Green Construction:
A Growing Global Trend
How to Build Green Today and What to Expect Tomorrow
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
Introduction
Buildings and the process of constructing them accounts for over 30% of total
global energy use. This isn’t necessarily a black mark on construction, though—
in fact, it highlights a great opportunity for the industry to make positive
changes. It’s an opportunity that many in the construction industry have noted
and are acting on. Green building is no longer just a trend; it is a revolution that
is here to stay. Construction firms that ignore this are at risk of getting left
behind. This reading materials will discuss about global trend named A Green
Construction; How to Build Green Today and What to Expect Tomorrow.
Learning Objectives
Through this reading materials, participants are able to undesrtand concept of
green construction and elaborate with the environmental impact in the future.
Competency Units
01. Participants were able to explain the concept of green construction
and how that relate to environmental impacts.
02. Participants were able to analyze best practice for implementing
green construction
03. Participants were able to explain the future of green construction
Topics
This materials will consist of three main topics; Understanding Green
Construction, Best Practices for Implementing Green Construction, and The
Future of Green Building.
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
Did you know?
A study conducted by Earthjustice and the
Environmental Integrity Project looking at 292
coal plants operating in America found that as
many as 91% of coal-fired power plants in
America (265 of 292) were known to have
polluted groundwater with toxic pollutants.
This study is a continuation of a study from
Earthjustice in 2019. It was found that 242 of the
265 US power plants that monitor groundwater
had reported unsafe levels of at least one
pollutant originating from coal ash. More than
half of the facilities reported unsafe levels of
arsenic, a carcinogen linked to various types of
cancer, with 60% finding elevated levels of
lithium, which has been linked to neurological
damage.
Understanding Green Construction
Green construction refers to optimising the building process to minimise
negative. Impacts on the environment and its inhabitants while maximising
the positive aspects of the finished structure. This doesn’t end when
construction wraps up. Proper planning and design can help a structure
qualify as green while it’s in use and even during the eventual demolition of
the structure.
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
Construction’s Environmental Impact
The process of constructing anything can impact the environment in multiple
ways, including:.
• Direct destruction of ecosystems due to mining, logging and other
techniques for extracting raw materials.
• Waste, water and air pollution and high energy use required for building
material manufacturing processes, with estimates that anywhere from
5% to 8% of global CO2 emissions come from cement production alone.
• Erosion and runoff on the construction site that can damage local
waterways and affect plant life.
• Air pollution through the use of heavy machinery that runs on emissions-
producing diesel or gasoline engines.
• High levels of CO2 emissions when materials and equipment are
transported long distances.
• Spills or other accidents that directly contaminate soil, air and water with
toxic chemicals.
These issues can threaten the bottom line of every part of the supply chain.
Building material manufacturers who reduce waste don’t just help the
environment hey’re also likely to see increased profits by taking advantage of
every last scra of raw material.
Essential Components of Green Construction
The hundreds of methods that make construction more environmentally
friendly can be summed up in six major categories.
01. Energy efficiency
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
Structures built with green methods require less energy during
construction and during occupation. Layout adjustments, insulation
amounts, land siting and alignment and even the color of the exterior
materials can all improve energy efficiency.
02. Reduction of waste
With better planning, constructing a new structure can generate
practically no wasted materials at all.
03. Low-impact building materials
On-site waste reduction directives matched with the use of building
materials that produce less waste during manufacturing significantly
reduces the impact of construction. Not all of these low-impact
building materials are new and unfamiliar; many are the same
standard materials (such as dimensional lumber for framing) simply
manufactured to tighter standards.
04. Indoor air quality
Careful material selection does more than just reduce waste and
improve the profit margins on a project. Interior finishing materials
that release little to no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) result in
healthier environments for their residents.
