Home » Forums » Household » Green Building

Green Building Benefits

EcoHomes

  

Green Building Benefits

by www.builditgreen.org  

Green building practices are more important now than ever due to climate change, natural resource depletion, rising energy costs, pollution and its impacts on health, and overall reduced quality of life. For example:

  • The U.S. has only 4.5% of the world’s population but contributes 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions – World Resources Institute
  • Buildings in the U.S. account for 70% of its total electricity consumption – U.S. Department of Energy
  • Buildings in the U.S. consume 15 trillion gallons of water per year – U.S. Geological Service
  • Most Americans spend over 90% of their time indoors, but indoor air pollutants are generally two to five times higher than outside air - EPA
  • The prevalence of asthma has doubled since 1976 - EPA
  • The average U.S. household loses $150 worth of energy in the form of heated or cooled air escaping through holes and cracks every year – American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
  • For every $1 reduction in annual utility costs resulting from energy efficiency retrofits, the market value of a home increases by $10-$25 - Appraisal Journal
  • 10 million Americans drive more than an hour to work, 50 percent more than in 1990 - The Preservation Institute

Green buildings are sited, designed, constructed, and operated to enhance the well-being of their occupants and support a healthy community and natural environment. They are instrumental in helping society achieve the “triple bottom line” goal of economic, environmental, and social success.

Market growth

The Wall Street Journal recently named green building one of the top 10 trends in architecture. According to a study by the U.S. Green Building Council, the annual market for green building products and services grew 34% from 2003 to 2004, and research led by the Green Building Alliance indicates that “the green building products market will be worth $30-$40 billion annually by 2010” using conservative projections.

Green building is the construction standard for the future and the smart solution for today. No matter where you fit into the market, green building offers numerous benefits for:

 

Town rebuilds green ›

Submitted by EcoHomes on Fri, 02/01/2008 - 21:41.

athena
Re: Green Building Benefits

Hi jstack

I believe that the greatest difficulty to making change is the integrating of clever  ways into an existing stupid program.  Building from scratch is hardly an option , and unions/professionals will surely object to everything different.

Zoning and different tax rates for residential/commercial have created a lot of the problems, but that will take forever to fix.  A common tax rate and some encouragement for people to conduct business from their homes would make small community businesses viable.  A home kitchen is good enough to bake bread for your husband but if you made 2 dozen loaves and sold them to your neighbours you would be violating a book full of rules that favour the big operator.

We are finally seriously talking about light train systems, and my first idea is to build park-and-ride lots at main terminals where there could be a fleet of rental electric vehicles to do the final mile.   These could include a few taxis.  Imagine what this will do to the insurance industry when drivers rather than vehicles are what's insured. Different rental rates for different drivers. The fleet of vehicles would have all the same main components to provide parts for repairs and dramatically reduce the costs of keeping a car on the road. This is a rental fleet, so used, rather than new parts can be used.  How about having them with the capacity to link together so that one driver can move more people or one disabled vehicle could easily be recovered by another?  No more AAA.


Thu, 04/24/2008 - 05:16

jstack6
jstack6's picture
Re: Green Building Benefits

They just started a GREEN building program in my city. We are having the 2nd meeting 2-12-2008. So far they have agreed to use the LEDD standards so all builders can work with the same standards as other cities are using. I think this will help more builders and planners with know standards. I was asked to be on the task force. I accepted right away.

  The city itself will require gold standards for all of it's new buildings. This is a great step. Our County is also working on energy projects. They see how they save water and energy and they pay for themselves. This is great progress ! 

 

solar stacks

--

solar stacks


Mon, 02/11/2008 - 21:19

jstack6
jstack6's picture
Re: Green Building Benefits

the city standards should be out soon. All buildings will aim for LEED gold. solar stacks

--

solar stacks


Tue, 04/29/2008 - 04:47

jstack6
jstack6's picture
Re: Green Building Benefits

This didn't even list how it makes our economy stronger and improves health. It can even tie in with cleaner vehicles that have V2G Vehicle to Grid oprions  the Benefits are really big.  

the solar stacks

--

solar stacks


Sat, 02/02/2008 - 10:20