Green Star Sustainable Construction Building Design - Coursework Example

Green Star Sustainable Construction Building Design Name: Institution: Table of Contents ABSTRACT 3 GSRS CATEGORY 1: ENERGY 4 Conditional Requirement 4 Greenhouse Gas Emissions 5 Energy Sub-Metering 6 Lighting Power Density 7 Lighting Zoning 7 Peak Energy Demand Reduction 8 GSRS CATEGORY 2: MANAGEMENT 9 Green Star Accredited Professionals 9 Commissioning Clauses 10 Building Tuning 11 Independent Commissioning Agent 11 Building User’s Guide 12 Environmental Management 12 Waste Management 13 CONCLUSION 13 REFERENCES 14 ABSTRACT Sustainability is a concept that has become quite synonymous with the modern world thanks to the increasing environmental pollution. In the construction industry, sustainable building design and construction has increasingly become popular. Sustainable building design and construction may be defined as the culture of constructing buildings while putting into consideration the possible environmental impacts of the built structure. This is usually achieved through the implementation of construction processes that are environmentally conscious using materials and devices that are environmentally conscious as well. The economic impact of the built structure is also an important factor in sustainable building design and construction. Overall, construction of buildings strains electricity and other power producers, depletes building materials, and exhausts the available freshwater flows. Along the same line, construction processes and structures alike generate such waste materials as chlorofluorocarbons, solid waste, carbon dioxide, and greenhouse gas emissions. All these could be countered by adopting environmentally sustainable building practices. Unfortunately, not so many players in the construction industry put enough emphasis on sustainable building practices, as there is a misleading notion that sustainable building design and construction is expensive. For that reason, therefore, different countries have established bodies that are charged with enforcing the adherence to sustainable building standards, especially by the participants in construction projects. In Australia, there exists the Green Star Rating System (GSRS) which is essentially a body in Australia charged with the responsibility of setting building standards so that they can meet environmentally sustainable standards. Strictly speaking, The GSRS benchmarks environmentally sustainable best practices in the building industry, and is recognized even beyond the borders of Australia. This report builds its discussion on the two main categories of the GSRS, i.e. Management and Energy, out of the nine categories of the rating system which are Land Use and Ecology, Energy, Materials, Transport, Management, Water, Emissions, Innovation, and Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ). Under these two narrow categories, the report aims at how a new proposed eight-storey office development in the heart of Dee Why CBD should be designed in order to meet the environmental sustainability requirements as stipulated by the GSRS. These are systematically discussed in the subsequent sections of this report as follows: GSRS CATEGORY 1: ENERGY Conditional Requirement Greenhouse gas emissions are a serious menace particularly arising from the energy consumption that emanates from the day to day operations of a given building. As per the Green Star guidelines, there should a deliberate intention for participants in a building construction to implement strategies that not only reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emitted, but also increase the overall optimal efficiency of the building in terms of the operational potential energy. For that reason, the client for this construction project will ensure that his contractor makes a deliberate attempt to maintain annual greenhouse gas emissions levels that are lower than 110kgCO2/m2 as stipulated by the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) Validation protocol for Computer Simulations. Alternatively, the levels may adhere to the final Green Star Energy Calculator Guide version. Greenhouse Gas Emissions For an even greener building, the conditional requirement is not sufficient to entirely and completely keep greenhouse gas emissions to even safer levels. The accomplishment of this requirement will largely depend on the additional plans put in place to further reduce these emissions. First, the building owner should consider on-site energy generation in which there is a backup production of energy at the point of use (within the premises of the eight-storey building, in this case). These may be in form of either renewable or non-renewable energy. They may as well be in the form of energy storage systems that can store energy for later use. Secondly, the owner of the building should implement building envelope in the construction of his office development. This is technically the link between the inside sections of the building and the external environment of the building. By adopting the building envelope technique, it serves as an alternative to both space heating and space cooling. Reduction of the embodied energy is another strategy that the owner of this building may want to take into account. Embodied energy refers to the energy that is used by the construction participants in the demolitions and disposal of demolition wastes. Such reduction ensures that there are reduced energy use as well as greenhouse gas emissions in the course of the construction process. Second-lastly, the developer may consider employing technological installations that are energy efficient in the entire office development. These technologies can go a long way in helping to moderate the energy use in the building, which is mainly dominated by cooling, space heating, lighting, and air conditioning (HVAC). As a result, therefore, there will be reduced monthly electricity bills with improved energy efficiency. Finally, the original design of this office development may be required to be in such a way that its lighting, cooling, and heating requirements are kept at their lowest. This may be achieved by installing this building with