SUSTAINABILITY

In the broadest sense, Sustainability is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely with a fixed resource base. As applied to the human community, Sustainability means meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable Construction accomplishes this goal by employing building methods and materials that use less virgin material, consume less energy, create less pollution and waste yet still provide all of the functionality of a traditional construction project. Sustainable Construction brings with it a host of other benefits noted below.

Environmental Benefits:

Enhance and protect ecosystems and biodiversity
Improve air and water quality
Reduce solid waste
Conserve natural resources

Economic Benefits:

Reduce operating costs
Enhance asset value and profits
Improve employee productivity and satisfaction
Optimize life-cycle economic performance

Health and Community Benefits:

Improve air, thermal, and acoustic environments
Enhance occupant comfort and health
Minimize strain on local infrastructure
Contribute to overall quality of life

Buildings and the Environment
The past decade has seen a dramatic change in how we perceive the built environment and its effect on our future. While buildings and development provide countless benefits to society, they also have significant environmental impacts. Building construction and operation consumes the majority of energy and raw materials produced in this country, leading transportation and industry by wide margins. In short, buildings are responsible for:

72% of all electricity produced
40% of all energy produced
39% of all CO2 emissions
14% of potable water use
40% of all raw materials produced
60% of all waste generated is C&D (construction & demolition)

While the environmental argument alone is a compelling reason to consider a green building, with energy and materials costs constantly escalating it just makes good business sense to reduce the amount of energy and resources our buildings consume.

With over 170,000 new commercial buildings added every year to the inventory of 4.7 million buildings the above statistics are only going to increase unless more attention is paid to the sustainability of the buildings we construct.

It is the socially responsible thing to do.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY
It is often assumed that a "green" building will be energy efficient, but this is not always the case. Buildings can gain green certification based on environmental factors other than energy efficiency; a building certified as green may actually not be any more energy efficient than a conventional building. When considering the green attributes you wish to incorporate in your project energy efficiency should be first on the list. Energy efficiency is important not only for the environmental concerns attributed to energy use, but because among all of the green options available it provides the greatest economic return.