6

Construction of green buildings
Using

for

less

materials,

modular

design

for

A hybrid

deconstruction, long life structure, using recoverable

ventilation system which employs both natural and

materials are emerging concepts to reduce environmental

mechanical ventilation can be used for the buildings even

impacts and increase the resource and economic

in severe climates.

efficiency of buildings (Aye and Hes, 2012).

improving the energy efficiency of buildings.

On the other hand, natural

ventilation for the buildings is viable in the mid-seasons.

6.1

Green building materials

The hybrid ventilation system is a feasible, low energy

The green building movement emerged to mitigate

approach for building design, even in sub-tropical

these effects and to improve the building construction

climates (Ji et al., 2009).

process.

Khaleghi et al. (2011) concluded that, in general,

This paradigm shift should bring significant

environmental, economic, financial, and social benefits.

indoor

However, to realize such benefits, efforts are required not

air-quality, but noise is an issue if the system is not

only in the selection of appropriate technologies but also

properly designed.

in the choice of proper materials.

mechanical

ventilation

can

provide

better

The results suggest that the

Selecting

acceptability of environmental factors in buildings

inappropriate materials can be expensive, but more

depends on the degree of compliance of the design and its

importantly, it may preclude the achievement of the

implementation with standards and design guidelines (i.e.

desired environmental goals.

for ventilation, air quality, thermal comfort, etc.), whether

decision-makers with the selection of the right materials,

the original design concept is ‘green’ or non-‘green’.

a mixed integer optimization model that incorporates

In order to help

Gou et al. (2012) stated that green buildings can have

design and budget constraints while maximizing the

a more significant impact on their occupant health and

number of credits reached under the Leadership in Energy

and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system was

building materials are quite different.

proposed by Castro-Lacouture et al. (2009).

There are

organic matter in a given building material and its EMC

different criteria that are applied to select materials to be

are more important predictors of fungal susceptibility

used in green buildings.

than is the label of “green” or “non-green” (Hoang et al.,

These criteria include materials

made of recycled and recovered agro-industrial wastes

2010).

and materials that reduce the quantity used without

The presence of

green building materials.

adversely affecting the durability, it is also important that

Table 2

the used materials can be recycled.

Material

Life cycle

Table 2 presents the characteristics of some

Characteristics of some green building materials
Source

Recyclability Natural Cycle

Reference

assessment (LCA) and green building regulations also

Biocement

Organic

Recyclable

Included

Hosseini et al. (2011)

play a key role in evaluating building materials and

Eco-cement

Organic

Recyclable

Included

Yen et al. (2011)

maintaining sustainability in the industry (Chatterjee,

Green
Concrete

Organic
/Inorganic

Recyclable

Included with limitations Kevern (2010)

Reed Mats

Organic

Recyclable

Included

Samer et al. (2012a)

Straw Mats

Organic

Recyclable

Included

Samer et al. (2012a)

Steel Sections Inorganic

Recyclable

Not Included

Samer (2008)

Recyclable

Not Included

Hatem (1993)

2009).
Fulfilling the requirements of ecological, recycling, healthy, and high-performance attributes, the green building material may effectively reduce environmental impacts and improve the indoor environmental quality
(IEQ), so as to gradually achieve health and global sustainability. Green Building Material (GBM)

Glass

Inorganic

6.2 Biocement, eco-cement and green concrete
Hosseini et al. (2011) mentioned that the cement industry produces about 5% of the global anthropogenic

evaluation system incorporates low toxicity, minimal

carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

emissions,

resource

cement is forecast to grow by 4.7% annually, which will

efficiency, recyclable and reusable materials, energy

increase CO2 emissions. Damtoft et al. (2008) argued that

efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality (IAQ)

the cement and concrete industry should contribute

improvement, and use of locally products among others.

positively to the climate change initiative by:

low-VOC,

recycled

content,

Global demand for

The criteria are systematically comprised of four

1) Continuously reducing the CO2 emission from

categories, including Ecology, Health, High-Performance

cement production by increased use of bio-fuels and

and Recycling.

alternative raw materials as well as introducing modified

The GBM can typically contribute to a

sustainable environment.

Starting from energy saving

and resource efficiency by combining an ecological

low-energy clinker types and cements with reduced clinker content.

circulatory system, corresponding local environment,

2) Developing concrete compositions with the lowest

community civilization, as well as historic and regional

possible environmental impact by selecting the cement

features, the GBM creates a core concept of sustainable

type, the type and dosage of supplementary cementitious

built environment (Hsieh et al., 2011).

materials and the concrete quality to best suit the use in

While the market for “green” building materials has

question.

been expanding rapidly, the susceptibility of these

3) Exploiting the potential of concrete recycling.

materials to fungal growth is not well understood.

4) Exploiting the thermal mass of concrete to create

Increasing spore levels and the presence of external

energy-optimized solutions for heating and cooling

nutrients promote the growth of fungi on the surface of

residential and office buildings.

drywall, conventional ceiling tile, and gypsum wallboard.

One way to mitigate the CO2 generated during cement

A strong correlation exists between the equilibrium

manufacturing is to use biocement. Biocement is a blend

moisture content (EMC) of organic-based materials and

of bio-silica, produced from combustion of organic

the time until 50% of the total surface area of a material is

residues, with Portland cement.

covered by fungi (T50%).

energy intensive clinker, with its related carbon emission,

Fungal growth rates on the

top, back, and side surfaces of coated or composite green

Biocement requires less

to produce a good cementing agent.

