Evaluating the Environmental Impact Score of a Residential Building Using Life Cycle Assessment

Buildings consume major amount of energy as well as natural resources leading to negative environmental impacts like resource depletion and pollution. The current task for the construction sector is to develop an evaluation tool for rating of buildings based on their environmental impacts. There are various assessment tools and models developed by different agencies in different countries to evaluate building's effect on environment. Although these tools have been successfully used and implemented in the respective regions of their origin, the problems of application occur, especially during regional adaptation in other countries due to peculiarities associated with the specific geographic location, climatic conditions, construction methods and materials. India is a rapidly growing economy with exponential increase in housing sector. Impact assessment model for a residential building has been developed based on life cycle assessment (LCA) framework. The life cycle impact assessment score was obtained for a sample house considering fifteen combinations of materials paired with 100% thermal electricity and 70%-30% thermal-solar combination, applying normalization and weighting to the LCA results. The LCA score of portland slag cement with burnt clay red brick and 70%-30% thermal-solar combination (PSC+TS+RB) was found to have the best score and ordinary Portland cement with flyash brick and 100% thermal power (OPC+T+FAB) had the worst score, showing the scope for further improvement in LCA model to include positive scores for substitution of natural resources with industrial waste otherwise polluting the environment.

Well-Being Concept and Interior Design Process

Well-being is an ephemeral condition in relation to the complex system of interconnected components changing from culture to culture and person to person together with time and space. Therefore, it is very important to investigate the intersections of architecture and humanities in order to understand how design can contribute to the way we build up well-being. The specific contribution of this chapter is the introduction of the well-being framework for interiors and its application to design process. The framework proposal, consisting of contextual, functional, psychological, social, ergonomic, aesthetic, and sensory requirements as basic design criteria, aims to support both theoretical and practical activities regarding well-being in all living environments. Since interior space is one of the most important determinants of our everyday experiences, its role in well-being as a conscious construct needs to be an important concern of spatial design.

Rethinking Waste Through Design

This chapter will study the proliferation of architectural follies that use recycled or recyclable materials in a move to promote better practices in waste and recycling. Given the slow uptake of this impetus in the architectural world proper, the text will investigate the obstacles in engaging in materially sustainable practices in the construction industry as well as case studies for rethinking currently problematic materials. However, while some improvements have been made in the construction industry's use of recycled materials, the industry often dismisses the afterlife of materials used throughout the process. What are the motivations of the industry and how can we incentivize circular thinking in an industry that produces hundreds of millions of tons of waste per year in the US?

Green Building Technologies

Buildings are responsible for 40% of global energy use and produce over a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. These impacts are being acknowledged and addressed in specialist building design techniques and technologies that aim to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings. These techniques and technologies can be referred to collectively as green building technologies. This chapter describes green building technologies and shows why they are vital in addressing climate change and reducing the negative environmental impacts associated with built environments. A structured approach is presented which can be applied to identify and integrate green building technologies into new and existing buildings. By combining global implications with technical detail, the chapter provides a valuable guide to green building technologies and their role in supporting a transition to a more sustainable future.

Green Architecture of Malay Traditional House Exhibitions

Mini Malaysia and ASEAN Cultural Park (MMACP) is one of the tourism spots in Melaka which showcases the Malay traditional houses from thirteen states in Malaysia. Most of the visitors viewing the houses depicting the culture of each states. Contrarily we revisited the park with a curiosity and we would like to know, “How far these Malay traditional houses portray the green architecture?” We designed this research in an exploratory, looking the Malay traditional houses found in MMACP and trace for their green architectural criteria. Through observation, we analysed the data from our field notes, photos, description found on the park's storyboards and explanations from the tour guides. We can conclude that the Malay traditional houses are green buildings that portray green architecture. From this research, we appreciate our forefathers' skills and wisdom, to build the houses that harmonise with the environment.

Political Economy of the Green Innovations in the Construction Industry

Green innovations are important in enhancing sustainability performance of the industries and of their outputs. They can influence the carbon emissions, energy efficiency of the industries affecting global green trade, and energy policies. Construction industry is one of the main industries contributing to the global economy and sustainable development. It has, however, bigger environmental footprint than majority of the other industries. Green innovations can contribute to the reduction in the environmental footprint of the construction industry. For this reason, green innovation in the construction industry needs to be supported by the effective policies. This chapter aims to introduce and investigate the political economy of the green innovations in the construction industry. This chapter emphasizes that the effectiveness of the green innovations in the construction industry can be fostered by effective political economy and strategies.

3XE

For designers proceeding with work in accordance with nZEB, management strategy means that participants of different disciplines have to accept that surrounding environment parameters are in constant interaction with design. This further points out the necessity to understand the correlations taking place between local and existing environments, when buildings should be fitted out with systems working in interaction between the local and general biosphere parameters. Hence, within the construction business, such development means integrated proceedings in all design phases and construction sphere itself, integration of the artificial systems allowing for the buildings function and parameters characteristic to the local surroundings. This condition also applies to nZEB buildings, except that the parameters are more limited to passive and active solutions used for achieving effective energy choices, while maintaining required user comfort parameters and environmental balance. This chapter is dedicated to management procedures for nZEB investments from a Polish perspective.

Green Smart Building

Non-sustainable buildings have threatened the ecosystem globally. In this chapter, a comprehensive discussion on the green and smart building is presented, considering how the buildings are made green and smart and how they support in developing sustainable cities. Though smart buildings are the positive catalyst towards sustainability, the excessive use of electronic devices puts a check in attaining the overall green goal. This chapter suggests merging green and smart technologies to have green smart building (GSB) with the aim of offering the populations a smart and eco-friendly living. Promises and challenges in attaining this goal are meticulously explored. The GSB concept is discussed in detail, suitably supported with the architectural models of overall and the various components of a GSB. The communication architecture is also presented emphasizing on various entities and activities in different levels of communication between various digital components of a GSB. A few cases have been presented showing practical applications of green and smart technologies in buildings.

Financing the Green Building Retrofitting Investments

The main financial barrier of large scale implementation of green building retrofitting investments is due to the relatively large investment volume needed, compared to the future flow of yearly energy savings or/and yearly estimated differences of incomes collected, if the building is a commercial building (commercial center, office building, hotel or even residential rental building). The uncertainty implicitly involved in this estimation, both for the future savings and for the yearly differences of incomes, which are usually not very large, both make these investments apparently not so attractive for private investors, especially for owners of residential buildings, with limited self-financing power. Nevertheless, from the society point of view, the benefits created by saving the energy and consequently reducing the carbon foot print, can be very attractive. That is why the public support is often used as an “impulse solution” for implementation of these investments. The Cost Benefit Analysis methodology, particularized for these investments, is presented in this chapter.

Green Finance for Sustainable Global Growth

Green buildings have become one of the most famous and fastest growing construction concepts. As the world is becoming environmentally viable, all investors and contractual workers will need to know the figures of green financing and if the dangers of contributing are justified regardless of the arrival sum. This chapter aims to compare green building and conventional building using the cost differences and economy impact to ascertain the benefits of green building over the conventional building of green building. Data was collected through questionnaire survey from 50 construction professionals. The result of this chapter shows that green buildings are more expensive than conventional buildings; however, the benefits accrue from green building makes green building cheaper in the long run.