Green Building and Sustainability - Research Paper Example

Green building and sustainability al affiliation ` Green building is an architectural approach of designing building structures that are energy and water efficient by utilizing materials that are environmentally friendly. Designers and architectures have strived to create new buildings that are environmentally friendly by finding solutions to challenges such as cooling energy and heating consumption, waster run off, water waste and construction waste among other issues. Green building is sustainable since the benefits are more than the high costs spent in construction.

A green building is the one that is resource efficient and environmentally friendly throughout its life cycle. The building life cycle entail; maintenance, design, renovation, operation and demolition. The United States green building council developed a set of rating system targeting operation, design and construction of such buildings. The rating system is called leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED). Green building focuses on finding the balance between sustainable and home building environment (Slessor & Linden, 2007).. The benefits of green buildings are unquestionable.

The designers are able to develop harmless, environmentally friendly and energy efficient buildings. Unlike convectional building s which utilize too much of the natural resources, green building consumes renewable resources such as plants, rainwater and sunlight. Such buildings are usually certified by LEED. Some of the benefits of green buildings targets cost, energy efficient, water efficiency and material efficiency. Green buildings are usually expensive during construction period but many benefits are accrued during their usage.

It has great benefit of reducing both the operating and embodied energy consumption (Gissen, 2003). Other forms of energy such as hydro and wind power are used to provide energy for consumption. Green buildings utilize rain water which is a renewable resource. The water used in the building is also recycled. On the other hand, green buildings present a number of limitations such as ineffective air cooling features. The materials utilized in building such houses are usually inadequate and may not be available in rural areas.

The cost of constructing green buildings is usually high at the beginning even though it pays off during its lifetime (Engel-Yan et al, 2005). References Slessor, C., & Linden, J. (2007). Eco-Tech: Sustainable Architecture amp High Technology.Gissen, D. (Ed.). (2003). Big and green: toward sustainable architecture in the 21st century. Princeton Architectural Press.Engel-Yan, J., Kennedy, C., Saiz, S., & Pressnail, K. (2005). Toward sustainable neighbourhoods: the need to consider infrastructure interactions.

Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 32(1), 45-57.