Small scale

biocement production in tropical areas has shown that

partially

blending cement with bio-silica can have environmental,

hemicellulose.

economic and technical benefits.

It is also found that a

modulus of elasticity, the peak stress and the strength at

number of crops grown in temperate regions with high

first crack formation of cementitious materials, in

silicon concentration and calorific content have the

comparison to technical flax fibers. Cracks narrower than

potential to make biocement.

In addition, the

30 mm can be healed completely and crack widths

combustion process can be integrated into energy

between 30 mm and 150 mm can only be partly healed

production to simultaneously gain the energy and the

(Snoeck and De Belie, 2012).

bio-silica ash.

removes

the

alkali-sensitive

pectin

and

Cottonization of flax enhanced the

The switch grass, barley, oat and

Kevern (2010) mentioned that as green building

sunflower produce silicon-rich residues and could be

rating systems such as LEED™ become more popular,

good candidates to consider for both energy and

the use of recycled materials in construction is increasing.

biocement

Concrete can be produced with significant quantities of

production

(Hosseini

et

al.,

2011).

Biocement could be a new green building-material and

supplementary

energy-saving material.

aggregate materials.

Biocement is a mixture of

cementitious

materials

or

recycled

However, modifying concrete

enzymes or microbial biomass with inorganic chemicals,

mixture proportions for improved recycled content credits

which can be produced from cheap raw materials.

also impacts strength and long-term durability.

Supply of biocementing solution to the porous soil or

properly understanding the effects recycled materials

mixing of dry biocement with clayey soil initiates

have on concrete, greener concrete can be less desirable

biocementation of soil due to specific enzymatic activity.

from a lifecycle perspective from poor durability.

Different microorganisms and enzymes can be used for

Kevern (2010) investigated the impacts of different types

production of biocement (Jian et al., 2011).

and quantities of supplementary cementitious materials

Without

Yen et al. (2011) used marble sludge, sewage sludge,

and recycled concrete aggregate on strength development

drinking water treatment plant sludge, and basic oxygen

and concrete durability, specifically deicer scaling.

furnace sludge as replacements for limestone, sand, clay,

Improvements

and iron slag, respectively, as the raw materials for the

investigated using a novel soybean oil sealer.

production of cement in order to produce eco-cement.

concrete mixtures were also evaluated within the

They found that it is feasible to use marble sludge to

LEED™ recycled materials criteria for selection based on

replace up to 50% of the limestone and also that other

economy and total contribution value.

materials can serve as total replacements for the raw

6.3

to

deicer

scaling

resistance

were
The

Green roofs

materials typically used in the production of cement.

Green roofs are a passive cooling technique that stops

The major components of Portland cement were all found

incoming solar radiation from reaching the building

in eco-cement clinkers.

structure below.

The eco-cement was confirmed

Many studies have been conducted

to produce calcium hydroxide and calcium silicate

over the past 10 years to consider the potential building

hydrates

energy benefits of green roofs and shown that they can

during

the

hydration

process,

increasing

densification with the curing age.

offer benefits in winter heating reduction as well as

Flax stems are often considered waste material.

summer cooling.

Older buildings with poor existing

However, since flax fiber has superior mechanical

insulation are deemed to benefit most from a green roof

properties amongst natural fibers, it can be used as

as current building regulations require such high levels of

reinforcement in cementitious composites.

insulation that green roofs are seen to hardly affect annual

Durability of

flax, however, is endangered in alkaline environments by

building energy consumption.

the

existing buildings is found to have strong potential for

deterioration

hemicellulose.

of

alkali-sensitive

pectin

and

Cottonization of flax divides the

technical fiber into bundles of elementary fibers and

The case for retrofitting

green roof retrofit (Castleton et al., 2010).

Green roofs

have a positive effect on the energy performance of

buildings, providing a cooling effect in summer, along

ecological literature on prairie and grassland communities

with a more efficient harnessing of the solar radiation due

with specific reference to habitat templates from stressed

to the reflective properties found inside the foliage.

The

environmental conditions and examined analogs of

use of vegetation in the roof building improves not only

prairie-based vegetation on twenty-one existing green

thermal comfort conditions, but the energy performance

roofs.

of a building (Ouldboukhitine, 2011). Green roof could

grassland species will survive and thrive on green roofs,

directly weaken the heat effect and greenhouse gases (use

especially when irrigated as needed or given adequate

of CO2 in photosynthesis).

growing medium depth.

The temperature of roof

They found that many, but not all prairie and

inner surface is reduced, and indoor thermal comfort is

questions

effectively improved.

biodiversity and their interactions requiring more study.

The energy consumption in green

roof buildings is not too great, but accommodation quality is very satisfactory.

6.4

Green roof is one of

about

They raised several important

media,

irrigation,

temperature,

Green design strategies
Green Building helps to support a broader Sustainable

effectively technical measures of developing low-carbon

Development agenda.

If Sustainable Development goals

building (Cai et al., 2011).

are

reached,

In the summer, the

to

be

truly

it

can

be

argued

fluctuation amplitude of the roof slab temperature was

that buildings should consume no energy, water or

found to be reduced by 3℃ due to the green roof. The

materials, and should produce no emissions, noise or

roof passive cooling effect was three times more efficient

waste over their lifespan. While this is an interesting

with the green roof (Jaffal et al., 2012).

