"Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition."
An overview of different certification programs and standards for sustainable design, such as LEED, BREEAM, and Living Building Challenge.
Green building and sustainability: The principles and practices of sustainable design, including resource conservation, energy efficiency, and minimizing environmental impact.
LEED certification: A rating system that evaluates a building's sustainability performance based on criteria such as energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor environmental quality, and building materials.
Energy efficiency: The use of design strategies and building materials to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint, such as insulation, solar power, and geothermal heating and cooling.
Renewable energy: Energy sources that come from natural and renewable resources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal energy.
Building certification programs: Programs that certify buildings for their sustainability and environmental performance, such as Energy Star or Green Globes.
Indoor environmental quality: Strategies to improve air quality, lighting, and acoustics in buildings for the sake of human health and comfort.
Sustainable materials: Building materials that have a lower environmental impact, such as recycled content or sustainably harvested wood.
Water conservation: Design strategies and materials that reduce water consumption, such as efficient plumbing fixtures and rainwater harvesting systems.
Life cycle assessment: A method of evaluating the environmental impact of a building or product throughout its entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to disposal.
Passive design: Building design strategies that rely on natural ventilation, lighting, and heating to reduce energy consumption.
Carbon footprint: The total amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with a building or product throughout its entire life cycle.
Greenhouse gas reduction: Strategies to reduce a building's greenhouse gas emissions, such as energy-efficient design and the use of renewable energy sources.
Building codes and regulations: Laws and regulations that govern the design, construction, and operation of buildings, including sustainability requirements.
Site selection and development: Design strategies to minimize the environmental impact of construction sites, such as preserving natural habitats and restoring degraded ecosystems.
Community engagement: The involvement of community members in the design and development process to ensure that sustainable design principles and practices are incorporated into the building project.
LEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a widely recognized green certification program that rates the sustainability of building projects based on their impact on energy, water, air quality, and resources.
WELL Building Standard: A system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring the performance of the human health and wellness aspects of a building.
Living Building Challenge: The most rigorous green certification system, this challenge rates buildings based on their energy output, waste production, and water usage.
Green Globes: A flexible and affordable certification program with a focus on practical and measurable strategies for reducing environmental impact.
BREEAM: Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method is a certification program that rates green-building performance in over 70 countries.
Energy Star: A certification program that focuses on energy efficiency in appliances, building products, homes and commercial buildings.
Passivhaus: The Passivhaus standard is a rigorous energy efficiency certification program that requires buildings to operate on minimal energy while providing high levels of comfort and air quality.
Green Seal: A certification program that applies to a wide range of products and services, including environmental services, cleaning products, and construction materials.
CHPS: Collaborative for High Performance Schools, focuses on the design, construction, and operation of K-12 schools that address energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and environmental sustainability.
EDGE: Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies, this certification program is tailored for emerging markets in developing countries and provides a measurable approach to building resource-efficient, sustainable buildings.
Green Building Initiative: A certification program that rates buildings based on seven pillars of green construction, including energy efficiency, water usage, and indoor air quality.
SITES: A certification program for sustainable landscapes, SITES rates a wide range of aspects including site selection, water management, and materials choice.
Global GreenTag: This certification program applies to a variety of products, including building materials, and specializes in rating their impact on health and environmental sustainability.
C2C: Cradle to Cradle is an innovative certification program that focuses on the positive impact of products and buildings throughout each phase of their life cycle, including building materials, textiles, and furniture.
ISO 14001: The International Organization for Standardization’s environmental management system standard, it requires the establishment of environmental management systems that reduce environmental impacts while increasing efficiency and reducing costs.
Triple Bottom Line Certification: The Triple Bottom Line Certification program goes beyond traditional sustainability metrics to assess the social, environmental and economic impacts of an organization.
Fitwel: Fitwel is a certification program that provides practical strategies to optimize building design and operations to improve health and wellness.
GRI Standards: Global Reporting Initiative standards are sustainability reporting guidelines developed to help companies measure, track, and report their sustainability performance.
Living Product Challenge: Similar to Living Building Challenge, this certification focuses on the entire life cycle of products, from raw material extraction to disposal.
Carbon Trust Standard: The Carbon Trust Standard is an independent certification program that recognizes companies for their efforts to measure, manage, and reduce their carbon footprints.
Carbon Disclosure Project: The CDP provides a unified system for companies to report their environmental impact to investors and the public.
EcoLogo: An eco-labeling program that certifies environmentally friendly foodservice disposables, cleaning products, and building materials.
Green-e: The Green-e certification program assures that energy products sold in the marketplace are produced from verified renewable energy sources.
NSF: The NSF Sustainability program certifies products according to a range of environmental and sustainability standards covering water, food service equipment, facility products and other areas.
R2 Solutions: The Responsible Recycling (R2) program certifies electronics recyclers for their environmental and social responsibility practices.
"This requires close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages."
"The common objective of green buildings is to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment."
"Green building also refers to saving resources to the maximum extent, including energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving, etc., during the whole life cycle of the building."
"Other certificate systems that confirm the sustainability of buildings are the British BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) for buildings and large-scale developments or the DGNB System (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen e.V.) which benchmarks the sustainability performance of buildings, indoor environments and districts."
"The World Green Building Council is conducting research on the effects of green buildings on the health and productivity of their users."
"The World Green Building Council is working with the World Bank to promote Green Buildings in Emerging Markets through EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) Market Transformation Program and certification."
"There are also other tools such as Green Star in Australia, Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) used in the Middle East and the Green Building Index (GBI) predominantly used in Malaysia."
"Building information modeling (BIM) is a process involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places."
"Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity"
"Natural building is a similar concept, usually on a smaller scale and focusing on the use of locally available natural materials."
"Sustainability may be defined as meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."
"Although some green building programs don't address the issue of retrofitting existing homes, others do, especially through public schemes for energy efficient refurbishment."
"A 2009 report by the U.S. General Services Administration found 12 sustainably-designed buildings that cost less to operate and have excellent energy performance."
"Occupants were overall more satisfied with the building than those in typical commercial buildings."
"Reducing waste, pollution, and environmental degradation."
"Green building technology focuses on low consumption, high efficiency, economy, environmental protection, integration, and optimization."
"The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort."
"Green building refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition."
"Providing people with healthy, comfortable, and efficient use of space, and being in harmony with nature Buildings that live in harmony."