Sustainable Urban Development

Green City

• Incorporate energy and water efficient technologies
   
• Use recycled content materials in their construction
   
• Reduce construction and demolition waste
   
• Are landscaped for water and energy efficiency
   
• Include renewable energy technologies
   
• Improve indoor air quality
   
• Provide a healthier and more comfortable environment
   
• Improve long-term economic performance
   
• Are built to last

The owners, designers and builders of green buildings are actively committed to:

• Maximizing savings through the efficient use of energy and water,
   
• Providing healthy, more comfortable interiors,
   
• Limiting the detrimental impacts of a building’s construction and operation
   
• Constructing buildings that will last.

Many of the harmful impacts to the environment come from the gathering of raw materials to make building products. After all, most of them—wood, metals, cement, bricks and blocks—originate in materials from the natural environment. Environmental damage also results from the land filling and improper disposal of construction and demolition waste materials. Further harm is caused through the production and delivery of energy and water to supply buildings.

Harmful human health impacts can result from poor air quality inside buildings, often the result of emissions from construction materials like glues, paints and other finishes. Poor maintenance and the use of certain cleaning materials can also cause air quality difficulties. Poorly designed and maintained lighting systems can result in glare and flicker that may cause vision problems. Most of people now spend more than 80% of their lives living, working and sleeping inside buildings, so people have more exposure to these problems than in the past.

The recognition that buildings can have such a serious impact on the natural environment and on our own health has led to the green building movement. Many of the movement’s new ideas have come from the building industry itself, as designers, builders and manufacturers have developed better ways of building.

Local government is also playing an important role, as communities around the country develop programs to encourage building green and promote sustainable development. As part of preparing local policies and programs, these communities have developed their own local definitions of green building. Many of the definitions include references to global, “big picture” environmental concerns; others focus on more specific local environmental issues such as energy and water use, and to the need for waste reduction. Many definitions also include references to minimizing possible negative health impacts on the occupants of buildings.

While the local priorities around the country may vary, all the programs have some basic themes in common. Underlying them all is a concern to minimize negative impacts on the environment and on human health that may result from the construction and operation of buildings.

Green building methods can improve the long-term durability and the economic and environmental performance of buildings, as well as provide a more comfortable and healthier indoor environment, at little or no extra cost compared to traditional buildings.

Lower Energy Costs
Investments in energy-efficient designs and equipment result in cost savings on energy bills (gas and electricity) and pay for themselves many times over during the life of the building. For example, by incorporating measures such as high-efficiency ductwork, fans and motors, efficient lighting and an energy management system, the SoCal Gas Energy Resource Center building in Downey, CA saves $40,000 per year in energy costs.

Lower Operating and Maintenance Costs
Incorporating efficient, longer life lighting equipment such as LED exit signs and compact fluorescent fixtures saves on maintenance costs. Water conservation measures like efficient appliances and fixtures, and water efficient landscaping can typically save up to 30% on water and sewer bills. For example, water and sewer costs at the Herman Miller factory were reduced by 65% compared to the old facility.

Improved Air Quality / Reduced Global Warming Impacts
Energy-efficient design and the use of renewable energy sources mean less fossil fuel being burned in power plants, resulting in lower air pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions, improved air quality and reduced global warming impacts.

Growth Management
Since green building practices minimize site disturbance, complement alternative transportation policies, reduce, reuse and recycle building materials, green building activities are consistent with other Berkeley planning policies.

Lower Waste Disposal Fees
Less waste generated at the job site means lower waste disposal or “tipping” fees. The Portland Trailblazers Rose Garden Arena project was able to divert over 50% of its construction and demolition debris, including wood, metal and cardboard, through reuse and recycling. The contractor also diverted large quantities of wallboard, concrete and asphalt. For a recycling cost of $19,000, the contractor avoided an estimated $166,000 in landfill costs.

Less Waste Going to Landfills
The Alameda County Waste Management Authority estimates that construction and demolition waste accounts for 16% of waste going to the landfill. The bulk of this material is wood waste, asphalt roofing, and gypsum wallboard, most of which is salvageable or recyclable.

Reduced Deforestation
The use of engineered lumber can require 50% less wood than standard lumber. Certified wood products come from forests which are sustainably managed and harvested. Use of 24 inch on-center framing can also reduce the quantity of wood used in construction, and reduce labor costs. Use of these products and techniques helps to reduce the rate at which trees are cut.

Healthier Indoor Environments
Reducing the levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) in paints, carpets, and adhesives helps improve indoor air quality and therefore, the health of the building occupants. This is consistent with Berkeley’s Healthy Building Policy and may also help avoid possible future costs of litigating and correcting ‘sick building syndrome.’