In the winter,

concept, it is likely that work towards more modest goals

the green roof reduced roof heat losses during cold days;

during the next 20 years has to be done. Even at a more

however, it increased these losses during sunny days.

realistic level, there is global interest in improving the

With a green roof, the summer indoor air temperature was

performance of buildings.

decreased by 2℃, and the annual energy demand was

the use of scarce resources and airborne emissions,

reduced by 6%.

Green roofs are thermally beneficial for

owners want to reduce operating costs, and developers

hot, temperate and cold climates, i.e. for all climates

are finding that customers are demanding higher quality

(Jaffal et al., 2012).

and performance (Larsson, 2004).

Governments want to reduce

Most water conservation and energy saving strategies

Simulation-based optimization can assist green

for buildings have higher initial capital investment than

building design by overcoming the drawbacks of

traditional ones.

Yet, the added benefits of these

trial-and-error with simulation alone. Wang et al. (2005)

“green” building strategies should outweigh the increase

developed an object-oriented framework that addresses

of initial capital cost at the end of the house lifetime.

many particular characteristics of green building design

Using green roof systems to cool houses gives rise to

optimization problems such as hierarchical variables and

uncertainties from local precipitation patterns and the

the coupling with simulation programs.

unstable market related costs and benefits (Chang et al.,

facilitates the reuse of code and can be easily adapted to

2011a).

solve other similar optimization problems.

The framework
Variable

Sutton et al. (2012) mentioned that native prairie

types supported include continuous variables, discrete

species have been both promoted and questioned in their

variables, and structured variables, which act as switches

ability to serve as vegetative covers for green roofs.

The

to control a number of sub-level variables. The

green roof environment with its exposure to intense sun

framework implements genetic algorithms to solve (1)

and wind and limited moisture restricts the capacity for a

unconstrained

large diversity of species.

optimization

The result has been, in many

cases, a standard; low-diversity mix of Sedum species often focused on ornament and minimizes the potential for wider environmental benefits.

They reviewed the

and

constrained

problems,

and

single
(2)

objective

unconstrained

multi-objective optimization problems.
The greatest ability to influence the building process is found in green design.

The five green design

strategies identified are design for materials, design for

influencing the decision making of selecting green

recycling, design for efficiency, design for energy, and

building designs by using 3 different processes including

design for adaptability.

benefit-cost analysis, multi-criteria decision-making, and

The work operates at the

interface of green building and sustainable building

Nash equilibrium game.

(Anderson and Silman, 2009).

The green buildings

the project owner and the consultant to assess the green

design includes four main factors: natural factor,

building cost and effectiveness of performance for

technical factor, social factor and economic factor.

The

different design alternatives during the early design stage.

realization of green building must take into account the

They considered a two-person nonzero sum game to

specific characteristics of the definite period of time and

model the interactions between both players with respect

the particular region, and must seek the strategies of

to their different utilities and different risk behaviors.

green building's localization that are very well suited for self-development. Those strategies are as follows: the

The proposed approach allows

Wu and Low (2010) stated that project management adopted in green building construction involves both the

adaptation to local environment; the use of local

practice and the process.

technology; the choice of local materials; the heritage of

represented through the project management body of

local culture.

In short, the development targets of green

knowledge- is currently the focus of green building

building are: focusing on tradition, keeping pace with the

construction, the importance of the process, such as

times, taking root in the local community and looking

managing people, organizational structure, building

forward to the future (Zhang et al., 2011).

commissioning, performance documentation, and so on,

High-performance green buildings require close

Although the practice -mainly

cannot be neglected, as can be seen from the evolution of

integration of building systems with a special focus on

the green rating systems.

energy, day-lighting, and material analysis during their

construction and engineering companies take project

design processes.

Design process modeling and use of

management in terms of both the process and the practice

visualization tools can facilitate better communication

into consideration when fulfilling requirements of

and collaboration between team members; hence better

being green.

integration in the design process.

6.6 Training the staff

A process modeling

It is recommended that the

approach of key decisions, consultants, and virtual

As knowledge of the built environment’s impact on

prototypes of the building should be used during the

resource and energy use increases, industry leaders are

design development stages.

moving toward a healthier, more sustainable solution

Through the experience,

process modeling and visualization tools were found to be

by building green.

useful mechanisms to achieve high performance design

ability to improve occupant health and productivity, it is

goals and minimize design process waste (Korkmaz et al.,

not clear what impact the behaviors of building occupants

2010).

have on the building.

The processes and features included in green design

Though green buildings

have

the

New systems and technologies in

green buildings require building occupants to think and

and construction may have positive and/or negative

operate

impacts on construction worker safety and health

otherwise risking not fully gaining the benefits of the new

(Rajendran et al., 2009).

facility.