05. Site impact
Placement of a structur on the site can be optimised to take
advantage of natural light and passive heating and cooling
opportunities to reduce energy use. Proper placement and
preparation of the raw land also educes the chances of erosion, water
damage to the foundation and many related problems. Careful siting
that saves existing trees doesn’t just enrich the local environment, it
can also keep the building cooler thanks to shading.
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
06. Water use
Minimising water waste and controlling excess water outside the
building can be achieved with green construction techniques.
Buildings use 14% of all potable water consumed globally, but a few
small adjustments can make a big difference in saving safe drinking
water for more important uses than flushing and washing.
Moving toward Standardisation
Green construction initiatives started in the 1980s and 1990s, but early
attempts at optimising building techniques and materials were piecemeal and
suffered from a lack of standardisation.
Standards for green construction are essential, so different techniques can be
selected based on their proven merits. The Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) rating system developed in the late 1990s was
an early attempt at standardising the green construction process, but now
there are multiple choices in most countries for quantifying the efficiency of
any particular structural design.
Today I Learn!
One of the iconic buildings in the world that has implemented green building is
the Shanghai Tower, China. One technology that makes a big contribution to
energy savings at the Shanghai Tower is Danfoss technology. This technology
provides thousands of water control valves that contribute greatly to the
efficiency of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in the tower.
As a green building in the world, the Shanghai Tower contributes to reducing
carbon emissions and the technology used can reduce energy consumption by
21% or around 37,000 metric tons per year. Shanghai Tower has also received
awards, one of which is LEED Platinum Certification by getting above 80 points.
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
Best Practices for Implementing Green Construction
A commitment to embracing green construction practices is just the start. In
order to get good results and attract new environmentally minded clients,
construction firms need to follow the best practices for implementation of
green construction concepts. Here are five of the best practices for going green
as a construction firm, regardless of the size of the business or the sector of the
construction industry served.
01. Going Green Internally
Turn a critical eye to internal business practices. From paperless office
filing systems to energy-efficient lighting and low-flow water fixtures,
going green internally demonstrates a construction firm’s
commitment to the process goes beyond lip service.
02. Staying on Top of Local and Global Developments
Construction practices considered to be the pinnacle of green
building today can quickly go out of style, be replaced, or be proven
ineffective. Keeping abreast of green construction techniques takes a
lot of work but is essential to stay competitive. Designate a team
within the firm that is responsible for tracking the latest
developments and determining which are right for the company. If
an entire team of green specialists is impracticable, find at least one
member of each major department who can determine which green
construction innovations are right to embrace.
03. Choosing a Rating System
Trying to appeal to all clients looking for green construction is simply
too much for even the biggest and most experienced companies.
Firms that are still expanding into green construction should start
with a popular rating system or design modality and build their
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
familiarity with it before moving on to a new one. Globally, LEED is
one of the most popular green building evaluation systems, with over
90,000 commercial buildings participating in the program as of 2018
and is a good starting point for most firms. Training to meet the
specific requirements of anpopular rating system helps fill in any gaps
in existing approaches.
04. Investing in Training
Green construction often requires hundreds or even thousands of
small adjustments to the building process to reach the goals of the
finished structure. As a result, construction workers may need
comprehensive training to become familiar with current techniques.
Simply specifying the use of the new methods and not training the
workers on them will only lead to low rates of adoption and a return
to the familiar work processes. All the design improvements in the
world can’t make a structure green if the workers constructing it are
failing to follow the specifications due to a lack of belief in its value.
05. Embracing Construction Technology
Green building methodologies significantly increase the complexity
of every stage from planning to construction, so powerful
construction technology is vital. Cloud-based apps, like PlanGrid
Build, offer seamless sharing of the latest drawings and plans. Now
everyone from the project manager down to individual workers can
stay abreast of project information, including the green techniques
currently in use on a project. Modelling software is also essential for
creating designs and building plans that perform as promised after
construction wraps up.
