Handbook of Green Building Design and Construction

LEED, BREEAM, and Green Globes

Sam Kubba

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780128104330
• eBook ISBN: 9780128104439
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Sustainability in Architecture

Handbook of Green Building Design and Construction: LEED, BREEAM, and Green Globes, Second Edition directly addresses the needs of building professionals interested in the evolving principles, strategies, and concepts of green/sustainable design. Written in an easy to understand style, the book is updated to reflect new standards to LEED. In addition, readers will find sections that cover the new standards to BREEAM that involve new construction Infrastructure, data centers, warehouses, and existing buildings.- Provides vital information and penetrating insights into three of the top Green Building Codes and Standards applied Internationally- Includes the latest updates for complying with LEED v4 Practices and BREEAM- Presents case studies that draws on over 35 years of personal experience from across the world

Chapter One

Green Concepts and Vocabulary

Abstract

This chapter essentially consists of an introduction to what the handbook is mainly about. It discusses why green building and sustainability are important to building construction, and why the environmental impacts of LEED have dramatically impacted how many contractors and their subcontractors today operate. This chapter illustrates how sustainable development and green construction have become part of the mainstream in the construction industry and outlines many of the incentives and benefits that can be acquired by the application of green principles. Tax incentives and liability issues are also briefly discussed in this chapter as is the need to establish measurable green criteria. In addition, the main economic benefits of fostering social equity, improving indoor environment, and producing healthier places to work are discussed, including increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, and reduced employee turnover. Finally, “Emerging Directions: Moving Forward” is debated.

Keywords

Certification; Ecosystem; Greenbuild; Greenhouse gas emissions; LEED; Liability; Microclimate; Recycling; Stewardship; Sustainability

1.1. General—The Green Building Movement Today

Green building is increasingly being described as a “movement,” particularly in the United States. This may be partly due to the fact that for some time, sustainable processes such as LEED certification, BREEAM, Green Globes, and others have been rapidly growing and improving as new techniques and sustainable developments are discovered and pursued. And because of this, the construction industry and the architectural/engineering professions both in the United States and globally have witnessed fundamental changes over recent years in the promotion of ecofriendly buildings. These facts have prompted the creation of green building standards, certifications, and rating systems aimed at mitigating the impact of buildings on the natural environment through sustainable design. Moreover, the 1973 oil crisis was a powerful catalyst in spurring the green building movement forward to gain increasing momentum across the various sectors of industry and “green” construction rapidly become the norm on many new construction projects. In fact, many architects, designers, builders, and building owners are increasingly jumping on the green building bandwagon. Numerous national and local programs advancing green building principles are now flourishing throughout the Nation as well as globally. This has helped the green movement to penetrate most areas of our society, including the construction and home-building industries. Nevertheless, Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP, continues to believe that “If targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction are to be met, decision-makers must unlock the potential of the building sector with much greater seriousness and vigor than they have to date and make mitigation of building-related emissions a cornerstone of every national climate change strategy.” Steiner goes further and says, “Public policy is vital in triggering investment in energy efficient building stock, achieving energy and cost savings, reducing emissions, and creating millions of quality jobs. In developing countries where more than 50% of households (up to 80% in rural Africa) have no access to electricity, affordable, energy efficient, low-carbon housing helps address energy poverty.”

Green construction in the United States remains in its relative infancy and is constantly developing. And although the practices and technologies that are utilized in green building construction continue to evolve and improve, they, nevertheless, differ from region to region and from one country to the next. Although this is true, there remain certain fundamental principles that all green projects will conform to. These include: siting, structural design efficiency, energy efficiency, water efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), operations and maintenance, and waste and toxics reduction. Because of this, good environmental stewardship now dictates that our built environment be sustainable. It is no surprise therefore that at the local and state levels, government is increasingly mandating that projects be built to green standards of construction which is driving our industry to become more involved toward making sustainable projects for our clients and communities a priority. This is also because of the pressure from occupants and tenants who have to work and live inside these structures.

