According to Prisk, the government’s investment will maximize the opportunities for UK construction in sustainable development.

“This money will enable the board to take forward a large programme of activities through the voluntary contributions of many people from the industry, who are keen to engage with us regularly to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy. This additional funding will be used to get even more value from those contributions by supporting particular tasks, to ensure that they are delivered more quickly, or in more depth, than would otherwise be the case,” Prisk further explains.

The Green Construction Board itself was established just recently in November, in pursuit of the Low Carbon Construction Plan. This plan was  made in an effort to de-carbonise existing construction in the country, by focusing on the property and infrastructure sectors.

The GCB may be relatively young, but it has achieved several milestones over its few months of existence. One is the establishment of seven working groups, with 160 representatives from the Government and the construction industry. These working groups have the common goal of delivering a comprehensive activity program.

Another accomplishment of the GCB is the establishment of a ‘Routemap’ for the industry, for the next few decades until 2050. The board pioneered the ‘knowledge database’ for the research of low carbon structures.

Lastly, the GCB was able to integrate the accomplishments of the Sustainable Construction Task Force, the organization in charge before GCB came to life.

This improvement just goes to show how serious the UK is terms of investing in green and sustainable construction. Soon we’ll be hearing great things about UK’s green construction industry.

Energy Efficient Light. Image Source: Green Trust.

A recently released McGraw Hill report showed an increase spent on green construction market worldwide between 2005 and 2011. It has shifted from a $6 billion industry in 2005 to a green construction market worth double, at $17 billion in 2011. The report entitled “SmartMarket Report: New and Remodeled Green Homes: Transforming the Residential Market” demonstrated that the overall penetration of green construction in the industry has also significantly improved. In 2006, green construction only represents 2% of new residential buildings. By 2011, the share has dramatically increased to 17%.

There are several reasons why green residential buildings are experiencing a boom in the construction market. For one, people are demanding greener homes and this has generated pressure on the market to produce more green construction, leading to more construction jobs and a healthy construction economy.

The face that green homes use less energy is another byproduct of these new types of construction. They significantly reduce the need to create more coal generated power plants, use less natural gas and nuclear energy, while also saving individual owners money on utility bills.

Despite a weaker national economy and less consumer spending, there is still a sharp increase on green construction spending. This is due to consumer desire to generate better quality of lives for themselves and the environment, as well as the opportunity to save money on utilities. Reconstructing green homes may mean that homeowners have to shell out extra expenses, but these are recouped over a brief period of time.

According to the study, 90% of respondents indicate the better quality of living as the reason for turning to green buildings, while 67% choose to convert to green homes or remodel their homes in eco-friendly ways in order to save money.

With these findings, it is quite easy to conclude that the residential construction market is warming up to green homes as much as the industrial construction market is.

Construction in Chicago at night. Image Credit: Daniel Schwen via Wikimedia.

The growth of total number of green office buildings is one way to measure the momentum of the green building movement. According to a research study by CoStar/PPR, the percentage of rentable building area or RBA in LEED-rated office space increased over a three-year period from 2006 to 2009. This is largely thanks to construction developers in Chicago, Seattle, New York and Washington.

In 2009, 50.4% of the RBA were LEED-certified. This is a huge leap from 2006, where only 17.4% of the total RBA were LEED-certified. Although the percentage has dropped down to 42.2% in 2010 and a further reduction of 25.1% in 2011, the LEED deliveries were nonetheless high for the years following 2009.

There are certain areas that outperformed others. For instance, Portland had a 90% LEED total net absorption from 2009 and 2011. Cincinnati, on the other hand, had a 80% total net absorption.

It seems that sticking with green office space is worth the investment in gold. One proof is a study by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 2011, entitled Sustainability and the Dynamics of the Financial Performance of Green Office Buildings in the USA. It showed that specifically between the periods of 2007 to 2009, green office buildings had higher occupancy rates and rents than those that were not energy-efficient.

Employers have also begun to realize that green office space is also relevant in the competition for talent. In order to hire the best of the working force, they have realized that they need to shape up. In an interview, one-third of job hunters said that they would be more willing to work for a green company. More than half of the respondents would want their employers to become more environmentally conscious.

With the promise of financial stability for building owners and getting the best employees for employers, the case for green office space has become all the more compelling.

Green Water Plants. Image Source: Public domain.

We spend our lives indoors 90% of the time. While people think that staying indoors means protection from harmful environmental pollutants, that is not exactly the case. For instance, being in an office where there is poor ventilation or no operable windows means exposure to the same air pollutants outside—even worse.

Over the years, office and commercial buildings have been built “airtight” in order to improve energy efficiency and lower heating and air-conditioning costs. While this may sound “comfortable” to employees and inhabitants, it has caused a phenomenon that was coined “the sick building syndrome” in the 1970s.