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
In our industry wide Northern Europe report, Digital Sustainability: The Path to
Net Zero for Design & Manufacturing and Architecture, Engineering &
Construction (AEC) industries, we found that construction companies see
material alternatives and lean onstruction as promising areas for increasing
their sustainability over the next two years. With this, training and skills
development on identifying and embedding new ways of working to create
more sustainable outcomes will be vital.
Today I Learn!
Albion Library in Canada applies a sustainable concept and uses innovative
technology in accordance with the environmentally friendly concept
standards, called the Toronto Green Standard. This library building has
reduced energy use by 40% above the national average in the building
category.
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
The Future of Green Building
The global market for green construction is projected to reach $364.6 billion
USD by 2022. Not only will demand for this kind of low-impact building grow
over the next 25 years, it will also change dramatically. Looking ahead into the
future of green construction will help construction firms plan their next moves.
Smart Cities and Integrated Buildings
For millennia, cities have developedorganically and haphazardly, but
tomorrow’s cities will be smart and designed carefully from the bottom up.
Smart cities integrate the Internet of Things to make urban environments
responsive to the needs of their residents. As buildings integrate more and
more advanced technology, demand for improved green construction
methods will accelerate.
New and Stricter Certifications
Green construction remains primarily optional on a global level, but many
regions already require some kind of green certification for new construction.
The EU’s nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) require that new buildings have
high energy performance which comes mostly from renewable sources. The
Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires all new buildings to be
nearly zero-energy by the end of 2020. In the United States, California has a
mandate that all new commercial construction must achieve a zero net energy
rating by 2030. China has its own green building standards based heavily on
LEEDcertification and has mandated that at least 50% of new urban
construction will meet this standard by the end of 2020. These requirements
will only grow and spread in the next quarter century.
Overhauls for Existing Structures
The two sectors of new construction and renovation are likely to overlap more
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
in coming years as existing structures require more advanced remodeling
than in the past. New construction is obviously the prime time for optimising
for green performance, but older and aging buildings will need plenty of
attention to bring them up to speed as well. Construction firms that once
found renovation work too time-consuming or less profitable than new
construction will likely expand as budgets for remodeling grow to compensate
for the need for green technologies.
Greater Reliance on Big Data
Embracing construction technology to analyse and model designs is a
requirement for today’s green construction, but future building techniques will
rely on big data as well. Within 25 years, every new construction project will
begin with a sampling of data showing everything from the projected impact
on surrounding structures to the latest demands of the expected residents.
Embracing data is likely to streamline the green construction process in ways
that are impossible to imagine today.
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
Conclusion
Green construction isn’t going anywhere, so
it’s time for construction firms in all sectors of
the industry to embrace it. As construction
technology continues to grow and evolve, it
will be interesting to see how green
construction changes and grows alongside it.
Thankfully, going green during the building
process is easier than ever, thanks to the
proliferation of powerful construction
technology tools available today.
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
Self-Reflection
Self-reflection aims to create sustainable, comprehensive, integrated, honest,
systematic and contextual learning for your learning journey.
Answer some of the questions below!
Before I studied this I had already know about …
chapter
I didn’t understand about …
When I was studying this Difficullities:
chapter
How I overcome dificulties:
Having studied this I understood about …
chapter
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
Sources:
1. Energy Efficiency: Buildings,
International Energy Agency
2. Green Building: Basic Information,
United States Environmental
Protection Agency
3. Global CO2 emissions from cement
production, Robbie M. Andrew, CICERO
Center for International Climate
Research, January 2018
4. Benefits of Green Building, U.S. Green
Building Council
5. What is Green Building?, U.S. Green
Building Council
6. Green Building Accelerates Around the
World, Poised for Strong Growth by
2021, U.S. Green Building Council
7. Green Building Materials Market Size
Worth $364.6 Billion By 2022, Grand
View Research
8. California’s Net Zero Mandate Is
Shaking Up the Home Building
Industry, Proud Green Building
9. China’s clean, green buildings of the
future, World Economic Forum
Green Construction: A Growing Global Trend
