Green Construction is the practice of building in a way that increases efficiency of the use of materials like energy, water and other materials and resources while reducing the impact on human health and the environment during the process of building through more efficient design, site selection, construction, operation, maintenance and finally removal. Green construction buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact that the environment of buildings can have not only on the environment but also on human health by making efficient use of energy, water and other natural and man made resources, protecting the health of occupants, improving the productivity of employees, reducing waste, reducing pollution and emissions and reducing the amount of environmental degradation as well.
Green construction follows the same basic concept as natural construction, but natural construction or natural building is usually on a much smaller scale, focusing on using natural materials that are available on a local basis rather than actually focusing on the reduction of the construction’s carbon footprint as it were. Two other commonly used terms for this concept are sustainable design and green architecture.
Sustainable development and overall sustainability are both integral to the concept of green building and green construction for numerous reasons, including:
1 - Reduced operating costs through an increase in productivity as well as using less water, energy and other resources.
2 - An improvement in the health of the public and building occupants because of an improvement in the quality of the air.
3 - A reduction in environmental impacts through activities such as lessening runoff from storm water and heat island effects.
People who practice green construction often seek to achieve not only ecological harmony but also aesthetic harmony as well, between structures and their surrounding natural environments. Sustainable buildings are not intended to appear different from less sustainable counterparts, and in many cases are near indistinguishable.
One of the primary intentions behind green construction is to reduce the overall environmental impact that buildings and construction create. Buildings tend to account for quite a large amount of land use as well as consumption of energy and water and alteration of air and atmosphere. In the United States alone, more than 2,000,000 acres worth of open spaces, wetlands and wildlife habitats are developed every year, meaning that they are mowed down and reconfigured to be zoned for buildings, and this is exactly what green construction seeks to eliminate, or at least significantly lessen.
It is surprisingly easy to underestimate the environmental impact that buildings place on our earth, especially while the perceived costs associated with green building and green construction are grossly overestimated. According to recent surveys conducted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, green costs tend to be overestimated by as much as 300 percent, because the true difference in cost is only around 5 percent between green construction and conventional construction despite the fact that key players in construction and real estate often inappropriately cite the cost difference at 17 percent or more.
Green construction practices bring together a wide variety of different techniques and practices that intend to reduce and ultimately eliminate the negative impacts that building has on human health and the environment. It often is capable of emphasizing the advantage that comes from using renewable resources such as using photovoltaic, passive and active solar and other techniques like rain gardens and green roofs and rain water runoff reduction. Many other techniques are used as well, such as using concrete or asphalt as a means of enhancing the replenishment of ground water. Creating green construction techniques that are effective is about systematic attention to the life cycle impacts that resources place in the act of building rather than acting as a random jumble of environmentally friendly techniques. The building’s complete life cycle is carefully planned and considered before any construction begins.
There are a number of materials and other resources that are used in green construction including materials that are rapidly renewable such as:
- Sustainable managed lumber
- Bamboo,
- Straw,
- Dimension stone,
- Recycled metal,
- Recycled stone
- Other non-toxic products that are either reusable, renewable or recyclable such as:
- Linoleum,
- Sheep’s wool,
- Trass,
- Paper Flake Panels,
- Baked Earth,
- Clay,
- Rammed Earth,
- Flax Linen
- Vermiculite
- Sisal
- Seagrass
- Cork
- Clay Grain
- Coconut
- Wood Fiber Plates
- Calcium Sand Stone
By reducing the amount of waste created by construction, reducing the environmental impact that building has, and any harmful elements that many affect human health, green construction has become a cost effective way to make positive changes in the environment, showing that we do not have to be quite as harmful to the planet as we have been in the past.
GreenConstructionContractor.com is your source for electric trucks and hybrid trucks as well as all things renewable and sustainable when it comes to construction. Whether you are looking for solar energy panels or renewable and sustainable natural resources like Sisal and Vermiculite, GreenConstructionContractor.com is your connection to the sustainable resources and other green construction elements that you need to get your sustainable or green construction project jumping off the papers and into life. By combining smart and efficient practices regarding energy use and resource use with sustainable resources that buildings can be crafted from, green construction can create environmentally friendly building sites at only a slightly higher cost than traditional construction. Despite the cost increase, green construction is a significantly improved practice because it impacts the environment fare less, giving our world a chance to re-grow its rainforests, wetlands and open spaces that were previously wiped out by non-sustainable, harmful building practices.
Sustainable, green construction will be the future standard for all construction in the United States and other developing countries, because despite slight additional costs averaging at about 5 percent above traditional construction, sustainable and green construction impacts the environment far less negatively and is much healthier for human occupants as well.
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Originally posted 2008-09-15 14:31:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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