According to the methods of

differently in

their

new green environment,

The new behaviors necessary to the success of

reducing energy use in buildings and the latest experience

the green building are not necessarily obvious or trivial.

of building technology, the trends have shown that

They cannot simply be learned on-the-job; rather the

building design should largely use renewable and

transformation will require formal education.

recyclable materials (Sun et al., 2011).

requires changing attitudes and beliefs in addition to

6.5 Project management and decision-making

building a robust understanding of new procedures such

Pan et al. (2011) developed a conceptual model in simulating the risk behaviors of decision makers in

It likely

as changing the willingness of the staff to use new energy-efficient behaviors

not

followed

in

the

of green

emphasizing the importance of not neglecting the

building standards and the impact of energy saving

influence of on-going processes on the outcome of

behaviors are the information necessary to increase

construction projects.

conventional

building.

The

knowledge

willingness to change behaviors (Steinberg et al., 2009).
Occupant satisfaction levels on the post-occupancy

7 Integrated technologies with green buildings

with

Zhai et al. (2007 and 2008) designed and constructed

Occupants with higher levels of

a solar-powered integrated energy system including

environmental concern are more forgiving of their

heating, air-conditioning, natural ventilation and hot

building, particularly those featuring aspects of green

water supply.

design, such as natural ventilation through operable

collector arrays, two adsorption chillers, floor radiation

windows.

heating pipes, finned tube heat exchangers and a hot

evaluation

(POE)

are

environmental beliefs.

positively

associated

Despite their criticisms of the building’s

The system mainly contains 150 m2 solar

indoor environmental quality, the ‘green’ occupants are

water storage tank of 2.5 m3 in volume.

prepared

heating in winter, cooling in summer, natural ventilation

to

overlook

and

forgive

less-than-ideal

conditions more so than their ‘brown’ (non-green) counterparts. These results support the hypothesis that

pro-environmental attitudes are closely associated with the stronger ‘forgiveness factor’ often observed in green buildings, but the question of causality remains moot

Gluch (2006) stated that the project practices conflicts with the long-term principles of sustainable development and that environmental concerns have been narrowed down to a few targeted issues.

Moreover, organizational

structures and project practices of construction are mismatched with centrally controlled and generic environmental management practices. Additionally, the way environmental issues are dealt with in construction on 460 m2 green building area.

The whole system is

controlled by an industrial control computer and operates automatically. It is found that the average heating

capacity is up to 25.04 kW in winter, the average solar-enhanced natural ventilation air flow rate doubles in

6.7 Challenges and obstacles

depends

in spring and autumn, hot water supply in all the year for

refrigerating output reaches 15.31 kW in summer and the

(Deuble and de Dear, 2012).

projects

It is used for

their

legitimization

in

the

transitional seasons.

The experimental investigation

validated the practical effective operation of the adsorption cooling-based air-conditioning system.

They

showed that, for new buildings, solar collectors can be mounted on awnings besides roofs, on condition that solar systems become part of the general green building design. The solar-powered integrated energy system has

the advantage of high utilization ratio with different functions according to different seasons.

After 1 year

operation, it was confirmed that the solar system

organization and how well interpretive and socio-cultural

contributed 70% of the total energy used for the involved

communication processes has created meaning and

space.

understanding for practitioners in relation to their specific situation and context.

Ali and Al Nsairat (2009) developed a green building

The author added that there is a

assessment tool (SABA Green Building Rating System)

need to go beyond the prevalent normative and

which is a computer based program that considers

rationalistic

a

environmental, social and economical perspectives.

perspective that integrates technical and social aspects of

Tang and Fan (2010) mentioned that the application of

environmental management.

To achieve green building

intelligent technology in green buildings can really help

it is necessary to take into account that individuals when

to improve people’s living environment, the construction

acting take part in on-going processes of organizing and

of energy-saving society and the promotion of sustainable

social practice which influence the way they act.

development of construction industry.

technological

view

by shifting

to

Such a

change of perspective is metaphorically illustrated by shifting the product-centered Green Building to the process-centered Building

Green

and

thereby

8

Rating green buildings
Building assessment systems allow planners to

examine whether buildings and developments meet

perform for decades into the future.

sustainability goals.

Although many building

potential for changes in climate across the design lifetime

assessment systems appear at first to be quite similar,

of built environments represents an immediate challenge

they have substantial differences, and could produce

for planning, design, and construction.

significantly different results when used to implement

they considered the opportunities to assess Climate

green building programs.

Sensitivity and adaptive opportunities associated with

Among the important

Consequently, the

In their study,

differences are the scales at which they consider various

green building practice.

issues, whether or not they emphasize communication,

complementary indicators called the Climate Sensitivity

and how they prioritize and weigh concerns.

Index (CSI) and Climate Adaptation Opportunity Index

While

They developed a pair of

building assessment systems offer new tools to help

(CAOI).

communities meet sustainability goals, planners should

individual strategies (“credits”) within the LEED for New

consider the details of each system carefully before

Construction rating system.

deciding on which to use in their communities.

complementary scores for each strategy.

It would

These indicators were applied to evaluate
The indices provide two
The CSI

be very desirable for building assessment systems to

reflects potential sensitivity to changing conditions (i.e.,

become adaptable, so they will be more locally relevant

risks to performance outcomes), and the CAOI indicates

and appropriate (Retzlaff, 2008).

potential adaptive opportunities (i.e., plausible strategies

A number of green

building rating programs and sustainable standards are

to adapt to changing conditions).

playing a key role in the development and adoption of

indices to retrospectively examine the prevalence of

more sustainable buildings (Enright, 2008).

potentially sensitive and adaptive practices among a

The

US

Green

Building

Council’s

(USGBC)

They applied the

global set of 2440 LEED-certified projects.