While the definition of sustainable building design is constantly changing, there are a number of fundamental principles that persist and which will be discussed in detail in later chapters. But, with respect to building green and sustainability, architects and the project team should focus on designing and erecting buildings that are energy efficient, use natural or reclaimed materials in their construction, and are more in tune with the environments in which they exist. Building green means being more efficient in the use of valuable resources such as energy, water, materials, and land than conventional buildings or buildings that are typically built to the latest codes. This is why green buildings are more sympathetic to the environment and provide indoor spaces that occupants find to be typically healthier, more comfortable, and more productive. This is supported by a recent CoStar Group study (CoStar’s 25,000-square foot Boston office was awarded LEED Platinum CI in 2010), which concluded that sustainable “green” buildings outperform their peer nongreen assets in key areas including occupancy, sale price, and rental rates, sometimes by wide margins. It should be noted that CoStar is also an ENERGY STAR Partner and was honored in 2009 with an Excellence in ENERGY STAR Promotion Award for incorporating the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) list of LEED-Certified and Registered buildings, ENERGY STAR-Certified buildings, and BREEAM-assessed properties into its database. This has enabled CoStar clients both in the United States and the United Kingdom to implement miscellaneous queries for green buildings and classify buildings with these designations in their corresponding markets.

Sustainability scholars have undertaken numerous studies, all of which clearly show that buildings are the primary sponsors that are impacting our environment—both during the construction phase as well as through their operation. This helps us understand why they have become an area of focus for sustainability investors, developers, and green investment dollars. Research also shows that buildings are the planet’s prime consumer of natural resources, which partly explains why we have been recently witnessing a flurry of architects, engineers, contractors, and builders reevaluating how residential and commercial buildings are being designed and constructed. Additionally, we are now seeing various incentive programs around the country and internationally put in place, which encourage and sometimes stipulate that developers and federal agencies go green. It should be noted, however, that while sustainable or green building is basically a strategy for creating healthier and more energy-efficient ecofriendly buildings, i.e., the design of environmentally optimal buildings, it has been found that buildings designed and operated with their life cycle impacts taken into consideration are most often found to provide significantly greater environmental, economic, and social benefits. Moreover, the incorporation of green strategies and materials during the early design phase is the best approach to increase a project’s potential market value. Also, incorporating green strategies and materials at the outset of the design phase allows sustainable buildings to amass a vast array of applications and techniques to reduce and ultimately eliminate most of the negative impacts of new buildings on the environment and human health. For example the EPA recently stated that as many as 500 buildings out of the 4100 or so total commercial buildings that have earned Energy Star use a full 50% less energy than average buildings. Moreover, many of the efficiency practices, such as upgrading light bulbs or office equipment, pay for themselves in energy cost savings within a short period of time.

Successful green building programs typically focus on a number of environmentally related categories that emphasize taking advantage of renewable resources, such as natural daylight and sunlight through active and passive solar as well as photovoltaic techniques and the innovative use of plants to produce green roofs, and for reduction of rainwater run-off. But, as previously mentioned, sustainability is typically best achieved when an integrated team approach is used in the building design and construction process. In fact, in today’s high-tech world, an integrated team approach to green building has become pivotal to a project’s success; this means that all aspects of a project, from the site selection to the structure, to interior finishes, are all carefully considered from the outset before the commencement of the project.

Architects and property developers have come to realize that focusing on a single component of a building can profoundly impact the project negatively with unforeseen and unintended social environmental and/or economic consequences. For example, the design and construction of an inefficient building envelope can adversely impact IEQ in addition to increasing energy costs, whereas a proper sustainable building envelope can help lower operating costs over the life of a building by increasing productivity and utilizing less energy and water. As we have seen, sustainable developments can also provide tenants and occupants with a healthier and more productive working environment as a result of improved indoor air quality (IAQ). Likewise exposure to materials like asbestos, lead and formaldehydes which may contain high volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions are less likely to exist in a green building, thus avoiding potential health problems such as “sick building syndrome” (SBS) resulting from poor IAQ. An interdisciplinary team should therefore be considered a prerequisite to building green.

