Layman's Blog to Green Building

When it comes time to put shovel in the ground on most Green Building projects, the greatest challenge can sometimes be the execution of the contract and subcontracts according the the specified design.  Knowing your contract documents and the language that governs the products, materials, and procedures to use can be overwhelming the first time around. Much like the development of a new building code ( See OBC 2012 ) Green Building standards can catch trade contractors off-guard, especially at the pricing stage.  Innocent looking specs on a product may not be caught at the bid stage, and product availability and cost can create huge headaches for contractors pricing projects aggressively in today's competitive environment. Here are some tips to avoid common estimating errors on Green Building Projects: Check the General Requirements (Division 1) Just about every Green Building Project will make it very clear in Division 01 that there are special product selection pro...

When we refer to integrated design, we are referring to a building that brings all design disciplines into balance so that the "optimized" building design can be found.  The traditional design approach would typically have mechanical, electrical, structural, civil, landscaping, and architectural elements designed in individual groups, then brought together for "coordination" of the design.  (e.g. shift this duct here, run your electrical services through this open space, increased beam depth on these members, add another catchbasin here, remove some shrubbery, or revise glazing locations).  When design elements are left to individual professionals, it is easy to consider mainly the scope of your own profession, with insufficient consideration being given to what sustainability trade offs other disciplines might have to make in order for you to meet your goal.  When a lack of coordination between the disciplines occurs, you can have disastrous results: (For Examp...

The advent of green building design has challenged the established best practices of building designers.   This requires building designers to have a forward-looking viewpoint with respect to the environmental performance and utilization of the building, as well as the emerging need to plan for decommissioning.  This forces designers to incorporate more parties into the design process than is traditionally necessary, thereby reshaping the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved.  In this blog series we will evaluate how current design practices are being morphed into a more collaborative effort of owners, designers, and operators.  We will also identify the necessary change to planning, and the tools (both existing and developing) to facilitate the changing planning requirements.  By educating and understanding client expectations, as well as methods of quantifying the environmental performance of a building, the planning and design process...

We previously discussed the importance of establishing measurable performance targets for green buildings.  As good as those are, they form an incomplete picture of green building design and construction.  What really brings context to the performance of a green building is when you take your performance metrics, and compare them against established benchmarks. That's where green building design and evaluation systems come in;  Many people know about LEED, BOMA Green Globes, or ASHRAE standards.  These (and other systems and standards) offer baseline performance targets for your building project that establish how good (or bad) your building measures up against an agreed-upon base case. Let's look at a few examples: LEED The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system is a set of quantifiable targets that evaluate your building against many of the performance targets we discussed last week .  The system uses a number of different approache...

There is a lot of confusion on what the definition of a “ Green Building ” means today.  The building design and construction, as well as the facilities management industries are pushing for “greener” buildings, yet for a large part of the industry, there is an abundance of differing opinions of what makes a building “green”.  The challenge of sorting through these varying and sometimes conflicting definitions can create fiscal, technical, and legal problems for designers, builders, and operators alike.   One common problem across all industries striving to be more "green" is that it is difficult as a consumer and corporate user alike to clearly distinguish the claims of products or buildings on sustainable measures, unless one is to use a well developed system of metrics for gauging the actual performance of a building or product against established benchmarks.  When it comes to building design and construction, the metrics are often found in a number of...

If you are reading this foreword, then chances are you are like countless others that have succumbed to the inevitability of Building Green.  Whether your interest has peaked as a result of economic, social and/or political pressures, this guide is for you. Whether the inevitability is a result of newly imposed government regulations; introduction of new technologies that make economic sense and/or a heightened awareness of how the Construction industry can actually make an impact, the movements underfoot today are not just a passing fancy.  Building Green is a worldwide phenomenon that is evolving at a pace which makes it difficult to stay abreast.  Surprisingly though, the principles behind the current movements are much easier to grasp than one might imagine.  To begin with, a worldwide campaign was launched following the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol on December 11 th , 1997 and development of the Copenhagen Accord created at the COP-15 Copenhagen En...