Posts Tagged ‘LEED’

World needs to go Green, than Green needs to go LEED

World needs to go Green, than Green needs to go LEED

In the past decade, the idea of building â??green’ has sprouted globally â?? the so called â??Green revolution’. As years passed by, one could see this revolution gradually turning into one of those temporary trends set up to support marketing of related fields of construction activity. Today, the term â??green’ is certainly abused and misunderstood by most of the engineering empire.

Truthfully, the natural living systems on our planet are the only designs we know of that are triumphant in their sustainability because they relate with the environment in holistic, integrative, and reductive processes. On the contrary, many of the current green building rating systems like LEED are structured to endorse solutions that are in majority additive and encourage consumption over conservation. This is simply because the rating systems are initially conceived to have certain set of sections which cater to sustainability; that are then packed with technologies, systems and products to achieve it. Architects now depend much on these intelligent service systems to make up for their neglect in the basic building design. If buildings are based on a sluggish design process, one would be obviously strained to use the so called â??Green’ or â??intelligent’ engineering methods to supplement it.

It is unfortunate that valuable rating systems such as LEED have converted Architecture into an accounting exercise. This has completely digressed from what could have been a healthy exercise in coming out with truly good architecture. We are missing an opportunity to develop such architecture by allowing these accounting or statistical procedures to dominate our logical thinking and creativity. Targeting maximum LEED points especially in GCC countries require more common sense and deeper understanding of the effect. The potential benefits of solely achieving a certification should not be the motive of the design process.

Four Ways a Leed Green Home Differs From Regular Construction

The LEED® for Homes program is the premier evaluators of green construction practices nationwide. A LEED certification is an important distinction for a green home to earn, but what are the real differences between a LEED certified green home and a home built with regular construction techniques? Here are the top 4:

1) Over-Kill – LEED is attempting to reduce and eliminate the amount of over-kill in home construction. Over kill is the utilization and installation of over-sized equipment in home construction such as heating and cooling equipment, over-sized lumber for rafters and floor joists. In the past, it was assumed that using bigger heating and cooling units than the minimum standards was a good rule of thumb. Those assumptions have been re-worked in LEED homes to provide the right size equipment for the home.

2) Lower Energy Consumption – LEED homes require far less energy to run and have dramatically lower energy costs. Sometimes getting those savings can present a challenge. State and local code have minimum BTU requirements based on square footage and cubic foot. These minimum requirements have not been updated in a while. There are now new technologies that can heat and cool the same space with less energy consumption. The problem lies in getting the code enforcement to allow the new equipment to be placed into use before the code is updated.

3) Right-Sized Rooms – LEED homes are designed from the start to be less wasteful of building material. However, some things are not so easy to change. An example is the commercial manufacturing of lumber. Lumber is manufactured in standard lengths starting at 8 foot and increasing in 2 foot increments.

Green is the Color of Money! DVD Case Study for a Sustainable High Performance Building From Academy Award winner Ben Shedd About the USGBC LEED CS Platinum Banner Bank Building, one of the World’s Most Energy Efficient, High Performance Buildings.

• Case Study for a Sustainable High Performance Building
• USGBC LEED CS Platinum Banner Bank Building
• One of the World’s Most Energy Efficient, High Performance Buildings
• Building Green is good business.
• Produced in Widescreen High Definition

A DeepGreen Documentary from Academy Award winner Ben Shedd about designing and building the Banner Bank Building, one of the worlds most energy efficient, high performance buildings. This 11 story building has received the US Green Building Council LEED CS PLATINUM rating. Building Green is good business.