70101 09 Your Role in the Green Environment

70101 -09 Your Role in the Green Environment

Embodied Energy The total energy required to bring a product to market

Carbon Cycle The transfer of carbon between the earth and the atmosphere

Ecological footprint The amount of land area it takes to support you

Water footprint The number of gallons of water per year required to sustain your life style

The products you buy, the energy you consume, the waste you throw away, and the travel you undertake all contribute to your overall carbon footprint.

Some changes are independent of human actions. The changes in the seasons, for example, are a result of the earth's angle relative to the sun. These changes have regular and predictable effects on temperature and weather in many parts of the world.

The fuel required to power cars, factories and the buildings is also mined or extracted from the environment. The burning of these fuels has consequences for the green environment as well.

Deforestation also contributes to global warming because trees reduce greenhouse gases. Preservation of forest areas can help slow global warming

Overgrazing and overuse of groundwater has led to aquifer depletion

In addition to durable products, the U. S. Department of Agriculture reports that Americans also spend an average of $40 person per week on food, much of which requires extensive use of water and fossil fuel energy to produce, process, and transport to the table.

The average U. S. household is annually responsible for the production of 3500 pounds of garbage, 450, 000 gallons of wastewater, and 54, 000 pounds of CO 2.

Every product you use has a hidden history of harvesting, extraction, manufacturing, and transportation that causes impacts beyond what you see in the product itself. The total energy required to bring a product to market is known as embodied energy. It includes everything from raw material extraction to manufacturing to final transport and installation.

Leverage points are small changes that make a big difference.

Buy Energy Star appliances and devices. These products perform in the top 25% of their product class in terms of energy use and contribute to overall energy conservation.

Over half of the carbon footprint of most Americans is due to transportation choices.

Carpool and/or combine trips whenever possible. The greatest amount of air pollution is released when an engine is cold.

Airplanes are among the largest contributors to carbon emissions, and their emissions are made worse by the fact that they occur high in the atmosphere.

After construction, the operation and maintenance phase of the life cycle begins. The building is used to meet the design needs. This is typically the longest phase of the life cycle

The first category of best practices deals with the facility site and landscape. The most important decision for a building is the selection of a site. After that, the next most important decision is where to put the building on the site. These two decisions affect the building's performance over its life cycle.

Choosing a site that is a brownfield is a possibility. A brownfield site may have real or perceived environmental contamination. Cleaning up a brownfield represents a positive step for the community.

Softscape refers to the vegetated parts of a site, such as grass, trees, and bushes. Hardscape refers to areas that are paved or otherwise developed.

Bioswales and rain gardens are engineered basins that collect stormwater. They are similar in purpose except that rain gardens tend to have a more formal layout of plants and stones, while bioswales are planted using a more natural approach. Once collected, the water is percolated slowly back into the soil.

High albedo pavements help to minimize the urban heat island effect, which is caused in part by dark asphalt and buildings that absorb rather than reflect heat.

Water may appear to be abundant, but less than 3% of all water on Earth is freshwater. the rest is salt water, which is mostly unusable.

To conserve this precious resource, the most important action you can take is to eliminate unnecessary uses of water.

These include low flow or aerated fixtures and alternate types of controls. Aeration is the introduction of air into the water flow. It is a common technique to reduce the actual flow of water in faucets and showerheads while maintaining the perception of high volume flow.

One alternative source of fresh water is known as rain water harvesting. It involves capturing and using rainwater. Rainwater harvesting has been used on a small scale since development began.

Another alternative source of water is graywater. This is used water from sinks, showers, and laundry facilities. It is called greywater because it contains a negligible amount of human pathogens.

Another simple strategy is a high-albedo roof. These roof materials and coatings reduce heat gain by reflecting solar energy rather than absorbing.

Often, energy audits identify opportunities to retrofit existing systems with more efficient ones. A common retrofit with rapid payback in many buildings is a lighting retrofit.

Green power providers generate electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Every product that is salvaged and reused saves energy and raw materials.

