scholarly journals Sustainable Construction, Green Building Strategic Model

Author(s):  
Mohamed Salama ◽  
Ashraf Hana

Academic and policy literature over the past four decades (from as early as the 1970s) has been, and still is, concerned with understanding and articulating the core principles of sustainable development and sustainable construction or, in other words, sustainable building and construction, which is a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach. The increasing global concern with the maintenance and improvement of the environment, as well as the protection of the human health has become an important aspect to be considered by construction companies worldwide. The chapter falls into two parts. The main aim of the first part is to present a critical review of the established theoretical frameworks in order to understand the topic in depth, and identify the main concepts and relevant dimensions or variables that have a crucial influence on promoting and implementing sustainable construction/green buildings practices. The second part presents the findings of a research study conducted by the authors (Salama and Hanna, 2013) that sought to develop a strategic model for implementing the green building initiative in the UAE; Green Building Strategic Model, (GBSM – UAE). Despite being based on the UAE case, the underpinning theoretical framework and the stages of modelling used in building, training and validating the model makes this section a useful read for all parties interested in the area of sustainable construction in general, and green buildings in particular, regardless of their geographical location.

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Best ◽  
Brian Purdey

The building that houses the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University is the first educational building to achieve a six Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. It has won numerous awards since opening in August 2008 including being judged the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Sustainable Building of 2009. After more than two years in use a post-occupancy evaluation study was carried out to assess the performance of the building from the viewpoint of the users; both resident staff and transient students. Results for factors such as lighting, thermal comfort, noise and air quality. were compared to benchmarks established by the Usable Buildings Trust. The evaluation also assessed the occupants’ perceptions of the building’s impact on their own productivity. Users generally find the building provides a comfortable work environment although a number of areas of performance were noted as posing some concerns. These included intrusive noise in some parts of the building and some issues with glare in daylit teaching spaces. Such concerns were found to be in accord with the results of previous studies and they highlight some recurrent problems in “green” buildings designed to maximise the use of natural ventilation and natural light. These design challenges and how occupant satisfaction is to be measured and benchmarked are also discussed in the context of this comparative building study.


2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Somayeh Roshanfekr ◽  
N.M. Tawil ◽  
N.A. Goh

This research work is an introduction to sustainable construction. A few significant indicators and many related subsets, which are crucial to green sustainable construction and also to green buildings, are mentioned in this study. An ecocity is one that utilizes all the critical elements of the environment. Urban sustainable construction is a vital criterion in this context. Sustainable construction paves the way for the building industry to progress towards achieving realistic standards of performance, particularly in view of economic, environmental, and social concerns. Sustainability is a popular expression that has given rise to various activities throughout the world once people began to grasp the implications of sustainable construction. Sustainability, which is an important factor in reducing the negative environmental effects of construction, includes improving the control and efficiency in the use of raw materials, land and power consumption. The lifetime of a building is based on some factors that are prognostic regarding the manufacture, remodelling, support, utilization, and administration of the building, and finally, the sources of utilization and waste formation, annihilation and devastation. All of these give rise to a range of ecological issues in the life of a building. Generally, a sustainable building and construction involves a reduction in the utilization of energy and also wastage from the beginning of the construction process and throughout the lifecycle of the building. Moreover, the environment is faced with mounting devastation due to the exploitation of natural resources for building construction and the replacement of agronomic regions by residential areas.


Author(s):  
D. P. Kothari

The green building design aims to minimize the need for the non-renewable energy of these resources, optimize their sustainability and maximize their conservation, recycling and usage. The use of effective building materials and construction techniques is maximized. Architectural bioclimatic technology will also optimize on-site usage of sources and sinks. It requires only minimum electricity to fuel itself and efficient appliances to meet its lighting, air-conditioning and other needs. Green buildings architecture optimizes the use of renewable energies and efficient waste and water management methods to create practical and hygienic working conditions for indoor environments. Materials such as chemical, physical and mechanical material properties and an appropriate specification are the fundamental elements of construction design and responsible for the mechanical strength of the design. The construction of green buildings is also the first step in choosing and utilizing eco-friendly materials with or better characteristics than traditional building materials. Based on the practical, technical and financial requirements, construction materials are usually selected. But, given that sustainable development has been a core issue in recent decades, building industry that is directly or indirectly responsible for a substantial share of annual environmental destruction, by pursuing environmentally sound constructions and buildings should take responsibility for contributing to sustainable growth. The quickest way for manufacturers to start integrating environmental design practices into buildings would be the diligent procurement of eco-friendly sustainable construction materials, including options for new material uses, recycling and reusing, organic product creation and green resource use. This paper aims to show how green building materials will help reduce the impact on the atmosphere and create a cleaner building that can be healthy for the occupant or our environment. In the sustainable progress of a nation, the choice of building materials that have reduced environmental burdens is helpful.


Engevista ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Eunice Mancebo ◽  
Deutsch Simone Feigelson ◽  
Orlando Celso Longo ◽  
Luciano Dos Santos Pereira

Before the formation of new concepts and awareness, both popular as institutional, sustainability is solidifying and consolidating itself on numerous fronts. The tourism and hospitality have made efforts to harmonize tendencies in a way to promote and consolidate this trend as a solution. The aim of this paper was to propose and establish a reflection on what would be the best certification to be used in Brazilian green buildings having as reference, five types of certificates used internationally in green projects that underline the sustainability dimension. It is necessary that construction companies along with the hotel chains have a model to assess the impact of a green building in tourism, accommodation and its impact on stakeholders. We understand that there isn’t  an ideal certification for green hotel buildings, so the relevance of this article to propose a reflection about the methodology of a green certificate that meets the requirements of a tropical country such as Brazil.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 528-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Achini Shanika Weerasinghe ◽  
Thanuja Ramachandra

