WHAT IS A SUSTAINABLE BUILDING
A sustainable building is an environmentally conscious building designed to minimize energy consumption, increase occupant comfort and reduces total environmental impact of the building. A sustainable building is also called Green Building. A functional green building will save money , increase comfort and create more healthier environments for people to live and work with the help of the building planning, the building materials used in increasing the indoor air quality, natural day lighting and thermal comfort. A sustainable building provides an opportunity to use resources effectively though seems costly at first but have a long term effect of saving money due to cost of running the building.
WHY DO WE NEED TO MAKE OUR BUILDING SUSTAINABLE?
Most Human activities on earth has been depleting natural resources and causes environmental problems that have negative effect on the environment. Activities like burning of fossil fuels increases the emission of CO2 and other gases that is contributes to Global Warming, to reduce these effects and the depletion of our natural resources and to reduce the harm being done to our environment, the use of renewable sources of energy (which is cleaner, safer, and not harmful like fossil fuel), reduction of energy consumption, building with recyclable materials which are all elements of sustainable building became paramount so as for us to meet our present needs without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own need to.
For us to save the planet, live and work healthier, increase human comfort for the present generation without making it at the expense of the future generation, the need to make building sustainable arises.
A sustainable building also reduces maintenance cost; create a harmonious ecosystem for humans and the nature around. A sustainable building avoids using certain building materials that are harmful to human health e.g. paint with high VOC or incorporate any building material that can make the building a sick building.
In this post, I don’t want to delve much into Sustainability in buildings; I will just talk about basic things you need to know to make your building sustainable either as an architect, a planner, builder, environmental scientist or the person who will occupy the building E.t.c.
To make a building sustainable, the building must obey the 3 R’s of sustainable development and 3 principles of sustainability. Every other things fall under these principles.
WHAT ARE THE 3 R’s and 3 principle of Sustainability?
The 3 R’s of sustainability are;
(i) R – Reduce
(ii) R – Reuse
(iii) R – Recycle
The 3 principles of sustainability are
(i) Economy of Material
(ii) Life Cycle Design – L.C.D
(iii) Human Design
Now, let us discuss the 3 R’s first.
REDUCE
- To make a building sustainable, you must be able to reduce the energy consumption of the building either through active or passive design approach. When applying active approach, you make use of specific hardware to reduce the rate at which the building consumes energy for example the use of energy saving bulb, sun shading devices E.t.c. To use passive approach, you might tend to build with some building materials which are effective in energy conservation E.g., if you build with bricks, they have ability to delay the rate of heat transfer through them thus making the inside of the building cooler during a very sunny day and warmer during a cold day.
- Reducing the amount of hard surface landscape elements by landscaping with more grasses, shrubs, and trees also reduces the effect of solar radiation on a building which can cause unnecessary heating of the building.
REUSE
- You make sure that nothing is wasted in the building either in terms of materials or energy. A sustainable buildings make use of renewable sources of energy like solar, wind E.t.c. In terms of building material, when you build with materials like bricks, you can reuse them again during renovation or rehabilitation as it is recyclable. You can also make use of gray water system which can be recycled, purified and used again.
RECYCLE
- The use of recyclable materials like bricks, wood, paper, plastic, glass, E.t.c. makes a building sustainable. You can also make use of recyclable water like grey water to keep a constant supply for your garden irrigation or toilet water supply.
THE 3 PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS.
Economy of Material.
- The waste found on the site of a sustainable building is very minimal; this is because it employs the principle of economy of materials in its designs. In a well designed Sustainable building, no material is wasted as they are either recycled or converted for use in other areas.
Life Cycle Design – L.C.D
The L.C.D principle of a sustainable building enables it to be able to lower cost, make the building efficient, and usable from cradle to grave and reusable again. To make a building sustainable, it must be able to fulfill life cycle principle in such a way that materials can be used, recycled and be reused again, energy can also be renewed, a continuous cycle of building life can be maintained E.t.c.
Humane Design
Any sustainable building must aim at creating a livable and workable environment for humans and the nature around. A well designed sustainable building must create an ecosystem where all organisms live in harmony. Any building that will be sustainable must make use of cleaner and renewable sources of energy, environmentally friendly design principles, planning and building materials and must contribute to lowering of Green House Gases in other to create healthy environment.
A sustainable building is that kind of building that will make our world safer and create a cleaner and healthier environment; we should all try to embrace sustainability in buildings as it is the only way to offer the future generation a safer world.
Comments are welcome from all.
images are courtesy of the following websites, www.isover.com, www.treehungger.com, lunar.thegamez.net, solidworks.com, myfloridagreenbuilding.info, www.bernhardarchitecture.co.nz
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