Some recycled content is produced as a byproduct of manufacturing processes. This material is called post-industrial/preconsumer recycled content.

Many multi-function materials serve as the primary structure of the building. These include insulating concrete forms, structural insulated panels, and aerated autoclaved concrete.

Another approach is to use smart materials. Smart materials work by changing in response to environmental conditions.

Rapidly renewable materials have become common. Rapidly renewable materials are a special class of biobased materials that grow quickly.

Many modern finishes such as paints, solvents, carpets, and composites contain solvents and adhesives that release VOC's as they age. The offgassing of VOC's is an example of fugitive emissions.

At a minimum, construction isolation measures should include protection of all HVAC intakes, grills, and registers. Use plastic sheeting and duct tape or ties to seal off all possible points of entry to building ductwork or plenums.

The EPA recommends a two week flushout period for all new buildings prior to occupancy. During flushout, ventilation systems are run continuously with full outdoor air. This accelerates the offgas removal from building materials.

Passive survivability is the ability of a building to continue to offer basic function and habitability when the infrastucture goes down

Green building rating systems help you evaluate how a buildings affect the green environment. Green building rating systems are particularly important to owners and purchasers of buildings. They offer valuable information about the building's overall environmental performance.

One type of rating system is national. At the national level, there are both residential and commercial programs. Many national rating systems used in other countries are modeled after the U. S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, developed in the early 1990's.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is the predominant standard in the U. S. for rating commercial buildings. LEED is a reference standard for government agency buildings at federal, state and local levels.

Regional Priority This category rewards projects for addressing local environmental priorities.

Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) for individual tenant spaces in commercial buildings.

The first step in the process is to register the project with GBCI to declare intent to pursue certification. This allows the project team to access GBCI databases as well as to set up an online space to manage project documentation.

The project team can submit documentation to GBCI for review at two points in time: at the end of the design process, and after construction is complete.

The first goal of the LEED rating system is to help you pick a good site for your project. LEED rewards projects that avoid developing vulnerable or ecologically valuable sites. These sites include wetlands, habitats of threatened or endangered species, or flood plains.

A prerequisite for all LEED projects is to meet all requirements of the 2003 U. S. EPA General Construction Permit, which includes measures to protect soil and water streams, and to mitigate dust and noise.

Recycling facilities encourage occupants to sort their solid waste and reduce the amount of trash that goes to landfills (MR Prerequisite 1: Storage and Collection of Recyclables).

The use of local or regional materials is encouraged.

Avoiding the use of materials that emit high levels of VOCs (EQ credit 4: Low. Emitting Materials)

Never install wet materials. Installing wet or damp materials can create mold problems in the building before it is even complete.

EQ Credit 7: Thermal Comfort. This credit offers a point for doing a postoccupancy evaluation one year after the building has been occupied. The purpose of this survey is to ensure that building users are still comfortable after the building has been broken in.

LEED rewards projects for finding new ways to make projects green that are not currently included in the rating system (ID Credit 1: Innovation in Design). Project teams can propose new credits for future versions of LEED based on best practices they have achieved.

A challenging credit to calculate is MR Credit 5: Regional Materials. This credit requires that you know the origin of the material and its components. A material may be counted for this credit only if it and all its components originated within a 500 mile radius of the site.

A major pitfall that can impede your project's LEED certification is sloppy documentation on the part of members of the project team.

Another major pitfall to achieving LEED certification is a lack of coordination with other trades. In addition to putting LEED certification at risk, lack of coordination can result in poor energy performance and other building problems.

Coordination problems can also contribute to thermal bridging. Thermal bridging occurs where material of higher conductivity are allowed to pass completely though a wall without a thermal break. These materials act as thermal pipelines and can result in cold spots in the wall or ceiling surface where moisture can condense.

Another common problem is compression or disturbance of insulation in walls by various trades. The energy performance of batt insulation is significantly reduced when it is compressed to fit in spaces without cutting or when gaps are left in wall cavities.