Green buildings
Green buildings are structures specifically designed and constructed to enhance resource efficiency while minimizing negative impacts on human health and the environment. They play a significant role in addressing climate change, as residential and commercial buildings account for about 40% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. By focusing on energy efficiency, waste reduction, and pollution control, green buildings provide robust environmental benefits, such as conserving natural resources and improving indoor air quality.
The concept of green building has evolved since the mid-nineteenth century, gaining momentum during the late twentieth century as environmental awareness increased. Innovations in construction materials and techniques, alongside the establishment of programs like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), have further defined and standardized practices in this field. Green buildings employ various strategies, including the use of renewable energy sources, water-efficient systems, and sustainable materials, which contribute to both environmental sustainability and long-term economic savings.
As the green building movement continues to grow globally, emerging projects reflect diverse architectural approaches and local resources, demonstrating a commitment to environmental stewardship worldwide.
Green buildings
DEFINITION: Structures designed and constructed to increase resource efficiency and reduce negative impacts on human health and the environment
Residential and commercial buildings generate 40 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Green buildings reduce carbon emissions substantially and provide significant environmental benefits by reducing solid waste, efficiently using energy and other resources, reducing air and water pollution, and conserving natural resources.
Although energy efficiency and sustainability were not major concerns at the time, early green buildings originated during the mid-nineteenth century. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, designed in 1861, and the Crystal Palace in London, England, built in 1851, both used underground air cooling and roof ventilators to control the interior temperature.
From the 1930s to the 1960s, technological advances such as the inventions of reflective glass, structural steel, and air-conditioning resulted in the proliferation of high-rise buildings that consumed huge amounts of cheap fossil fuels. During the 1960s, however, environmental consciousness grew, and visionaries began defining green building. During this period, scientist James Lovelock formulated the Gaia hypothesis, a holistic concept of the earth as a single, complex organism. In 1969 landscape architect Ian L. McHarg published Design with Nature, which helped define green architecture.
Beginnings of the Movement
On the first Earth Day in April 1970, millions of Americans showed their concern about the environment. The 1973 and 1979 oil crises demonstrated the need for the nation to seek energy from diversified sources and become less dependent on fossil fuels. The US government and many corporations began investing in research into methods of energy conservation and alternative energy sources.
During the 1980s, architect Malcolm Wells designed green underground and earth-sheltered buildings. In 1982, physicist Amory Lovins and his wife, environmentalist Hunter Lovins, emphasized the basic green principle of using regional resources in founding their Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit resource policy center that promotes resource efficiency and global security. Beginning during the mid-1980s, popular environmental organizations—such as the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the Nature Conservancy, and Friends of the Earth—became increasingly active. Growing awareness of the problem of sick building syndrome raised concerns regarding the indoor environments of some workplaces. In 1984 architect William McDonough designed a headquarters building for the Environmental Defense Fund in New York City using a high-performance building approach (the building was completed in 1985). During the late 1980s, Pliny Fisk III designed Blueprint Farm—a green agricultural community—in Laredo, Texas, using recycled materials, wind power, and photovoltaic panels.
Milestones During the 1990s and 2000s
In 1992, the first local green building program began in Austin, Texas, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the Energy Star program, a voluntary energy-efficiency labeling program for consumer products. By 2022, Energy Star labels were appearing on seventy-five product categories, and Energy Star ratings had become the standard for major appliances, homes, commercial buildings, and heating systems. By 2022, 2.3 million Energy Star–qualified homes had been built throughout the United States. Many other countries adopted the Energy Star idea, including Japan, Taiwan, China, New Zealand, South Africa, and the nations of the European Union.
In 1993 Bill Clinton's presidential administration began the successful “Greening of the White House” initiative, and the nonprofit US Green Building Council (USGBC) was created to promote the construction of environmentally responsible, healthy, and profitable buildings. USGBC is a national, voluntary consensus coalition with members from all sectors of the building industry. In 1995, USGBC began developing its green building certification program, known as LEED (for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which became available for public use in 2000. This voluntary system provides third-party certification that certain standards have been met in the construction of high-performance, sustainable buildings, with an emphasis on reducing carbon dioxide emissions and increasing energy efficiency. LEED certification covers a wide range of existing and new commercial and residential buildings, including offices, schools, medical facilities, private homes, and stores.
Environmental Benefits
The key areas measured in the LEED certification process reflect the environmental benefits of green building. Sustainable site development involves preserving natural resources for future generations and can include reusing existing buildings, planting around buildings, roof gardens, and underground or earth shelters. Building for water savings and efficiency involves monitoring water supplies and usage, recycling gray or previously used water, and constructing rainwater catchment systems. To improve energy and atmosphere efficiency, buildings can use geographically and climatically appropriate energy resources, including renewable energy. Efforts to conserve materials and resources include using renewable, recycled, local, chemical-free, nonpolluting, and durable materials. Indoor environmental quality can be improved through the use of nontoxic materials, adequate ventilation and insulation, energy-efficient temperature controls, and materials that emit few or no volatile organic compounds.
In the twenty-first century, as environmental knowledge and building technologies continue to improve, the green building movement is gaining worldwide momentum. Given that commercial and residential buildings generate more than 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and represent 76 percent of total electricity consumption in the United States, the benefits of green building have become increasingly obvious. By 2022, more than 167 countries had developed their own LEED initiatives, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Israel, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Green buildings offer a number of economic benefits in the long term, including reduced costs for heating, cooling, and electricity. Global green building projects of 2023 include a solar-powered art gallery in Australia, building projects incorporating the use of bamboo in Thailand, the world’s tallest timber tower in Wisconsin, greenery-covered towers in China, and a library with a sloping green roof with photovoltaic arrays built into it.
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