Introduction of Green Building Material
Introduction of Green Building Materials
INTRODUCTION
Materials are the stuff of economic life in our industrial world. They include the resource inputs and the product outputs of industrial production. How we handle them is a major determinant of real economic efficiency, and also has a major impact on our health and the health of the natural environment
The built-environment is also a strategic realm of social, economic and environmental change. Various writers have stated that spatial redesign of the landscape and built-environment may be the single most effective means of achieving new levels of efficiency and sustainability (Lyle, 1994; Mollison, 1983; Alexander, 1977; Van der Ryn & Cowan, 1996). Building materials are also quite important. They have been estimated that building materials make up forty percent of material through-put of entire economy (Milani, 2001). In the book “Green Building: Project Planning and Cost Estimating”, Keenan and Georges (2002) identified some key characteristics of green building materials. As regards green building materials, they should be healthy for the internal environment, healthy for the natural environment, minimize building energy use, have low embodied energy, be reusable, recyclable and/or biodegradable, and be locally obtained.
Embodied energy is a concept that takes into account several factors to determine the energy needed to produce a product and can be used as a comparison between different materials. There is some controversy surrounding embodied energy as there is no internationally agreed method for calculating this value and many times it is not known what has been accounted for (Woolley and Kimmins, 2005). For example, cement has an embodied energy of 7.8 MJ/kg, while virgin steel is 32.0, and recycled steel is 10.1 MJ/kg (Keenan and Georges, 2002). In these values however, consideration is not given to transportation, durability, reuse and recycling. These factors could significantly alter the
INTRODUCTION
Materials are the stuff of economic life in our industrial world. They include the resource inputs and the product outputs of industrial production. How we handle them is a major determinant of real economic efficiency, and also has a major impact on our health and the health of the natural environment
The built-environment is also a strategic realm of social, economic and environmental change. Various writers have stated that spatial redesign of the landscape and built-environment may be the single most effective means of achieving new levels of efficiency and sustainability (Lyle, 1994; Mollison, 1983; Alexander, 1977; Van der Ryn & Cowan, 1996). Building materials are also quite important. They have been estimated that building materials make up forty percent of material through-put of entire economy (Milani, 2001). In the book “Green Building: Project Planning and Cost Estimating”, Keenan and Georges (2002) identified some key characteristics of green building materials. As regards green building materials, they should be healthy for the internal environment, healthy for the natural environment, minimize building energy use, have low embodied energy, be reusable, recyclable and/or biodegradable, and be locally obtained.
Embodied energy is a concept that takes into account several factors to determine the energy needed to produce a product and can be used as a comparison between different materials. There is some controversy surrounding embodied energy as there is no internationally agreed method for calculating this value and many times it is not known what has been accounted for (Woolley and Kimmins, 2005). For example, cement has an embodied energy of 7.8 MJ/kg, while virgin steel is 32.0, and recycled steel is 10.1 MJ/kg (Keenan and Georges, 2002). In these values however, consideration is not given to transportation, durability, reuse and recycling. These factors could significantly alter the
References: Consumer Reports. (2007). Greener Choices. Retrieved from: www.greenerchoices.org Milani, B Keenan, A., Georges, D. (Ed). (2002). Green Building: Project Planning and Cost Estimating. Kingston: Construction Publishers and Consultants. Woolley, T., Kimmins, S. (2005) Green Building Handbook. New York: Taylor and Francis. LEED. (2001). Green Building Rating System for New Construction and Major Renovations. Retrieved from: www.cagbc.org/ Frej, A.B Green Seal. (2001). Choose Green Report: Carpet. Retrieved from: www.greenseal.org. Lyle, John Tillman. (1994), Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development, New York: John Wiley, Mollison, Bill (1983)"Principles of Permaculture Design", audio tape, Chinook Learning Community: workshop, Planetary Village Conference, June Alexander, Christopher (1979), The Timeless Way of Building, New York: Oxford University Press, Van der Ryn, Sim and Stuart Cowan (1996), Ecological Design, Washington DC: Island Press, Ligon, Linda (2001) “Stroke of Brilliance”, Natural Home, May/June, pp.61-62