Constructing Green Communities
May 23rd, 2008Written by Jessica Bacon
As the general population really starts to embrace the green movement in their lives and communities, we have to consider that green buildings and green construction are probably going to explode in the next few years. Green building and construction is on the rise - small towns all over America are passing ordinances and legislation that mandates green initiatives in all new construction projects and encourages green building otherwise.
To assist those who may be interested in proposing local legislation aimed at promoting green construction, I’ve comprised a list of organizations that help industry professionals take their communities and commercial districts into the green era. These resources have literature that can be used to educate citizens, governments and businesses, and also information that can actually be used to guide the green building process.
The US Green Building Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to making green buildings accessible to everyone in this country within a generation.
To promote the design, construction and maintenance of green buildings, the organization has developed a rating system and voluntary certification program that allows architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, lenders and government officials to implement green design, building and operations standards in new and existing construction. According to the organization,
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System? encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices…and provides benchmarks for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
For communities that have initiated legislation requiring all new construction projects to be green certified, the rating system and certification program developed by the US Green Building Council is a great place to learn about all of the technologies, products and services that exist to help communities go green.
Another site to check out if you’re involved in construction is BuildingGreen, is an independent company committed to providing accurate, unbiased, and timely information designed to help building-industry professionals and policy makers improve the environmental performance, and reduce the adverse impacts, of buildings. BuildingGreen has a library full of information designed to help industry professionals learn about their green and “integrated design” building options.
Using the BuildGreen site, you can find out about the impact of every stage of a building process, and discover the tools available to help minimize your project’s harm to the environment. The site has literature about what it even means to be green, and offers some interesting case studies on how companies have applied green building practices in their construction projects.
Additional Resources
The US Green Building Council has a huge list of Green Building Links to help industry professionals develop and implement green building standards in all of their projects.
The US Department of Energy High Performance Buildings Database is comprised of 99 case studies with a focus on the green building practices applied during construction.
The Cost of Green Revisited by Davis Langdon contains research results obtained by examining the true cost of new construction using the LEED Rating System verses non-LEED certified buildings and finds that there is no discernible difference in the overall construction costs.
eco-structure is a bimonthly magazine for construction industry professionals looking to learn about sustainability and green building design, construction and operations.
Tags: Cost of Green Revisited, Davis Langdon, eco-structure, Energy Efficiency, Green Construction, Green Renovation, LEED Rating System, Renovation, Sustainable Building, UD DOE, US Green Building Council
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