Building Green
What is a green building? It might be better to ask what it is not. All of us, contractors and workers alike, have been constructing non-green buildings for over a century. Until recently that meant installing, maintaining and repairing systems whose only object was to meet a specification and satisfy a customer. In other words, to bring water, heat, and take away waste in the most efficient, safe, and economical manner. Doing this was, and remains, our business. It is why we exist.
The green building concept has largely developed over the past decade. Fundamentally it means the practice of increasing the efficiency of buildings and their use of energy, water and materials, while reducing impacts on the environment. This is done through a conscious effort over the entire building cycle, from design through construction, operation, maintenance and even demolition or removal.
The difference between these two approaches and their methods is actually quite small. For professionals in the field it is merely another series of options—familiar choices about materials, installation and tools. On the other hand, because of the increasing popularity of green building, and the rising number of projects whose specifications include green building provisions, thinking, bidding and working green is becoming profitable; in the future it is likely to become the only reliably profitable mode of operation in a large part of the construction industry. Today green building practices are encouraged and sometimes required: in the future they will increasingly become mandated as part of industry codes and specifications.
Of course, every segment of our industry is already acquainted with conservation of energy and material; after all, that’s what plumbing, piping, heating and cooling are all about. Building green is simply another expression of the same effort and work.
New Practices for New Goals
Green building standards are rapidly being adopted in both the public and private sectors, for work as varied as a simple faucet replacement to the design and construction of major facilities. Most contractors are familiar with these standards as elements within a larger set of specifications; for instance, as a local requirement for the use of graywater in the irrigation system of a public park. It is becoming increasingly common for customers and awarding agencies to establish or to refer to standards which are comprehensive in scale—ranging from particular origins and composition of construction materials to the type and use of tools and methods of installation, all the way through to the elements of the final punch list, and occasionally beyond. One significant difference is that the green building is perceived as a set of ongoing functions rather than a temporary challenge of construction to be accomplished and left for another job. These functions often begin before the traditional scope of construction work and end beyond it, too.
Standards and Guidelines
The established standards for Green construction are mainly found in the following places:
As elements of previously-existing codes
As adoptions of local ordinance
As requirements of a certifying agency
Many elements of what can be considered Green construction are already present in the common codes of the plumbing/heating/HVAC industry. Others are the result of local or regional adoption or political action, perhaps by a city council or county utility. The most complex and far-reaching requirements are those put together by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) through its rating system, known as LEED, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
LEED
The LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. The LEED system provides:
A process of project registration
A system of guidelines
A rating system for project elements
Essentially, LEED is a third-party standard which functions very much like traditional code requirements, with the exception of the initial project registration and that the LEED certification is based upon cumulative credits for meeting various listed criteria, rather than a go/no-go standard as is common in industry building codes.
Typical language from California Plumbing Code:
“All drip irrigation supply lines shall be polyethylene tubing or PVC class 200 pipe or better and Schedule 40 fittings.”
Typical LEED standard:
“Water Efficiency: Reduce by 50%, 1 Point. Requirements: Reduce potable water consumption for irrigation by 50% from a calculated mid-summer baseline case.”
The difference is that the CPC standard calls out only the material type for irrigation, while the LEED standard requires a measured reduction in final environmental effect. The credit for this achievement is added to a final score which will determine the classification of the project on the LEED scale, from a basic Certification through Silver, Gold and Platinum levels. As its publications state,
“LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.”
One of the benefits of Green building on the LEED model is that the final product acts as an advertisement for the contractor’s effort, essentially broadcasting that the firms involved have passed a progressive standard and are ready to do more of the same work for new customers.
In the next section we will examine a series of construction projects to determine how Green building works in operation, what the ground-level situation looks like, and the differences and challenges of this new type of work.
end: 900 words
What is a green building? It might be better to ask what it is not. All of us, contractors and workers alike, have been constructing non-green buildings for over a century. Until recently that meant installing, maintaining and repairing systems whose only object was to meet a specification and satisfy a customer. In other words, to bring water, heat, and take away waste in the most efficient, safe, and economical manner. Doing this was, and remains, our business. It is why we exist.
The green building concept has largely developed over the past decade. Fundamentally it means the practice of increasing the efficiency of buildings and their use of energy, water and materials, while reducing impacts on the environment. This is done through a conscious effort over the entire building cycle, from design through construction, operation, maintenance and even demolition or removal.
The difference between these two approaches and their methods is actually quite small. For professionals in the field it is merely another series of options—familiar choices about materials, installation and tools. On the other hand, because of the increasing popularity of green building, and the rising number of projects whose specifications include green building provisions, thinking, bidding and working green is becoming profitable; in the future it is likely to become the only reliably profitable mode of operation in a large part of the construction industry. Today green building practices are encouraged and sometimes required: in the future they will increasingly become mandated as part of industry codes and specifications.
Of course, every segment of our industry is already acquainted with conservation of energy and material; after all, that’s what plumbing, piping, heating and cooling are all about. Building green is simply another expression of the same effort and work.
New Practices for New Goals
Green building standards are rapidly being adopted in both the public and private sectors, for work as varied as a simple faucet replacement to the design and construction of major facilities. Most contractors are familiar with these standards as elements within a larger set of specifications; for instance, as a local requirement for the use of graywater in the irrigation system of a public park. It is becoming increasingly common for customers and awarding agencies to establish or to refer to standards which are comprehensive in scale—ranging from particular origins and composition of construction materials to the type and use of tools and methods of installation, all the way through to the elements of the final punch list, and occasionally beyond. One significant difference is that the green building is perceived as a set of ongoing functions rather than a temporary challenge of construction to be accomplished and left for another job. These functions often begin before the traditional scope of construction work and end beyond it, too.
Standards and Guidelines
The established standards for Green construction are mainly found in the following places:
As elements of previously-existing codes
As adoptions of local ordinance
As requirements of a certifying agency
Many elements of what can be considered Green construction are already present in the common codes of the plumbing/heating/HVAC industry. Others are the result of local or regional adoption or political action, perhaps by a city council or county utility. The most complex and far-reaching requirements are those put together by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) through its rating system, known as LEED, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
LEED
The LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. The LEED system provides:
A process of project registration
A system of guidelines
A rating system for project elements
Essentially, LEED is a third-party standard which functions very much like traditional code requirements, with the exception of the initial project registration and that the LEED certification is based upon cumulative credits for meeting various listed criteria, rather than a go/no-go standard as is common in industry building codes.
Typical language from California Plumbing Code:
“All drip irrigation supply lines shall be polyethylene tubing or PVC class 200 pipe or better and Schedule 40 fittings.”
Typical LEED standard:
“Water Efficiency: Reduce by 50%, 1 Point. Requirements: Reduce potable water consumption for irrigation by 50% from a calculated mid-summer baseline case.”
The difference is that the CPC standard calls out only the material type for irrigation, while the LEED standard requires a measured reduction in final environmental effect. The credit for this achievement is added to a final score which will determine the classification of the project on the LEED scale, from a basic Certification through Silver, Gold and Platinum levels. As its publications state,
“LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.”
One of the benefits of Green building on the LEED model is that the final product acts as an advertisement for the contractor’s effort, essentially broadcasting that the firms involved have passed a progressive standard and are ready to do more of the same work for new customers.
In the next section we will examine a series of construction projects to determine how Green building works in operation, what the ground-level situation looks like, and the differences and challenges of this new type of work.
end: 900 words