Adaptive

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

opportunities were more prevalent than sensitivities in the

green building rating program serve as an indicator of

LEED-NC rating system.

sustainability and an instrument for environmental

illustrate how information can be derived by interpreting

management (Wedding and Crawford-Brown, 2008).

patterns of LEED credit achievement.

Sustainable, or “green” rating systems, such as LEED, are

be available within a suite of analytical tools in the Green

leading to changes in the way owners, designers, and

Building Information Gateway (www.gbig.org).

contractors approach the design, construction, and operation of buildings (Rajendran et al., 2009).

The CSI and CAOI indices
The indices will

The demand for developments that achieve green rating criteria continues to be strong despite the weakened

The most common approach for green building

economy.

Many municipalities throughout the U.S. are

certifications is to rate the compliance of each green

adopting green development ordinances or policies with

building standard through a point rating system.

various environmental goals, often with an emphasis on

No

green building system has yet correlated its rating to the

addressing global climate change.

level of "greenness" of buildings.

The level of

environmental advocates and state and federal storm

certification does not reflect corresponding reduction in

water regulators are increasingly emphasizing low impact

environmental impact and carbon emission.

One key

development (LID) design techniques to reduce long-term

issue is the framework to correlate green building

water quality impacts from new development and

standards with equivalent carbon emissions by, first,

significant

reviews the criteria of direct and indirect carbon emission

groundwater resources, and provide for rainwater capture

measurement, second, identifies the focal point of carbon

and reuse.

emission modeling, and finally, identifies the variables

opportunities for harnessing some of the momentum of

for carbon emission modeling of buildings (Kwok et al.,

the green building movement to further implementation

2011).

of LID strategies in new development and redevelopment

Pyke et al. (2012) stated that buildings represent

long-term, capital-intensive investments designed to

projects.

redevelopment

At the same time,

projects,

replenish

Prickett and Bicknell (2010) paper explored

They examined the extent to which LID

designs can earn green building credits under LEED

energy efficiency.

rating systems for new construction (LEED-NC) and

that built environment has a substantial impact on the

neighborhood development (LEED-ND).

economy, society, and the environment.

They featured

Tatari and Kucukvar (2011) stated
Along with the

the results of a comparison of green building criteria in

increasing environmental consideration of the building

LEED and alternative rating systems with LID techniques

impacts, the environmental assessment of buildings has

that may earn green development credits.

Gaps in credit

gained substantial importance in the construction industry.

availability for specific LID techniques are identified,

They built an artificial neural network model to predict

along with opportunities to further integrate the LID

cost premium of LEED certified green buildings based on

approach and green building initiatives.

LEED categories.

LEED is credited with inspiring innovation, driving

Sustainable Sites and Energy &

Atmosphere LEED categories were found to have the

demand for high performance buildings and communities,

highest sensitivity in cost premium prediction.

and changing the way that much of the building industry

developed a decision model that can guide owners to

approaches

estimate cost premiums based on sought LEED credits.

design,

construction,

and

operations.

They

LEED's recognition of ASHRAE Standards 90.1, 62, and

Green buildings have proven to promote public health

55, and standards set by the California Air Resources

and safety, and because of these benefits, a few states,

Board and the Sheet Metal and Air-Conditioning

and a few towns such as, Boston, and San Francisco have

Contractors' National Association, show its aim towards

mandated buildings to have LEED Silver Certification.

benchmarking against industry-accepted standards.

Such mandates will increase the growth of green

The

International Code Council (ICC) has launched the

buildings. The green wave is moving fast.

development

International Green Construction

about 5% of the buildings are green; this number is

Code (IGCC) in response to demands from stakeholder

increasing mainly due to long term energy savings, and

and communities.

the mandates by the cities, states, and the federal

of

the

Widespread adoption of IGCC and its

189.1 compliance path is expected to take the building sector forward with achievements and results that are responsive to the economic, environmental, and health

At this time,

government (Mohan and Loeffert, 2011).

9

Implemented research methodologies
A methodology is to consolidate the current foci of

challenges (Owens and Sigmon, 2010).
Helgeson and Lippiatt (2009) stated that the building

sustainable architecture through a review of several

justify

projects and institutional guidelines that are geared

This can be addressed by

towards achieving sustainability in the built environment,

developing tools for assessing the life cycle economic and

to make a contemporary checklist of desirable design

environmental performance of buildings.

Economic

strategies and building practices for a green building, and

performance is measured with the use of standard life

to rank the importance of these strategies (Zachariah et al.,

cycle costing methods.

2002).

industry

demands

compelling

sustainable building designs.

metrics

to

Environmental performance is

The research methods range from theoretical

measured by life cycle assessment (LCA) methods that

discussions

assess the “carbon footprint” of buildings, as well as 11

management

other

fuel

environmental management in the construction industry,

depletion, smog formation, water use, habitat alteration,

to text analytical studies of media's representation of

indoor air quality, and effects on human health. Carbon

green building and field studies on environmental

efficiency ratios and other eco-efficiency metrics are

management in construction projects (Gluch, 2006).

sustainability

metrics,

including

fossil

of

the

tools

usefulness and of

questionnaire

environmental study on

established to yield science-based measures of the

Retzlaff (2008) conducted a content analysis of the

relative worth, or “business cases” for green buildings.

system documentation for several building assessment

Generally, the assessment should focus on different

systems and interviewed the administrators of the systems.

heating, ventilation, air conditioning technology and

Al-Kaabi et al. (2009) outlined the roles of different

engineering disciplines by which an existing building

shown that green buildings save approximately 30%

could be transformed to green.

reduction in utility bills over conventional buildings.