Purpose In Sri Lanka, a limited number of buildings have been certified for incorporation of green features and the reasons are attributed to green building investors who continue to perceive that green buildings are expensive. Further, the green building investors fail to appreciate the subsequent benefits received by those buildings during the operational phase. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to compare the life cycle cost (LCC) of green certified industrial manufacturing buildings with a similar form of the conventional buildings to establish the economic sustainability of green buildings. Design/methodology/approach The study involved a comparative case study analysis of two green buildings and a similar natured conventional building. The data required to perform the LCC analysis were extracted through documentary analysis. Findings The comparative analysis shows that the construction cost of a green industrial manufacturing building is 37 per cent higher than that of a similar natured conventional building while operation, maintenance and the end life cost of green buildings result in 28, 22 and 11 per cent savings, respectively. This results in an overall cost saving of 21 per cent in green buildings. Originality/value The current study provides an assessment of the total LCC of green industrial manufacturing buildings. In Sri Lanka, green industrial manufacturing buildings offer LCC saving of 21 per cent over its lifetime compared to similar natured conventional buildings. Thus, comparative analyses would enable green investors to make informed decisions before commissioning their investment in green facilities and thereby promote sustainable construction in Sri Lanka.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 7081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Hoang Pham ◽  
Byeol Kim ◽  
Joosung Lee ◽  
Yonghan Ahn

The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program supports sustainable construction as part of the effort to address climate change and resource depletion. It is the world’s most popular green building certification system, with more than 146,400 projects. Satisfying the LEED requirements brings many benefits to a project’s design performance and adds community value, but it does incur additional costs and challenges. This study examined the choices made by those working on the 222 LEED New Construction version 4 (LEED-NC-V4) projects that were certified between September 2014 and March 2020 to determine how the LEED project teams selected appropriate LEED goals. The results reveal interesting insights into the way project LEED goals and the credits corresponding to the target certification level were chosen, as well as the links and trade-offs between the various credit options. Based on these findings, useful suggestions are made for ways to help LEED project teams achieve their target certification levels and encourage authorities to continue to improve their local green regulations. The analysis of actual certified projects’ data makes it possible to re-evaluate the effects of newly updated requests in LEED v4 in the light of the stated goals of the USGBC.


2015 ◽  
Vol 744-746 ◽  
pp. 1597-1600
Author(s):  
Yun Hui Yang ◽  
Bi Bo Ren

Green building or sustainable building and BIM are advancing on the construction industry faster than most practitioners’ anticipation around globe today. BIM adoption in construction has changed the existing construction industry practices to achieve better results with higher quality green buildings that perform at sustainable facilities and reduced costs, BIM provides the opportunity to realize numerous benefits throughout the project conception, design, construction and post occupancy phases of a green building facility, and BIM is also establishing a measurement standard for what is considered a green building. This paper represents the BIM applications in the U.S. green building management development with respect to various aspects of practice in construction.


Author(s):  
Senay Atabay ◽  
Asli Pelin Gurgun ◽  
Alper Goktug Demirbas

Design of green buildings involves specific processes compared to conventional construction projects that require participation of several disciplines. Having particular activities, functions, and physical aspects, green buildings impose their own difficulties during design. Building Information Modelling systems (BIM) use different software for virtual simulation of characteristics of projects, which promotes early detection of potential problems even before production of the intended design details. Implementing BIM technology in design stage, not only helps to minimize design problems, but also to shorten the stage itself. With this effect of BIM combined with sustainable practices and energy efficient technologies, design stage alone can be considered as a sustainable application of construction activities. Therefore, principles and requirements of green building certification systems can easily be performed for projects with capabilities of BIM technologies and tools. In this study, redesign of Yildiz Technical University, Faculty of Civil Engineering Building based on LEED certification system using BIM tools is presented. The project is prepared as part of a capstone project by senior civil engineering students. Design stages are planned to promote sustainability and qualify the requirements of LEED v3 BD+C (Schools). The main objective is to introduce the students to two major trends in construction industry (green buildings and BIM applications) and to create awareness of sustainable construction, green building certification systems and emerging technologies.


Author(s):  
Raj Vikram Singh ◽  
Krishnaraj Singh ◽  
Rahul Vyas

The purpose of this article is to provide planners with an introduction to the concept of green buildings and building assessment systems and to identify and explore the major themes in the literature as they relate to planning. Green building is one of the measures that has been put forward to alleviate the remarkable impacts of the building stock on the environment, society and economy. GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assesment) is a rating instrument that helps individuals evaluate their building's efficiency against certain benchmarks that are acceptable nationwide, it evaluates a building's environmental efficiency over its entire life cycle holistically. This paper reports a critical review of the GRIHA rating system and incentives provided by GRIHA in India, techniques, and methods for construction of the green building, financial aspects of the green building. The efficiency of different environment-friendly models is broadly discussed in this study. The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of green building in order to proceed towards sustainable construction in the future. 


Author(s):  
Kemal Solak

Certification systems used to test green buildings have become popular nowadays. In addition, there has been a gradual increase in the involvement of the players in the construction sector and public awareness of sustainability. These systems, which are useful in mitigating the building's environmental impacts, reveal difficulties in their implementation, especially for devoloping countries. Because of the problems affecting the population, such as air pollution and health problems, most world states came together and held conferences to take joint binding decisions. In Turkey, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is first on the total number of certified green buildings, followed by the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). This article summarizes the methodology used by some of these rating methods, shows a comparative approach between these rating systems, and provides an overview of how green building relates to sustainable development practices. Lastly, the building of the hospital was analyzed using  LEED certification system as a case study and the differences in the results were evaluated.


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