The main objectives of most designers who engage in green building do so to achieve both ecological and aesthetic harmony between a structure and its surrounding environment. Helen Brown, former board director of the USGBC and a Fellow of Post Carbon Institute, echoes the sentiment of many green proponents and says, “Viewed through a green building lens, conventionally built buildings are rather poor performers. They generate enormous material and water waste as well as indoor and outdoor air pollution. As large containers and collection points of human activity, buildings are especially prodigious consumers of energy. They depend on both electricity and on-site fossil fuel use to support myriad transactions: transporting and exchanging water, air, heat, material, people, and information.”

Rob Watson, author of the Green Building Impact Report issued in November, 2008, states that, “The construction and operation of buildings require more energy than any other human activity. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated in 2006 that buildings used 40% of primary energy consumed globally, accounting for roughly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions (Fig. 1.1a). Commercial buildings comprise one-third of this total. In Fig. 1.1b, we see a pie chart showing US greenhouse gas emissions in 2011 by economic sector. Urbanization trends in developing countries are accelerating the growth of this sector relative to residential buildings, according to the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD).” Additionally, it is estimated that buildings account for an about 71% of all electricity consumed in America and 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions. The impact of building on the US economy is clearly evident from the use of construction materials, e.g., it is estimated that infrastructure supplies, building construction, and road building, make up about 60% of the total flow of materials (excluding fuel) through the US economy. Likewise, studies show that building construction and demolition waste accounts for roughly 60% of all nonindustrial waste. Other building impacts such as water usage show that building occupants consume about 50 billion gallons per day, i.e., over 12% of US potable water consumption. This amount of water consumption is mainly to support municipal, agricultural, and industrial activities which have more than tripled since 1950. Construction also impacts the indoor levels of air pollutants and VOCs in buildings which can be two to five times higher than outdoor levels. It should be noted that in the United States, for example, over 83% of people live in cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas (NRDC, 2014). Many cities are increasingly implementing a variety of sustainability plans, programs, and initiatives, from water policies to climate action to resiliency plans.

Figure 1.1 (a) Pie chart showing U.S. total greenhouse gas emissions in 2005. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) typically breaks down U.S. energy consumption into four end-use categories: industry, transportation, residential, and commercial. Almost all residential greenhouse emissions are CO₂, which are strongly related to energy consumption. The chart shows that the residential sector generates very little greenhouse gases other than CO₂ and so accounts for only 18% of total greenhouse gas emissions measured in MMT CO₂ equivalents. (b) Pie chart showing total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2011 by economic sector. (c) Global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions broken into eight sectors for the year 2000. (a) Source: After National Association of Home Builders—Paul Emrath and Helen Fei Liu. (c) Source: Robert Rohde Wikipedia: Greenhouse Gas.

Because of this, the design of sustainable buildings today requires the integration of many kinds of information into an elegant, efficient, and durable whole. Thus, the encompassing of sustainable/green building strategies and best practices present...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface to Second Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One. Green Concepts and Vocabulary
• Chapter Two. Components of Sustainable Design and Construction
• Chapter Three. The Green Design and Construction Process
• Chapter Four. Green Project Cost Monitoring and Closeout
• Chapter Five. Building Information Modeling (BIM)
• Chapter Six. Green Building Materials and Products
• Chapter Seven. Indoor Environmental Quality
• Chapter Eight. Water Efficiency and Sanitary Waste
• Chapter Nine. Impact of Energy and Atmosphere
• Chapter Ten. Green Design and Building Economics
• Chapter Eleven. Green Project Commissioning
• Chapter Twelve. Project Cost Analysis
• Chapter Thirteen. Green Specifications and Documentation
• Chapter Fourteen. Types of Building Contract Agreements
• Chapter Fifteen. Green Business Development
• Chapter Sixteen. Building Green—Litigation and Liability Issues
• EXHIBITS. Sample Pay Approval Letter (Certification Letter): AIA Forms
• Appendix. Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index