Sustainable Building Material...

Decades ago, sustainable construction was not even a common term for construction processes and uses of construction materials are chosen on how it makes an impact on cost savings

Finally, if you’re building green it calls for green cleaning. This means that the products used in cleaning these green buildings are also very environmentally safe. For example

Go to the EPA website and learn about “Reduce and Reuse” , “Composting” and “Recycling” : http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/

For this week’s forum, after searching for “wetlands restoration,” I found a local wetlands restoration project that was completed in November 2011 and encompassed an area of 150 acres. The San Dieguito Wetland Restoration Project included the coastal area of San Dieguito Lagoon and the San Dieguito River Park – estuarine and riverine wetland systems, respectively - which serve an important role in the local ecology. They provide a stop for birds along the Pacific Flyway, nesting and foraging areas for endangered species and serve as a fish hatchery.

Green buildings could become one of the main factors to preserve our rapidly decaying environment. There is no easy way to define a green building, but a green building is essentially a structure that amplifies the positives and mitigates the negatives throughout the entire life cycle of the building (Kriss, 2014). There are many definitions for a green building, but all of them include the planning, designing, constructing, and operating of the building while taking into huge considerations of the energy use, water use, indoor air environment, materials used and the effect it has on the site the green building is being built on. The first green buildings dates back to as far as the 1970’s, when solar panels went from experiments to reality. Green buildings were not as popular as they are today due to their extremely high pricing. With technology rapidly growing, solar panels are becoming cheaper and cheaper, making the transition to creating green buildings more affordable. This is the primary reason for the increased growth of green buildings today. A modern company that is paving the way to the growth of green buildings named LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, focuses primarily on new and effective ideas for environmentally friendly buildings projects. With more than 60,000 commercial projects worldwide and 1.7 million square feet being certified every day, LEED is one of the leading groups for promoting green buildings. LEED has popularized the entire

Today’s Designers, Architects and Constructors have a duty of care to strive to produce energy efficient and energy saving buildings. Where possible the sustainability of resources / materials and techniques must be a primary concern in the decision making process.

The City of Sanibel is a 12 mile long island (12,000 acres) with ecosystems ranges from coastal beaches, dunes, upland ridges to freshwater wetland to mangrove swamps off the in the Gulf of Mexico (Duerksen & Snyder, 2005). This small community cherishes its cultural, social, ecological, and economic diversity. Their permanent population of 6,000 residents choose to live in harmony with nature; creating a human settlement distinguished by its diversity, beauty, uniqueness, character, and stewardship. Sanibel has become know as the most effective and progressive nature and biodiversity protection program in the U.S.

These great sceneries have the power to inspire a great many of people to conserve and protect the natural environment that Florida has to offer. These trees and waterways have a great potential, in that they have the ability to inspire the next generation of scientists and policy writers, simply because they enjoyed walking through the park during their childhoods. This is extremely important, as ecology directly involves how people interact with their environment based off of the knowledge and respect they have for it.

Being environmentally friendly isn’t merely a trend. After thousands of years of using the earth’s resources, we have finally come to realize that we are destroying this beautiful gift we were honored with. Architects play an influential role in trying to preserve this gift by encouraging a multitude of strategies that can be more cost efficient in the long run, be more comfortable for its users, and most importantly, have a lower carbon footprint. Strategies can include drastic changes to heat and air systems, construction material selections, or even specific design details to the architecture of a building that would reduce the amount of energy it consumes.

Tree groves have been planted, rain gardens have been created, and gardens are tended on a regular basis. These are just a few of the many conservation innovations conducted at Chesapeake Ecology Center. The massive amount of participation is done completely on a volunteer basis. Multiple groups of people give their time then disperse their knowledge into their own communities in order to increase neighborhood expertise that can help protect environments across the state. CEC has been recognized as a top notch garden facility oven the last ten years (CEC. 2017).

Course Description This course focuses on the causes of, impacts of, and solutions to environmental issues. Students identify global environmental issues as well as develop and critique environmental action plans. Topics include ecosystems, energy, populations, resources, pollution, and sustainability. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • • University policies: You must be logged into the

By taking action to protect the local environment through picking up trash and removing invasive species, I helped ensure a bright future for future generations as well as a healthier local ecosystem. When I helped out on a back bay cleanup, I not only directly affected the health of the area, but I influenced others to help take back the back bay from the many invasive species of plants that would consume the ecosystem if left alone. On my trip to The Newport Bay Conservatory, I picked up many pieces of trash, include bits of plastic and other man-made composites that would never decompose. Another big thing I did to help reconstruct the Back Bay was to remove invasive plants. I pulled up many types of invasive plants including the infamous Pampas Grass. As well as ridding the bay of invasive plants that could take over the entire ecosystem, I also helped collect

Forty-five minutes south east from the city of San Francisco is an area I’ve been meaning to write about since I started this blog. Mostly because as an outdoor enthusiast I feel thrilled and somewhat obligated to provide highlights for the conservational efforts that help preserve and protect the natural world that I love. The Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is one such area. Founded in 1974, by the congressman who is its namesake, this preserve spans 30,000 acres of salt ponds, marshes, and open bay. It’s notable not only for its ability to sun burn even the hardiest visitor, but this place is an ornithologist’s dream. Featuring a large diversity of wildlife from over 280 species of birds (including raptors), endangered

“Conservation refers to actions that aim to protect natural environments from present and future change. For example, nature conservancies purchase land that is deemed to be at risk in order to prevent exploitation of the area for residential, industrial, or agricultural development” (“Conservation,” 2009). Environmental conservation in the Tampa Bay area carries a great importance because of our natural resources with estuaries for wildlife and the aquifer, which supplies clean water to residents in the area. Tampa Bay residents interested in environmental conservation, have access to a variety of

As people known, to use renewable resource and to save energy or comfortable indoor environment is far from the overall picture. Because construction mentioned above is an industry which include many aspects such as land use and application of advanced technology, etc. Therefore if we want to define what is green building we should recognize the whole industrial chain included each aspects and unintended environment, social, economic, consequence brought possibly of complex activity. Kats (2003) in his article stated that the sustainable or green building should deal with those key points: environment, resource & energy consumption, impact on people, financial impact and the world at large which is a broader set of issues such as ground water recharge or global warming, as well governmental policies are typically concerned about (Kats, 2003, P. 1). And another institute, Office of the federal Environmental Executive (2003) defined green building as the practice of increasing the efficiency with which