I. INTRODUCTION
Sustainability has now become a necessity in the urban environment. This is especially important in Malaysia, where the urban population is almost 75%. It is also situated in an equatorial and tropical climate region where increase urbanization will also increased warming of the land.
Green building practices can substantially reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts through good design, construction and operation. As an added benefit, green operations and management can reduce operating costs, enhance building marketability, increase workers’ productivity, and reduce potential liability resulting from indoor air quality problems(5).
There are various types of green building rating system available globally. Among the well-known rating systems are LEED,
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While the may incur some high initial costs, the green certification can produce significant cost savings in the long run. This could, in turn, lead to increased profits.
Since the GBI certification in Malaysia has only been around for under 5 years, it is difficult to accurately quantify the cost savings. However, we can consider some examples of GBI in other countries to illustrate this.
One of the main criteria of the GBI is ‘energy efficiency’. This is congruent with green building systems in other places as well.
For example, in the Crowne Plaza in New york, hotel managers changed all incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent (CFL). While the cost of purchasing the new bulbs was significant, the long-term savings quickly offset these costs. The hotel spent almost $27,000 to change their bulbs, but expect to save more than $120,000 per year in electrical costs and $20,000 per year in labor. This is because the new bulbs use less energy and have a longer life span so they do not need to be changed
According to a “go green” blog named 2B Green World Website-LEED Consultants, “buildings represent over 50% of US wealth; $800 billion is the amount of renovation and new construction in the United States, buildings account for 1/6 of the worlds freshwater withdrawals, ¼ of its wood harvest and 2/5 of its material and energy flow” (Go Green Facts 1).These figures represent the disadvantages of a world without green building. Throughout this report the focus is on LEED certification and accreditation, and the impact LEED has on several different service firms. The report begins with background information about the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED, and LEED
Urban sustainability is the idea that an urban area can be organised without excessive reliance on the surrounding countryside and be able to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The aim of this is to create the smallest possible environmental footprint and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, compost used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and to make the urban area overall contribution to climate change minimal. Therefore allowing the next generations and future generations to have the required resources without compromising them. However sustainably needs to focus also on other issues such as crime and economic factors.
The indefinite growth of the human population, has monumental impacts on the natural environment, not only in the UK, but around the globe. Architecturally, the entire process of designing and constructing a building, both domestic and not, can lead to the rapid exhaustion of natural resources across the planet. Building with environmental design strategies in mind not only combats the impact we as humans have on the natural environment, but also has considerable economic benefits, due to lower running costs of buildings and advanced occupant productivity. There are also many social benefits, such as improved air quality which resultantly leads too enhanced health of a buildings occupants.
Every group had its own suggestions for green infrastructure. The most popular method among the projects was the implementation of green roofs. As every group stated, green roofs can help regulate temperatures inside buildings, saving costs on heating and cooling. They are handy in capturing storm water runoff, which can then be used for food production. Group A did a good job showing these benefits, but neglected to consider the possible detrimental
This shows that if planning is not stable or management planning - urban good also affect the sustainability of the project.
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.
Grand Homes gives a huge importance for energy efficient construction, net zero construction. Grand has consistently maintained the minimum requirements for the rating-ENERGY STAR®; Grand has successfully built homes that have ratings as low as 61. Grand wishes to implement all the cost effective technologies to achieve net zero homes.
If you believe a company should “go green”, should a company spend more money communicating their
It proves to many people that you have achieved your environmental goals. Having a LEED Certification means that you have many government incentives, marketing benefits, and increased property values, which can help, boost the presses interest in your current project. Building green can also greatly reduce the cost to construction managers and tenants (USGBC, 2008).
2). Implementing environmental friendly programs comes with many benefits such as: gaining like-minded consumers, possibly bringing in newer clients, saving the company money through the use of eco-friendly business practices, providing a healthier workplace for employees, thus reducing sick days which decrease efficiency in the workplace, and tax
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
First, we will be switching over from traditional incandescent light bulbs to energy efficient lightbulbs such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and LEDs. The advantage of switching the campus over to energy efficient lightbulbs is that they “typically use about 25%-80% less energy than traditional incandescent, saving money, [and] can last 3-25 times longer” (How Energy). With energy efficient lightbulbs we also can keep a little more money in our pockets because “replacing five most frequently used light fixtures or bulbs with models that have earned the ENERGY STAR, you can save $75 each year.” (How Energy). So when switching over to energy saving light bulbs we are seeing some great benefits.
CFL lightbulbs entered the market at an expensive price, yet the consumers continued to purchase them. Knowing the bulbs “paid for themselves,” the tradeoff was worth it. They used 75% less electricity than incandescent bulbs, lasted 10 times longer and emitted 450 pounds fewer greenhouse gasses. In previous years consumers relied on incandescent lights that were reliable and much less expensive than CFLs. CFLs were backed by utility companies that also wanted the product to be a success, which was obvious through their coupons, trade-ins and price promotions. Aside from the many benefits CFLs offered to consumers, market research showed there were misconceptions that caused hesitancy in consumer adoption. The original product had problems such as light flickering and buzzing, needed continual usage to result in energy savings, could not be used with a dimmer, and recycling the bulbs was not convenient as special measures were needed to dispose of the bulb.
In this part, government attitude and policies are focused on, as well as advanced technologies are considered. Finally, this paper also turn to highlight the relevant field in China and what availability would suit for China, especially focus on what recommendations be suggested to local authorities in order to guide the whole society to aware the importance of green building and accelerate the development of this industry.
Urbanization, which is becoming a buzzword during the last few decades, is enlarging at a booming speed. It is predicted that 93 percents urban growth will occur to the year 2020, in the developing world (Elliot J.A, 1999). Generally speaking, more than half of the people around the world have been moved to cities, which led to a series of “matters” connected with people’s life that changed in a dramatical way. In this period, sustainable development, another buzzword during the past few years, came into people’s view and gradually became the mainstream of society development. Its definition is to make the development continue in a long term, which means allowing appropriate economic growth and industrialization without