Particularly, they

identified the roles of civil engineers in creating and

Besides

implementing a model by which the rating of a particular

buildings have the potential of lower insurance premiums,

building could be raised.

lower waste disposal charges, reduced water and sewer

The model focuses on

direct

savings

in

energy

costs, green

calculating the extra structural loads, and introducing

fees, and increased rental rates.

additional

designed to be environmentally healthy and energy

environmental

the building.

friendly

systems

within

The model is then applied to an existing

efficient.

Green buildings are

However, their initial costs can be 1 to 5%

building to study the applicability of the suggested model

higher than the conventional buildings.

and the degree to which it could raise the rating of the

initial costs are recouped in energy savings over a few

selected building.

years, and as the number of green buildings increases, the

Two alternatives have been

implemented through the design of two green buildings’ components for an existing building, which are a green

cost of green materials and green design will decrease, thus the initial cost of green buildings will decrease.
Chau et al. (2010) mentioned that as the number and

roof system and a gray water treatment system (Al-Kaabi et al., 2009).

Another research method is that building

monitoring equipment and energy models quantify building performance and enable researchers to compare it to a nominally identical traditional building baseline.
Further assessment should investigate if a formal green building certification has a measurable impact on the long-term energy performance of a building (Thebault and Vlachopoulos, 2011).
Elvin

(2007)

stated

These additional

complexities of green building developments are mainly driven by market demands, understanding of end-user behaviors towards their development eventually should play a crucial role on determining their successes.
However, very few studies have been attempted to explore end-user behaviors towards green building development. They applied discrete choice experiments

to reveal whether end-user with green experience will have different preference and willingness-to-pay values

that

nanotechnology,

the

for enhancements on various aspects of environmental

manipulation of matter at the molecular scale, is opening

performance in green buildings.

new possibilities in green building through products like

and conventional end-users have strong preferences and

solar energy collecting paints, high-insulating translucent

are willing to pay more for improving various aspects of

panels, and heat absorbing windows.

Even more

environmental

dramatic breakthroughs are now in development such as

developments.

spray-on solar collecting paint, windows that shift from

for

transparent to opaque with the flip of a switch, and

improvement, noise level reduction, landscape area

environmentally friendly biocides for preserving wood.

enlargement, or water conservation.

These breakthrough materials are opening new frontiers

significant differences in the preferences between green

in green building, offering unprecedented performance in

and conventional end-users for energy conservation,

energy efficiency, durability, economy and sustainability.

indoor air quality improvement, indoor noise reduction,

A key issue is the energy conservation capabilities of

or water conservation.

architectural nanomaterials in green building.

willing to pay significantly less than the conventional

10

Economics of Green Buildings
Buildings account for 40% of the greenhouse gas

emissions, 70% of electric consumption, and 12% of water consumed in the United States; there is a need to change these trends, and in fact, the green building technology has proven that this is possible. Studies have

performance

Generally, both green

in

green

building

They are found to be willing to pay more

energy conservation,

than

indoor

air

quality

They found no

However, green end-users are

end-users for enlarging the landscape area within a green building development, despite it was perceived by green end-users as one of the major elements that differentiate a green from a conventional development.

11

Green Buildings and Agriculture
In order to make the construction of green buildings

cost-effective the agricultural wastes, e.g. plant residues,

agricultural buildings.

should be used as green building materials.

developed on the implementation of green buildings in

This

Research projects should be

concept has been also supported by Barreca (2012) who

agriculture.

stated that the utilization of local material in rural

greenhouses do not comply with the green building

buildings minimizes the energy cost for its transport as

concept as they miss some or most of the properties that

well as its environmental impact, because, when the

formulate the green building aspect.

building is demolished, the material is reintroduced into

implementation of the green building concept in

the environmental system.

agricultural buildings is still limited; and, therefore,

Therefore, the green building

and agriculture are interdependent.

Precisely, the

The existing livestock barns and

should be conceptualized and initiated.

Hence, the

Some studies

agricultural wastes and the biowastes (e.g. plant residues)

implemented similar approaches to that adopted by green

can be used to make sustainable and recyclable green

buildings, but they neither fully addressed the concept nor

building materials (e.g., producing biocement, molding

achieved its core.

plant residues) on the one hand and green buildings

of dairy farms and the construction of cowsheds (Samer

provide sustainable agricultural structures on the other

et al., 2007; Samer, 2008; Samer et al., 2008a,b; Samer et

hand.

Most of the green building materials should enter

al., 2013a), where some studies focused on using natural

the natural cycle i.e. originate from the nature and turn

materials for roofing such as reed mats, straw mats,

back into the nature where it will break down.

