Layman's Blog to Green Building

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...