Green Building & Manufacturing
The Benefits of Green Building and Retrofits
Need to make a business case for building green or undertaking green retrofits? Or maybe you're a building owner mulling whether it's worth the effort to make your property more
environmentally sound.
Fireman's Fund Insurance Company provides a list of the benefits of doing so -- and the risks associated with doing nothing. The list is a handy reference for experienced players and
newcomers to green building.
Here's what the company, which was the first property and casualty insurance firm to offer green insurance for commercial buildings in the U.S., lists as the advantages and risks.
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The Greenest White House
The current first family isn’t the first in the White House to implement energy-saving practices. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter had a $28,000 solar water heater installed on the roof of the
West Wing, and President George W. Bush installed a small photovoltaic system as well as two solar water heating systems. Obama, however, plans to earn a LEED certification to make
the White House the greenest it has ever been. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to
measure and reward buildings and communities that implement green building design, construction, operation, and maintenance.
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Green Building Council to launch training programmes
The UK Green Building Council (GBC) yesterday unveiled plans for a new Sustainability Training and Education Programme (STEP), featuring training courses designed to bolster
sustainability skills across the construction and property sectors.
The industry group said that over the next month it would be looking to partner with educational establishments or commercial training firms interested in providing two new courses.
"We're aiming to offer an introduction to sustainable development course for anyone working in the built environment, and a leadership programme for senior managers," explained GBC
spokesman John Alker. "It is early days and the programme could go in a number of different directions, but we expect to add other courses over time."
The launch of STEP follows the results of a GBC-commissioned survey of more than 550 people from across the building sector, which found that two thirds believed the industry needed to
improve its green training provision.
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How SMART is BIM?
There seems to be so many different definitions for BIM. It is really hard to say which one is correct, but I personally like this one. Building Information Modeling is a process of generating
and managing a building's information through three-dimensional design. It is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. Since these models are
supposed to be generating building information, should we consider these BIM models as being Smart? I think so, but just how smart are they. What does it take to make a BIM model
Smart? Let’s explore this idea and see what we come up with.
In my opinion there are several keys to building a Smart Model, but the first thing that should occur is planning for the BIM model. All aspects of the design and constructions team should be
included in this planning process. This will only help as we try to pack this model full of Smart information. Not only do we have to take into account how the building looks, and how the
building is going to perform, but we also have to take into account constructability. After all, BIM takes a team to work properly. Having a construction team on board can add tremendous
value to the BIM model for our clients. Not only can we build a smart three dimensional model, but we can plan for the actual constructions of the building making the BIM model a valuable
tool.
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'Green' Research Results In New Geopolymer Concrete Technology
ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2009) - Dr. Erez Allouche, assistant professor of civil engineering at Louisiana Tech University and associate director of the Trenchless Technology Center, is
conducting innovative research on geopolymer concrete and providing ways to use a waste byproduct from coal fired power plants and help curb carbon dioxide emissions.
Inorganic polymer concrete (geopolymer) is an emerging class of cementitious materials that utilize "fly ash", one of the most abundant industrial by-products on earth, as a substitute for
Portland cement, the most widely produced man-made material on earth.
Portland cement production is a major contributor to CO2 emissions as an estimated five to eight percent of all human-generated atmospheric CO2 worldwide comes from the concrete
industry. Production of Portland cement is currently toping 2.6 billion tons per year worldwide and growing at 5 percent annually.
Geopolymer concrete has the potential to substantially curb CO2 emissions, produce a more durable infrastructure capable of design life measured in hundreds of years instead of tens,
conserve hundreds of thousands of acres currently used for disposal of coal combustion products, and protect aquifers and surface bodies of fresh water via the elimination of fly ash
disposal sites.
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Building green has health benefits
With all the worries about energy efficiency, environmental degradation and climate change, most of us overlook the everyday health benefits that go with working in a green building.
A decade or so back, there were lots of articles about "sick buildings." People complained about headaches, sore throats, dry skin, a general feeling of malaise, all caused, they thought,
by the poor indoor air quality they were forced to endure on the job.
Scientists took their complaints to heart. As a result, we got better air, better light, better temperature control, and better health as a result. And it’s been years, now, since I’ve seen a news
story about a sick building.
Now Rick Fedrizzi, president of the U.S. Green Building Council, wants more emphasis placed on the health benefits of green buildings.
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