In order

burnt-clay bricks, and green roofing (Hatem et al., 2009;

to invest this interdependence, the role of agricultural and

Samer, 2010a,b,c; Samer, 2011a; Georg, 2007; Samer et

biological engineers, in the green building context, should

al., 2012a).

be defined.

the use of giant reed Arundo Donax L. in rural

Another issue, no assessment and rating

Several studies focused on the design

Additionally, Barreca (2012) investigated

system for farm green buildings was found after an

constructions.

intensive literature review and web-based search.

interdependency and interaction between the control of

Therefore, an agricultural green building assessment and

indoor bioenvironment of dairy barns and the cowshed

rating system should be developed in order to be

design as well as the reconstruction and renovation of old

implemented in assessing and rating the livestock barns

dairy barns (Samer, 2004; Hatem et al., 2004a,b; Hatem

and the greenhouses.

Therefore, the role of agricultural

et al., 2006; Samer et al., 2008c; Bartali, 1999; Samer,

and biological engineers –in cooperation with other

2011c; Samer, 2012a). Other studies dealt with safe

disciplines can be elaborated as follows: (1) developing

manure handling systems (Burton and Turner, 2003;

farm green building assessment and rating system; (2)

Samer et al., 2008d; Ghafoori and Flynn, 2007; Samer,

investigating the local agricultural materials that can be

2010d; Godbout et al., 2003; Samer, 2011b; Samer,

used as green building materials, e.g. giant reed, straw,

2012b).

clay etc.; (3) manufacturing biomaterials, e.g. extracting

measurements and investigated different methods for

bio-silica from plants, to be used for fabricating green

estimation of ventilation rates and quantification of

building materials, e.g. biocement, eco-cement, and green

gaseous emissions from livestock buildings (Ngwabie et

concrete; (4) implementing the guidelines of green

al., 2009; Snell et al., 2003; Samer et al., 2012b,c;

buildings when constructing new farm buildings; and (5)

Ikeguchi and Okushima, 2001; Samer et al., 2011a,b,c,d,e;

retrofitting old farm buildings to fulfill the green building

Samer et al., 2013b).

criteria.

supply items, i.e. energy and water, of dairy farms

The studies on agricultural buildings have focused on

Further studies investigated the

Several studies carried out aerodynamic

A study modeled the operating

without investigating the efficiency of the resource use

research points that form a small part of the whole green

(Samer et al., 2008e).

Although several studies

building concept.

Such studies need to be integrated

delivered highly promising results (Leinker, 2007;

together to make the baseline and the first milestone on

Reinhardt-Hanisch, 2008), the studies that investigate

the way to apply the green building concept in

means of emissions reduction from livestock buildings

still not enough to achieve almost zero-emissions, which

in different herd sizes, layouts and mechanization levels

is one of the green building features.

in small dairy cubicle barns. The studied layouts from

Von

Bobrutzki

et

al.

(2012)

conducted

an

201 cubicle-stalled dairy herds with a mean herd size of

investigation in the frame of a feasibility study for a

38.0±14.5 (range 17.6-80.2) cows.

forced ventilated 200 dairy cow barn.

required labor input per cow decreased with increased

As optimal living

conditions for high-performance dairy cows (10,000 kg
-1

They found that the

herd size, up to approximately 60 cows.

Barns with

milk yr ) a constant air temperature of 10℃ and a

AMS had the same estimated labor input per cow

relative air humidity of 80% were determined.

independent of herd size.

Based on

For herds with milking parlors,

the approach of a simple balance model assuming ideal

the estimated need for labor decreased with increasing

mixing conditions inside the barn, a ventilation concept

herd size from 20 to 80 cows.

with three different operating ranges was developed.

labor input was higher for rebuilt barns up to a herd size

The turned out airflow rates range between 22,000 and

of 39 cows.

100,000 m³ h-1 for 200 cows. In the range of an outside temperature between -6 and +5℃ the conditions inside

indicates that optimizing building layout, and developing

the barn can be maintained just by controlling the airflow

levels, would considerably reduce the required amount of

rate.

labor.

Below or above this range, the inlet air has to be

heated or cooled, respectively.

In this way, it is possible

The estimate of required

The comprehensive variation in labor input

good management routines and suitable mechanization
Næss and Stokstad (2011) stated that on small

dairy farms, high investment costs and lack of investment

to improve the ventilation management and using energy

capital may delay the modernizing of facilities.

more efficiently.

According to maximum NH3

investigated the importance of economics of scale in

concentration limits, a minimum airflow rate of 22,000

building costs of barns compared to other sources of

m³ h-1 was determined. Up to a maximum airflow rate

variation in costs.

of 100,000 m³ h-1 it would be possible to keep constant conditions of 10℃ and 80% relative humidity inside the

mean herd size of 49.5 ± 15.1 cows, built between year

barn just by controlling the ventilation.

896 ± 454 m2.

These first

results from the study show that the heat released from

They

The study included 44 farms with a

1999 and 2006 and with a mean total area in the barns of
Building cost data were obtained from

farmers and merged with construction, mechanization and

the cows can be used and integrated into the ventilation

layout data from the same barns.

system.

construction costs decrease up to approximately 1,250 m2

Further, the three different operating ventilation

ranges enable to use energy efficiently to improve the ventilation management and create the possibility to adopt a forced ventilated barn to usual dairy cow husbandry with natural ventilation.

This study

constitutes a base to develop a ventilation management system that uses the energy efficiently while providing acceptable indoor air quality, where those are two of several conditions that allow to a building to be considered green.

