Introduction to Green Building:

Green Building is not a new concept. Locally, we are only beginning the transition towards more sustainable practises in the way we design and develop our buildings, but green buildings have been around a lot longer than you might expect. The first buildings we developed as a species were green. For hundreds of years, in fact right up until the beginning of the industrial revolution, we used natural materials in our construction. We worked with the sun to ensure that we made the best use of its heat and light, and we innovatively channelled water for our use.

During the industrial revolution, construction followed the trend of the day and became a mechanised process. Globally the need to house more and more people and build bigger buildings became a priority, and new synthetic materials and resources provided cost effective and efficient solutions to our built environment needs. While we did succeed in creating bigger buildings and housing more people on less land, we did so without realising that we were negatively affecting our environment. Soon pollution became intollerable, our invasion on natural spaces lead to a loss in habitats for flora and fauna. We essentially designed nature out of the equation and the resulting cities and settlements now face many threats which could have been avoided through more sustainable design.

The new Green Building revolution occurred as a result of the peak oil crisis that occurred in the Northern Hemisphere in the 1970’s. At the time, many European countries and American cities were facing increasing blackouts and load shedding, as well as severe pollution problems. Designers and urban planners found that the answer to the energy crisis could be found in changing the way cities were powered and designed.

As with all sustainable solutions, achieving the end goal begins with innovative design. Building Green aims to reduce the negative environmental impacts associated with the building and development industries.

New technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures. The common objective is that Green Buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment. A well designed Green Building will:

Passive Design

Green Building combines various practices and techniques to reduce and ultimately eliminate the impact buildings have on the environment and human health. A green building will take full advantage of renewable resources and work with nature, not against it, to achieve a comfortable built environment.

While many of the practises of Green Building will differ from country to country, the fundamental principles that contribute to a Green Building remain the same.The design of a Green Built environment should consider:

The siting of the structure and how it efficiently interacts with the natural environment.

The success of any construction project is rooted in the concept and design stages. The concept stage is one of the most important steps in a project life cycle, and has the greatest impact on the cost and performance of the project. When designing environmentally optimised buildings, the primary aim is to minimise the total environmental impact associated with the total life cycle of the building project. A Green Building interacts with its natural environment and aligns with the existing flows and limitations of the Biosphere that supports it.

The needs of the occupants.

The Green Building will take into account your spacial needs and adjust its allocations and common places to create a comfortable flow of interactive spaces. Often we overdevelop our buildings in terms of size and underdevelop our building in terms of functionality.

Energy efficient design.

Green Buildings will always include design principles and measures to reduce the amount of energy required to operate the building comfortably. To increase energy efficiency of the building envelope, designers will use materials and insulation with a high thermal rating. A highly efficient building will have an ambient temperature year round, reducing the amount of additional heating and cooling required. Well insulated building envelopes are often combined with passive solar building design. The placement of doors, window and external elements are considered; as are internal spatial design and how the building absorbs, retains and looses heat and light.

By improving your buildings energy efficiency, you can will reduce your demand for electricity, heating and cooling. This in turn will reduce the operating expense of your building.

The adaptability of the building for future uses.

The nature of a Green Building is that it often lasts much longer than a conventional building. It is important that the future utilisation of the building is taken into account to ensure that the building can easily adapt to future needs without requiring major renovations.

Energy Optimisation and Alternative Energy Technology

South Africa's supply of electricity is under extreme pressure to meet the demands of our growing population, and as the impacts of global climate change rise, there are concerns for energy independence and security. It is essential to find ways to reduce load, increase efficiency, and utilise renewable energy resources. Optimising the way we use energy leads to a more efficient built environment that need less energy to operate.

As Eskom's tariffs continue to increase, the cost of implementing alternative energy systems is becoming more and more favorable. When you purchase an alternative energy system, you are investing in an energy asset which you own. You are future proofing your built environment against the uncertainties of future energy security from our national provider.

By utilising renewable energy, you tap into natural flows of energy, such as sunlight, moving water, wind, biological or geothermal processes. These are part of natural cycles.

The primary benefit of using renewable energy resources is that they do not contribute to carbon-based warming and polluting agents being released into the Earth’s atmosphere. The cost of these systems are not always cheap, but when we consider the cost to the Earth of using fossil based fuels to generate our energy, renewable energy systems become very attractive. You are paying to ensure that the energy you use doesn’t cause any adverse environmental impacts.

Because there are no harmful emissions associated with the use of these systems, you can also factor in an indirect savings to the general health and vitality of the people who populate the environment. In short, buying your energy up front for life ensures that your demand for energy doesn’t affect any other living system.

Water Systems

Water is the most precious resource known to man. Often, water is abused, misused and misunderstood. Our world has a renewable but limited supply of water. The world population is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2025 and some areas will exceed their renewable water supply. Several countries are expected to face severe water stress due to climate changes, and water shortages are likely to increase. South Africans need to prepare themselves for severe water shortages, which will not only affect economic growth but also the way we utilise this precious resource.

When designing a green built environment and indeed, a green landscape, we need to re assess the way we understand and utilise water. We need to design to protect our water availability and design for conservation and recycling of our water.

Waste reduction and management

It is vital to have a well designed waste management strategy. Of all the impacts mankind has on our environment, the waste we produce is by far the most damaging. On average, South Africans produce 910kg’s of waste per person per year.

Managing your waste is not merely about recycling the waste you generate, but more importantly about identifying where you can reduce waste in the first place. Any item that is recycled is subject to a process of transformation that often requires incredible amounts of energy and the end result is almost always of a lesser quality than the original. This means that during recycling, there are energy losses and technical nutrient losses in the material cycle.

These losses can also occur as emissions or toxification of landfill. Each time an item is recycled, it loses more of its own embodied energy. Although recycling plays an important role in managing the unavoidable wastes we generate, it is not a sustainable solution on its own.

Waste can and should be avoided at the source. By shifting purchasing and consumption habits, it is possible to reduce the quantity of waste you bring onto the property in the first place, making it much easier to effectively deal with the unavoidable wastes.

Material Management and Product selection

A sustainable building is constructed of materials that minimise life-cycle environmental impacts such as global warming, resource depletion, and human toxicity. Environmentally preferable materials have a reduced effect on human health and the environment and contribute to improved worker safety and health, reduced liabilities, reduced disposal costs, and achievement of environmental goals.

Benefits of Green Building

Environmental benefits:

Getting Accredited

There are various benefits to going the certified route and having your Green Building rated. Locally, many of the tools are still in development under the Green Star rating system of the Green Building Council of South Africa. It is also possible to utilize the LEED rating tool (under the USGBC) for building that do not align with the locally available tools. Some of the benefits of rating your building include:

Earth Patrol can assist you in strategic planning that will align your built environment with Green Building standards.