Green Buildings

Green Buildings



  • Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
  • Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
  • Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation[2]

A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally.[3] Other commonly used terms include sustainable design and green architecture.


Green building practices



Green building materials


Reduced Energy Use


After heating and cooling loads are reduced, high efficiency cooling, heating, and water heating equipment, along with insulated hot water pipes and properly sealed and insulated ducts increase whole house efficiency. Higher efficiency appliances and other electric devices not only lowers direct energy use, but also lowers cooling loads in the summer by producing less waste heat. Similarly, fluorescent lighting, which uses two-thirds to three-fourths less energy than conventional incandescent bulbs[12] lowers direct electricity use and cooling loads. Other improvements include adding thermal mass to stabilize daily temperature variations, absorption chillers, optimizing houses for natural ventilation, cool roofs in warm climates, heat recovery ventilation and hot water heat recycling.


Reduced Waste




Low vs. High-Density Residential Areas

An aspect of concern in consideration of green building design is the phenomenon of urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is the outward movement away from the cities in the surrounding hinterlands creating suburbs. Movement into the suburbs creates low density housing, which brings along many environmental impacts due to increased transportation, larger houses using more building materials, and larger amounts of land use.