The “sick building syndrome” was used to describe a disturbing occurrence among people in the same working environment, usually in the same office building. These people complained of the same symptoms, usually fatigue, headaches, sensitivity to odors, and irritation of the eyes, nose, or throat.

This problem exists until today. In fact, the World Health Organization reported that around 30% of new buildings today have such syndrome. Although there is not enough research to support the link between the symptoms and the buildings, the reasonable cause points to inadequate ventilation, especially combustion pollutants from malfunctioning central heating or cooling systems or volatile organic compounds found in indoor materials and equipment. Unfortunately, many building owners do not realize that these indoor pollutants are causing an unhealthy environment for the inhabitants.

Thanks to the green movement and the popularity of LEED certification, though, this problem is being solved. One economic way of making sure buildings are adequately insulated is by allowing natural ventilation and light to flow through the building. A reasonable basis is to increase the cubic feet per minute of outside air for every occupant.

It must also be noted that the quality of air is one of the most important environmental variables in a building from a health perspective, while temperature is the most important for comfort.

Logo. Image: International Living Future Institute.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—or LEED—is easily the most popular certification system, with certified buildings amounting to almost 9 billion square feet of space. Without doubt, LEED is instrumental in transforming an otherwise strange idea into a marketable success. LEED’s certification system is one of the strongest mechanisms that drove construction firms and building owners to the adoption of green building standards.

It is without question, though, that LEED is not the lone certification system and does not provide the highest possible green standards there are. In fact, a fairly new standard for green buildings has been recently introduced: The Living Building Challenge.

The mission of the challenge is to offer a global vision for sustainability, to partner with local communities to create grounded and relevant solutions and to reach out to individuals to unleash people’s imagination and innovation.

Launched in 2010, the Living Building Challenge requires higher standards in several aspects compared to LEED. The idea behind the Living Building Challenge is to transform already developed buildings and structures that has caused environmental degradation ( called greyfields or brownfields) into green buildings. The challenge is then to develop these greyfields and brownfields and ensure that they meet the 20 requirements of the Living Building Challenge.

The Living Building Challenge comprises seven performance areas: Water, Site, Energy, Health, Materials, Beauty, and Equity. These areas are then further divided into twenty Imperatives that have their own sphere of influence.

Another interesting feature of this new initiative is that it can apply not just to an existing building, but even to parks, college campuses, and entire communities.

In fact, you are also encouraged to download this document, which provides a framework for the design and construction requirements for certification. It also outlines the symbiotic relationship between a person and his environment.

The way it works is by reducing the transfer of heat across a building’s air spaces. It is manufactured with highly reflective surfaces. 95-97 percent of the radiant heat that strikes the surface is reflected, and only 3 to 5 percent of the heat is emitted through the insulation.

The types of heat transfers are conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction is the transfer of heat between two contacting surfaces. An example would be a steel pot being warmed on an electric range. Convection is the transfer of heat by the flow of air or fluid. An example would be a room warmed by the hot air from the vent of a central heating unit. Radiation is the transfer of heat by infrared radiation across an air space. An example would be the dashboard of a closed car heated by sunlight.

The major benefits of reflective insulation are that in hot summers, heat that is radiated through the roof will keep temperatures inside the metal building much cooler. And in winter, the heat that is reflected off the insulation’s shiny surface will go back into the building so this way heat will stay in the building. In order to maximize performance of the reflective insulation, it must be properly installed with an air space that faces one foil side of the product. Aside from the popular benefits of this product, it also has many other wonderful features such as: it is easy to install, which results in low labor cost. It is light weight and can be cut to fit any metal building.

It can be installed over other insulation to increase insulation or to improve building’s appearance. The reflective surface can reduce interior lighting requirement by 35 percent which will reduce energy costs. Also, low moisture transfer will improve the overall thermal performance of the metal building. If this is the solution you have been waiting for and you like to reduce energy bills, consider this to suit your metal building and have your energy costs lowered.

Reflective insulation products can be used almost anywhere and in any type of climate, especially in the states where excessive heat can send energy costs through the roof. These materials are tested under the ASTM 1224 Standard Specifications for reflective insulation for all metal building applications. Also, included is the fire test. For more information on this product, please contact rima@rima.net.

You can also visit us at: www.norsteel.com.

Alligator at a nature reserve. Image credit: Jon Sullivan via Wikipedia.

The International Green Construction Code may have created a framework for legislators to impose uniform standards for green buildings, but the influence of LEED certification has certainly not lost its touch. Just recently, the US Green Building Council, who also worked with the International Code Council in framing the IgCC, has announced that it hit the 12,000^th commercial project for LEED certification.

Just twelve years after LEED certifications were released, 12,000 commercial projects have already been certified. This just goes to show the global effect of green buildings and the growing consciousness for future generations and the environment.

