IAQA Oct. 2007 Conference Proceedings Paper
Is Green the New "Black"? Sorting out the Hype and Trends of the Green Building Movement
Written and Presented by: Stacey Champion, CIE
Owner/Consultant - Champion Indoor Environmental Services, LLC/Champion Indoors, LLC
It's no secret that the Green Building Movement is gaining momentum at a steady speed. "Green" has suddenly become the buzz word d'jour - gracing national magazine covers, grabbing headlines with the major networks, filling up bookstore sections and earning the attention of celebrities along the way such as Leonardo Dicapprio and Brad Pitt.
The largest Green Building conference, Greenbuild, put on by the USGBC saw a record breaking 13,000 attendees at their annual conference held in Denver last November ‘06. I can tell you firsthand that it was both impressive and tiring (as I was nearly 8 months pregnant when I waddled through the show and attended many sessions!) This year's conference which will be held in Chicago this November ‘07 will most likely see an even bigger turnout, with Bill Clinton scheduled as the keynote speaker.
The Green Building Movement seems to have sparked a new way of thinking for many mainstream consumers. It crosses over boundaries and disciplines to encompass much more than just how we build our houses and what they're built with, but includes such things as: organic food and farming, hybrid vehicles, "natural" cleaning and personal care products, healthier fabric and material options such as organic cotton and bamboo, sustainably built furniture and a general "shift" in the consciousness of how we should be protecting the earth and our resources, as well as what we put in, on and around our bodies.
So in a perfect world, what would define a Green Building?
It would be the practice of:
1. increasing the efficiency with which buildings and sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials, and
2. reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal - the complete building life cycle.
Green building is also sometimes known as "sustainable building" or "environmental building".
Benefits to building in this manner include:
· Reduced operating costs (by using less energy and water)
· Improved public and occupant health (due to improved IAQ/IEQ)
· Reduced environmental impact (lessening storm water runoff and the heat island effect).
• Taking advantage of renewable resources, e.g., using sunlight through passive solar techniques and using plants and trees through green roofs
So who are some of the key players in the Green Building Movement?
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has been a big driver of the bio-diesel bus! Founded back in 1993, the USGBC is now comprised of more than 11,000 member companies and organizations and has 75 regional chapters. Membership has increased 10-fold since the year 2000 and there are 91,000 actively engaged individuals.
The USGBC is probably best known for their LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating SystemTM which is a voluntary building certification program set to define high-performance green buildings. Offering third party validation of a building's "green-ness," and is set up to serve as a design guideline by evaluating buildings in five areas: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality. "Within these credit areas, points are available and depending on the number of points a project earns determines the level of certification the building will be awarded." One can achieve varying levels of certification which include: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum.
There are LEED projects in all 50 states and 41 countries and almost 40,000 LEED Accredited Professionals.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has also jumped on the Green Building Movement. Representing more than 235,000 residential home building and remodeling industry members, the NAHB created their own Model Green Home Building Guidelines in 2004. NAHB announced earlier this year that it would collaborate with the International Codes Council to create an American National Standards Institute-accredited residential green building standard, which is slated to be completed early next year. According to the NAHB, "The standard will serve as a baseline for green building programs without abandoning the proven principle that voluntary, region-specific, flexible programs can be truly green and also allow for innovation."
A recent NAHB survey revealed that to date, more than 97,000 homes have been built and certified by voluntary, builder-supported green building programs around the country which is more than a 50 percent increase from the last survey of green homes it conducted in 2004.
A few other well-known Green Building programs include: Built Green (with large programs in both Colorado and Washington), Green Building Initiative (GBI); as well as programs such as Energy Star and many local voluntary green building programs in cities across the nation.
The EPA's Green Building website section is another great resource which is "a portal site designed to give users one convenient gateway from which to access numerous EPA programs and topics related to environmentally friendly building" and includes numerous programs covering a wide range of industry sectors.
Is Green the New "Black?" - Stacey Champion
The cost of building green...
Many years ago when I would talk about green building, everyone would automatically start moaning about the cost. Not much has changed in that regard...
The analogy that I would use with folks back then centered on the cost of a DVD player. A few years prior, when they were still very "new," they were of course expensive. The minute the marketers discovered that everyone wanted one though, and that the days of bulky VHS tapes were over; companies were scrambling to make them faster and of course cheaper; until it got to the point that you could pick one up at Wal-Mart for $30.
There was CONSUMER DEMAND! This is the very simple way in which our economy works. The price comes down to meet consumer demand. Alas - this can of course come with its own set of problems - just look at all of the recent recalls and headlines with Chinese-made products... We are bound to see some of these same issues creep very quickly into the green building movement. Just think about all of those recent "safe" pesticide ads!
