WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS/ DEVELOPMENT?

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE/ GREEN BUILDINGS?

In the 21st century, our world is developing from every aspect in a blink of an eye. Everywhere we go, there’s huge tall buildings, shopping centres, etc. But the question is, what is the advantage of a sustainable building?

Sustainable building also known as green building refers to a structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle. The common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:

- Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources.

- Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity.

- Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation.

A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally. Sustainability may be defined as meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Green building practices aim to reduce the environmental impact of building. The first rule is that the greenest building is the building that doesn't get built. Since construction almost always degrades a building site, not building at all is preferable to green building, in terms of reducing environmental impact. The second rule is that every building should be as small as possible. The third rule is not to contribute to sprawl, even if the most energy-efficient, environmentally sound methods are used in design and construction. Urban infill sites are preferable to suburban "greenfield" sites.

Green building brings together a vast array of practices, techniques, and skills to reduce and ultimately eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and human health. It often emphasizes taking advantage of renewable resources, e.g., using sunlight through passive solar, active solar, and photovoltaic equipment, and using plants and trees through green roofs, rain gardens, and reduction of rainwater run-off. Many other techniques are used, such as using low-impact building materials or using packed gravel or permeable concrete instead of conventional concrete or asphalt to enhance replenishment of ground water.

ENERGY EFFIENCY?

Green buildings often include measures to reduce energy consumption – both the embodied energy required to extract, process, transport and install building materials and operating energy to provide services such as heating and power for equipment. As high-performance buildings use less operating energy, embodied energy has assumed much greater importance and may make up as much as 30% of the overall life cycle energy consumption.

WATER EFFIENCY?

Reducing water consumption and protecting water quality are key objectives in sustainable building. One critical issue of water consumption is that in many areas, the demands on the supplying aquifer exceed its ability to replenish itself. To the maximum extent feasible, facilities should increase their dependence on water that is collected, used, purified, and reused on-site. The protection and conservation of water throughout the life of a building may be accomplished by designing for dual plumbing that recycles water in toilet flushing or by using water for washing of the cars. Waste-water may be minimized by utilizing water conserving fixtures such as ultra-low flush toilets and low-flow shower heads. Bidets help eliminate the use of toilet paper, reducing sewer traffic and increasing possibilities of re-using water on-site.

MATERIALS EFFIENCY?

Building materials typically considered to be 'green' include lumber from forests that have been certified to a third-party forest standard, rapidly renewable plant materials like bamboo and straw, dimension stone, recycled stone, recycled metal, and other products that are non-toxic, reusable, renewable, or recyclable (e.g, Trass, Linoleum, sheep wool, panels made from paper flakes, compressed earth block, adobe, baked earth, rammed earth, clay, vermiculite, flax linen, sisal, seagrass, cork, expanded clay grains, coconut, wood fibre plates, calcium sand stone, concrete (high and ultra high performance, roman self-healing concrete.

CONCLUSION

Green architecture seeks to reduce waste of energy, water and materials used during construction. Well-designed buildings also help reduce the amount of waste generated by the occupants as well, by providing on-site solutions such as compost bins to reduce matter going to landfills. Green building rating systems such as BREEAM (United Kingdom), LEED (United States and Canada), DGNB (Germany) and CASBEE (Japan) help consumers determine a structure’s level of environmental performance. They award credits for optional building features that support green design in categories such as location and maintenance of building site, conservation of water, energy, and building materials, and occupant comfort and health. The number of credits generally determines the level of achievement.

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