The 12,000th commercial project is the LEED Gold Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in Texas—a fitting construction project for the symbolic and historic 12,000^th building. The wildlife refuge is a reconstruction of its original facility, which was destroyed by Hurricane Ike back in 2008. The reconstructed facility will exhibit wildlife and an educational center for the environment.

In total, there are already 137,000 LEED certified construction projects around the world—from commercial and industrial to communities and neighborhoods. What makes this 12,000^th building all the more important is that comments are being wrapped up for the LEED 2012 Rating System—an innovation of the LEED program. The LEED 2012 program will focus on current trends and changes that provide higher standards and sustainability for the green movement.

Just last month, the third draft of LEED 2012 was opened for public comment. Its stated goal of driving market transformation and sustainability must conform with two standards: setting the bar for leadership standards and creating incentives for building projects to either meet or exceed such standards.

In the release of its draft, it has received criticism specifically from the Forest Stewardship Council, because while it does set the bar for leadership standards, it does not create enough incentives for building projects to meet and exceed expectations.

Essentially, the IgCC provides a legal framework—a baseline document that different jurisdictions and states can adopt through legislation, in order to fully and easily integrate the benchmark of green construction internationally.

The importance of an international code that conforms with universally accepted green standards has never been clearer. As several states pass ordinances imposing green building codes, confusion as to what is the best and most efficient green building has arisen. In the midst of ordinances, the question of how to make buildings truly energy-efficient, sustainable, and reliable is being asked by policy making bodies all over the world. The IgCC clears up this confusion by providing minimum standards as to how green buildings should be.

A significant highlight of the code is that it is couched in mandatory language. Although LEED has done its job in challenging conventional modes of thinking of construction firms and building owners, the cost of registration and complying with the requirements aren’t exactly cheap. IgCC presents no problem when it comes to registration, as it is both cost-effective and for obligatory compliance with the law.

Because of its mandatory language, policymakers will not have a difficult time trying to adopt the code into their states. Also, the choices and the requirements set forth in the IgCC are much clearer. The enforcement procedures will clear up some confusion for building owners and construction firms.

Bradford Student Accommodation. Image: GWP Architecture.

As royalty like Prince Charles and celebrities like Orlando Bloom gear toward having green homes. As the government starts to tighten its regulation with a view of ensuring that all construction turn green, the UK is quickly becoming one of the major locales of green construction.

Its leading green rating system, the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREAM) has in fact assessed around 7,000 green building projects just last year, more than twice from the figures in 2009.

The “Outstanding” rated buildings in UK, in fact, provide excellent examples of the leaps and bounds that green buildings can become. Here are a few ways to make unique green construction work:

1. Pet shelters

In Shrewsbury, dog shelters are made more comfortable by providing insulation, fences that are noise-reducing, and an elaborate rainwater-harvesting system that supplies water for washing the dogs. This is not only a comfortable and breezy environment for dogs, but also a green construction that has earned a top rating from BREAM.

2. Real-time energy and water use

In Bradford, a 10-block residential village for students has around 1,000 bedrooms and a communal area for students. What makes the Green student accommodation positive in BREAM’s book is its incorporated real-time energy and water use screen displays in every student flat, which helps students control their energy and water use consumption.

3. Prisons

The Thameside Prison is a pioneer in its own right, being the first prison facility with removed pollutants and enhanced ecological factors. There are also sustainability features such as a water heating and space conserving system powered by biofuel boilers from waste vegetable oil.

4. Unusable food waste to energy

The Waitrose Stratford City, a retail store in London, has earned an outstanding rating for its ingenious use of unusable food water to energy by sending it to an anaerobic digestion plant for conversion into energy.

Cyclone Catarina from the ISS on March 26 2004. Image Source: Earth Observations Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.

The overwhelming return on investment is easily one of the reasons why building owners shift to green construction. With a green building, building owners stand to save thousands because of water and energyconservation measures, thanks to eco-friendly construction techniques.

The good news is that a recent report by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) is giving building owners another reason to pledge allegiance to green construction. In a collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture, the USGBC’s report, the Green Building and Climate Resilience: Understanding Impacts and Preparing for Changing Conditions asserts that green buildings are more durable against climate changes and natural wear and tear over time. The higher safety standards imposed on green building make it even more durable, the report says.

According to Craig Fugate, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, there is a strong call for the development and enforcement of safe and sustainable building codes to protect the lives and property of people, in light of floods, earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes happening across the US.

What is the relevance of green buildings through all these disasters? According to the researchers, the features of green buildings help in riding out long-term climate shifts. Another edge of green buildings is that they generally stay dry during floods. On occasion of high winds, green buildings remain well sealed compared to its counterparts.

However, not all green buildings are resilient in the long-term or short-term. There are certain precautions you have take in order to make sure that your green building will stand strong amid disasters. For one, you have to make sure that the green building complies with the higher safety standards imposed on green building. Next, choose a construction firm that has been in the industry of putting up green buildings for an established period of time.