However, more conditions should be

fulfilled for agricultural farm buildings to be considered green buildings.
Næss and Bøe (2011) stated that when investing in new or remodeling existing facilities for dairy cows, the functionality of the facilities and the labor input required must be considered in addition to the initial building costs.
They investigated the labor input required for dairy work

They found that

while mechanization costs and total building costs decrease up to approximately 1,000 m2.

A further

increase in building area has only limited effect on the building costs per m2.

Models including explanatory

variables showed that milking and service area are significantly more expensive than other areas.

AMS

barns are all together not significantly more expensive than other barns, since the increased mechanization cost is offset by a lower requirement for milking area.
Farmers remodeling their barns are able to realize a modernized building for a certain herd size for a lower cost compared to a completely new building.

The use of

their own effort varies considerably between projects.
In many cases, farmers would be able to find alternative income sources with a higher hourly rate than the value of their own effort suggested by the model.

The results of

both studies (Næss and Bøe, 2011; Næss and Stokstad,

indoor air quality is anticipated.

2011) should be considered when remodeling existing

(2010) stated that population and rapid urbanization have

non-green farm building to green farm building taking

contributed to two challenges facing cities today: food

into account the initial building costs, construction

security and an increasing carbon footprint due to food

remodeling costs, labor input, mechanization level, and

imports. They examined the viability of rooftop farming.

facility modernization.

A context-specific exploration looks at the challenges of

Similar to the studies on the livestock buildings, the studies that

investigated

the

design

and

indoor

Astee and Kishnani

building integrated agriculture.

Their findings suggest

that

for

buildings

are

suitable

rooftop

farming.

environment of greenhouses have not yet addressed the

Implemented nationwide, such a scheme could result in a

green building concept.

huge increase in domestic vegetable production and

For instance, the structural and

functional characteristics of greenhouses reviewed by von

satisfying domestic demand.

Elsner (2000a,b) showed that the existing greenhouses do

would also decrease carbon footprint by several tones of

not comply with the green building concept as they

emissions annually, which is one of the purposes to

missed some or most of the features that formulate the

initiate the green building concept where green roofs can

green building aspect. Vanthoor et al. (2011) developed a

be planted with vegetables.

model-based method to design greenhouses for a broad range of climatic and economic conditions.

Impron et al.

Reducing food imports

Generally, all abovementioned studies on agricultural buildings have focused on research points that form a

(2007) developed a design tool for greenhouses in the

small part of the whole green building concepts.

tropics.

a

studies need to be integrated together to make the

physics-based model for a water-saving greenhouse,

baseline and the first milestone on the way to apply green

which is a point under the main green building concept

building concept in agricultural buildings.

that cares about water use efficiency.

projects should be developed on the implementation of

Speetjens

et

al.

(2010)

developed

Jeong et al. (2012) stated that there is often a difficult relationship between rural buildings and the landscape.

Such

Research

green buildings in agriculture.

12 Conclusions

This may be overcome by methodologies that support a decision-making processes for establishing harmonious relationships and sustainable environment integrity within

According to the issues raised in this study, it can be concluded that:

They investigated the possibility

1) The existing livestock barns and greenhouses do

of designing and implementing a GIS-enabled web

not comply with the green building concept as they miss

application,

consisting

some or most of the properties that formulate the green

multi-criteria

spatial

interoperable

knowledge

a unique framework.

of

a

decision map general support and

overview,

a

system,

an

a

post-task

questionnaire to identify spatial models for the different

building aspect.

Hence, the implementation of the green

building concept in agricultural buildings is still limited; and, therefore, should be conceptualized and initiated.

perceptions of building integration within the rural

2) In order to make the construction of green

landscape and to certify the possible economic impact.

buildings cost-effective, the agricultural wastes, e.g. plant

This integration is one of the keys of green buildings,

residues, should be used as green building materials.

where a green building should be integrated with its

3)

The

green

building

and

agriculture

are

surrounding environment by providing: (1) building

interdependent.

design that fulfills the eco-construction criteria, (2) proper

the biowastes can be used to make sustainable and

waste management which is safe to the surroundings, and

recyclable green building materials on the one hand and

(3) an implementation of the features of the surrounding

green buildings provide sustainable agricultural structures

landscape that allows alleviation of outdoor air before

on the other hand.

being introduced into the green buildings where high

Precisely, the agricultural wastes and

4) An agricultural green building assessment and

rating system should be developed in order to be implemented in assessing and rating the livestock barns and the greenhouses.

agriculture.
7) The role of agricultural and biological engineers can be defined as follows: (1) investigating the local

5) Most of the green building materials should enter

agricultural materials that can be used as green building

the natural cycle i.e. originate from the nature and turn

materials,

e.g.

giant

reed,

straw,

clay

etc.;

(2)

back into the nature where it will break down.

manufacturing biomaterials, e.g. extracting bio-silica

6) The studies on agricultural buildings have focused

from plants, to be used for fabricating green building

on research points that form a small part of the whole

materials, e.g. biocement, eco-cement, and green concrete;

green building concept.

Such studies need to be

(3) developing farm green building assessment and rating

integrated together to make the baseline and the first

system (4) implementing the guidelines of green

milestone on the way to apply the green building concept

buildings when constructing new farm buildings; and (5)

in agricultural buildings. Research projects should be

retrofitting old farm buildings to fulfill the green building

developed on the implementation of green buildings in

criteria.

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