In 2004, Davis Langdon published a paper titled "Costing Green: A Comprehensive Cost Database and Budget Methodology." A recent report published this year which was based on LEED projects and titled "Cost of Green Revisited: Reexamining the Feasibility and Cost Impact of Sustainable Design in the Light of Increased Market Adoption" shows essentially the same results as 2004: "there is no significant difference in average costs for green buildings as compared to non-green buildings. Many project teams are building green buildings with little or no added cost, and with budgets well within the cost range of non-green buildings with similar programs."
According to McGraw-Hill Construction Analytics, the value of green building construction starts is expected to exceed $12 billion in 2007.
Another recent study released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and titled "Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Business Realities and Opportunities" found that "respondents to a 1,400-person global survey estimated the additional cost of building green at 17 percent above conventional construction, more than triple the true cost difference of about 5 percent." Survey respondents also mistakenly put greenhouse gas emissions caused by buildings at 19 percent of the world total, when the actual number is 40 percent.
Many people and corporations are interested in green building BECAUSE of the cost savings. Buildings represent 39% of U.S. primary energy use (including fuel input for production), and represent 70% of U.S energy consumption.
On average, green buildings use 30% less energy than conventional buildings. For example, tenants can save about 50 cents per square foot each year through strategies that cut energy use by 30%. This can represent a savings of $50,000 or more in a five-year lease on 20,000 square feet. Buildings also use 12.2% of all potable water, or 15 trillion gallons per year. Buildings use 40% of raw materials globally (and 3 billion tons annually).
What are some of the past and current barriers seen in green building and what's happening to change them?
Two things that tie together strongly are education and tradition. Architects, builders and the end users - consumers - must all be educated to understand the benefits of building "green." This is starting to occur on a much larger scale and with so much media focus on construction defects and "sick" buildings, consumer demand for healthier and better built homes and buildings will have a domino effect within our society. The phrase "I've always done things this way" is not going to hold much weight with the general population anymore. Developers, businesses and commercial building owners are recognizing the marketability of green buildings along with the added cost savings and environmental stewardship.
Building codes need to play catch up. Our building codes are going to need a major overhaul and serious updating to help propel the Green Building Movement forward. Architect Randy Croxton had a great quote where he said: "Building to code means that if a building were designed any worse it would be against the law."
As building science is a huge contributing force in green building; viewing the entire building as a "system," building it tight - but building it right, and of course building the right way for the right climate, our codes need to incorporate the latest science which is bound to take some time.
Also in the past, products were not readily available and the cost was prohibitive. As previously discussed, this is not the case in the here and now.
Is there any current green building legislation and/or incentives?
It's been a busy year for the introduction of green building legislation across the nation. Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Vermont and Washington state all had various bills introduced that address various aspects of green building.
Some of the items addressed include issues such as: energy performance standards of schools (AZ), green building standards (CA), high performance state buildings (CO), energy incentive rebates (CT), public high performance buildings (ID), green building enterprise zones (IL), and sustainable building property tax deduction (IN), just to cover a few.
So where do we go from here?
We've determined there are a number of reasons to build green. Reasons such as occupant health and comfort, cost savings, market demands, environmental responsibility, and as stated above, many states will or already do currently have legislation in place mandating green building.
As Indoor Air/Environmental Quality Professionals, it just makes sense (and cents) to be a part of this movement. Whether you are a consultant, and educator or a contractor; there is a niche for you to fill within the Green Building Movement.
Adding different environmental services to your business and diversifying your company to stay in line with the current trends and market should be an easy transition.
Some ideas include: healthy home and building assessments, energy audits, integrated pest management (IPM) program design and implementation, green cleaning services and preventative maintenance plan and schedule development.
Kermit the Frog had it all wrong when he said "It's not that easy being green." The time couldn't be any better!
As Mahatma Gandhi so eloquently stated: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Think green!
Resources
1. Wikipedia - Green Building - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building)
2. US Green Building Council - (http://www.usgbc.org/)
3. National Association of Home Builders - (http://www.nahb.org/)
4. National Association of Home Builders Research Center - (http://www.nahbrc.org/)
5. Built Green - (http://www.builtgreen.org/)
6. Green Building Initiative - (http://www.thegbi.org)
7. Energy Star - (http://www.energystar.gov/)
8. EPA - Green Buildings (http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/index.htm)
9. Davis Langdon - (http://www.davislangdon.com/USA/Research/)
10. McGraw-Hill Construction - (http://construction.ecnext.com/coms2/page_infocenter)
11. World Business Council for Sustainable Development - (http://www.wbcsd.org)
12. U.S. Department of Energy 2006 Buildings Energy Data Book - (http://buildingsdatabook.eren.doe.gov/)
13. The TrendTRACK Company - (https://www.trendtrack.com/)
14. The American Institute of Architects - (http://www.aia.org/)
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