Sustainable green building designs
Some popular Green building practices are being adopted into future constructions.
It is predicted that as awareness grows of diminishing raw materials, more jobs will be created in the Green building sector.
Many traditional systems of building in various regions can also give clues as to how to adopt and adapt buildings of the future.
What you can do
Consider Net – Zero Buildings
These are buildings where the energy used is equal to energy output.
These constructions aim to lower their carbon emissions, water usage and construction (solid) waste that ends up in landfills.
Net Zero buildings factor in generating renewable energy with often a mix of both on and offsite power generation. These include onsite wind turbines, solar water heating, and solar photovoltaics.
Others may include power generation from windfarms, hydropower, geothermal, and solar power plants if available in their region.
What others have done
Use Green Building Rating Systems
The US Green building council first introduced a rating standard systems for design, construction operation and maintenance of green buildings. This is called LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is the most used sustainability rating system and increasingly used by others across Europe, Asia and Africa.
There are several other Green Building ratings certification that have evolved around the world, including UK, EU countries, Australia, Middle East and Malaysia.
EDGE Certification – Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies
This certification, adopted in over 130 countries, requires developers to reduce water and energy usage by a minimum of 20% compared with standard building construction. EDGE aims to increase construction efficiency by reducing building materials and other waste. On completion of any building projects, commercial or residential, it is audited by an independent panel of experts to check if all the standards are met.
A checklist
Distributed Energy Systems (DES)
This system controls power generation, storage and energy monitoring solutions by using sensors, meters and actuators.
A DES observes the energy performance of the building by tracking heating, cooling, lighting, then suggesting improvements in sustainability performance, carbon emissions, reducing operational costs.
Call for change
Listen to what others have done and:
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call for change in your Local Council Planning Authority to adopt and monitor green building design standards like those above
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insist your builder uses Green building design checklists like those above
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get inspired by what others have done around the world and bring it to the attention of your local Government to get them to adopt green building design principles based on best practices elsewhere like those in this video.
