A Green Building

What is a sustainable, Green or high performance building or development?

Bill Doty, AIA , Doty and Miller Architects

What ever you call them, Green Building and Development projects are taking place all across the country. These projects involve a process of holistic thinking integrating the components of community, the environment, energy consumption, healthy materials and good design and planning. Many of the concepts involved in this philosophy are not new. Day lighting has been around for centuries and started long before the electric light. Much of this natural design has been lost through the invention of higher forms of technology and climate control devices. Green design is going backwards and forwards at the same time. It involves design technologies we have known about for centuries, and innovative technologies involving energy efficiency and high output performance systems integrated into one process.

How green a building is can be evaluated using the criteria developed by the US Green Building Council. The LEED system stands for leadership in energy and environmental design. This system allows architects and engineers to evaluate the various components of their building projects to determine how energy efficient and appropriate they are. A project is green or sustainable if it involves some or all of the following:

• Reusing old building or minimizing site disturbance.

• Creating durable adaptable structures.

• Installing energy efficient systems.

• Management of water both on the site and in the building.

• Using locally produced products.

• Energy efficient insulation and equipment.

• Not using volatile organic compounds or carcinogens.

• Installing mechanical equipment that responds to whether a space is occupied or not, and shuts down lighting or mechanical systems when rooms are empty.

• A project that conserves topsoil trees and natural features.

• Is designed around alternative forms of transportation.

• Concerned about the overall impact on the community, local residents, and building users.

The excitement around this new old way of thinking and designing is spreading through all areas of the built environment. New towns are being designed and built based on walkable neighborhoods and coordinating building occupancies to promote community among the people who live there. Industries are rethinking their buildings and manufacturing processes. Government is reevaluating their purchasing and long term policies of construction. There are a growing number of nonprofits and private individual firms that are not only recognizing the environmental and social benefits, but the economic benefits as well.

Those economic benefits include lower operating and maintenance costs for the building. They also include increased performance from user occupants and workers due to improved environmental health and interior environment. Studies have found people to be healthier, miss less work and produce more in a naturally lit environment with high indoor air quality. The long term benefits of increased employee performance and reduced liability from occupational health hazards will dramatically increase the nationwide acceptance of this new philosophy.

Whatever they are called these green, high performance, healthy buildings and development projects will help create better communities, with buildings that are more responsible to our natural resources and each other.