Increased Retail Sales
A study of a Wal-Mart store that included day-lighting from skylights in its design, showed increased sales in the day-lit areas.

Emerging Markets
Green building services and products are major emerging environmental business sectors. By promoting and applying green building practices, Berkeley can stimulate its Eco-Business sector consistent with the City Council’s mandate.

Increased Productivity
Improved visual and thermal comfort and indoor air quality results in a better work environment. This can improve productivity as well as reduce employee absenteeism. The West Bend Mutual Insurance building in West Bend, Wisconsin, included “environmentally responsive workstations” into its design. The workstations included individual controls for heating, ventilation and lighting. The result was a 16% increase in productivity and a 40% energy savings.

Buildings, not cars, are the major damagers of the Earth. Pollution from the heating and cooling of buildings exceeds that from cars. We just don't see it, except maybe from the chimneys of an older city on a cold Winter day. It happens at the power plant, and where the materials are made.

After agriculture, building is the second largest industry in the world. The manufacture of building materials consumes enormous energy, and exhaustible resources. To its credit, the building industry also uses the most renewables, i.e. lumber, but not without processing them to the nth degree, and usually without protecting them against degradation.

We are surrounded by technical innovations - in our cars, our communications, and our computers. Yet our largest lifetime purchase, our house, is built essentially the same as it was eighty years ago. The home that will literally define our lives for twenty, thirty, forty years into the future, is not future oriented.

Fortunately, this is about to change - the result of the emerging new practice of Environmental (sometimes called Sustainable) Architecture. Architecture must look into the future. We can't always get it right of course, but we can use "open channel" architecture to make it easy to add new, even unforeseen technology, and handle climate changes decades down the road. A house built to 1995 standards is obsolete before it is finished - how will it protect and comfort its occupants in 2025? Housebuilding, now an archaic laborious task at best, needs to be taken into the Twenty-First century and looked at by the ecologist, scientist, architect and engineer on a clean sheet of paper.

The basic goal of Environmental Architecture is simple: attractive, comfortable, affordable shelter that does no harm to the Earth in its manufacture, or its use. In practice this means:

Maximum use of renewable building materials. Obviously this is wood - already accepted, even cherished, for its beauty, workability, energy-efficiency, and now renewability. It should be used as close as possible to its natural state, but not untouched, as modern science can alter wood so that it will not rot, burn, or become food for insects. Wood is solar energy transformed by photosynthesis into building material. Enough wood grows every day in just the Southern US forests, to build 2000 homes. You don't get more sustainable than that.

Minimum use of non-renewable, energy-intensive building materials like steel, brick, vinyl, aluminum and insulation.

Catch the energy falling on the house, and latch on to the Geothermal Reserve in the Earth just beneath it. Use the excess heat from cooking, washing, and human activity in Winter, and design to get rid of it in Summer. Go with Nature instead of fighting, or isolating from it.

Design and build for long useful service life. This makes housing affordable, as the cost is spread over many generations. In Europe the typical design life of a home is 300 years.

The house must be sturdy, disaster resistant. Bullet-proof.

No life-threatening or building threatening dependencies on electricity - as in power out = freezing temperatures = burst pipes = a flooded basement. No power dependent air-to-air exchangers. No brownout/blackout sensitive cooling, as in a summer heat wave.

The house must be Futureproof, with access channels all around the structure to easily upgrade and add future technology. Making it convenient to run new cables, pipes and wires.

Capable of being "stand-alone" without connection to the gas mains, or electric utility grid. Even if street power is used at first, all homes must be designed this way. Solar electricity will be used eventually, within the design life of any quality structure built today.

Buildings must be low-maintenance, and forgiving if repairs are put off. No hidden cavities that might deteriorate from the inside out when a leak isn't fixed right away. No "crawl spaces" where damage could go on for months without inspection.

If parts of the house can be made in a factory with quality-control and economy-of-scale, do it. If it can be offered in Do-It-Yourself Kit form, it will be more affordable, and more will be built.

The Environmental house must be more comfortable and less costly than the conventional house to make a significant dent in the housing market. Each 20% reduction in the cost doubles the number of families who can build it. Yet it is incredible what an Ecological dent even one environmental house makes, preventing half-a-million pounds of pollution over thirty years. As few as 30,000 fuel-free homes can displace a Nuclear Plant. The goal, of course, is that every home be an Environmental home, reducing pollution to pre-industrial levels. Actually, this is more attainable than you might think, and won't take long, because the average conventional home isn't built to last and will soon need to be replaced!
 

Source:
http://enertia.com/envirarc.htm
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us