Phillips energy-saving bulbs rated 15W whose individual illuminance is 1750 Lumens. For each of the eight storeys, the contractor will be required to install 75 Phillips energy-saving bulbs in every storey. This will translate into a total price of $39×75×8=$23,400 for the whole building to be lighted. An LG Solar Space Heating system may also be installed in the building. Eleven such systems will be sufficient for the entire building. The Green Star accredited professionals such as the structural engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer, and mechanical engineer incorporated in the design of this eight-storey building will be charged with proposing the best strategies that may be employed in the design in order to maximize the efficiency of heat and light. Energy Sub-Metering Sub-metering is accomplished by ensuring that every energy consumer in a building is provided with their own meters. GSRS proposes this because it helps to effectively monitor energy usage in the building with a view of discouraging excessive energy consumption. The contractor for this office development should install separate sub-meters for lighting and power at least for each unit in the building since the building is an office development that will have relatively smaller units for individual tenants. Additionally, it is recommended that the contractor for the construction of the building in question installs sub-meters in the building for each building user’s individual consumption data collection. Lighting Power Density It will be recommended that the contractor ensures lighting power densities for 0.95 of the NLA will have to use energy of at most 2.0 W/m2 per 100 Lux at 720 mm AFFL. The default maintenance factor should be kept at 0.8. This being an artificial lighting system, a two-component lighting technique will be preferred i.e. a base building design background component lighting system, and a task lighting component lighting system. While the former will be designed to generate an approximate amount of lighting power density of 110 lux to the office space, the latter will be required to have a density of 290 lux at least on each desk or table. In summary, at no given time will the building’s lighting go beyond 350 lux. According to the Green Star, lighting is one aspect of the building’s design that cannot be overemphasized. Despite the fact that it is commonly understood that lighting consumes little energy, its energy consumption can be substantially higher if certain conservative energy system designs are not implemented. The conventional lighting systems that have been in use over the years have been power-conservation ignorant. The conventional bulbs, for example, can attest to this. As the demand for energy and the need for efficiency in power consumption rises, there has been a dire need to design and adopt energy-saving lighting methods, for instance. That’s where lighting power density comes in handy. Lighting Zoning This office development’s lighting system will be designed in such a way that every room in the building has its own switching system so that the total amount of light energy wasted on unoccupied regions of the building can be reduced by greater margins. This will be achieved by setting a standard in which the designers will ensure that only offices whose area is smaller than 100 m2 for 0.95% of the NLA be switched separately; otherwise, more partitioning should be carried out. Additionally, the switching within the offices should be distinctively labelled for easy usage by the occupants of the building. It may also be recommended that for 0.9 of the NLA, there exists a separate individually addressable lighting system. Each of these systems will preferably be installed in each one of the eight floors of the building. The aforementioned strategies will be critical since GSRS provides that lighting should be consumed only where it is genuinely needed. By so doing, the amount of lighting power that would otherwise be wasted on unoccupied areas where lighting is not necessarily required is largely reduced. This implies that lighting should only be focused onto the exact regions and positions where there are tenants or other users of the building i.e. occupied areas only. Peak Energy Demand Reduction One strategy for the reduction of the peak energy demand is by ensuring that the design encompasses energy storage as well as other energy-load-sifting technologies as was rightly discussed under the Greenhouse Gas Emissions section of this report. This strategy will be helpful in ensuring that the difference between average demand and the peak is kept well below 35%. As a matter of fact, the Green Star recommends that such difference should be lower than 40%, and keeping it below 35% will even be more environmentally sustainable than the recommended standards of the GSRS. The explanation behind the above strategy is that during peak hours, the power producing entities usually get overstrained with demand for energy. Traditionally, peak power demand leads to frequent power outages in certain areas where the overall power produced is far much lower than the available demand. Going by this, the GSRS entices building designs for whose energy demand during peak hours is far much reduced. This is in not only economical for the users of the building, but it also adds value to the owner’s building hence raising its value altogether. GSRS CATEGORY 2: MANAGEMENT Green Star Accredited Professionals Having knowledge about the existence of such a body as the GSRS in one thing, and practically and intellectually applying the strategies and recommendations is another different thing altogether. The building process of such a spectacular development as the new proposed eight-storey office development requires that a professional accredited by this professional body is not only present at the start of the construction process, but is available during the entire construction process as well. The construction of this office development will require the assistance of at least four professionals accredited by the GSRS. These will preferably be one structural engineer, one electrical engineer, one architect, and a civil engineer. Whereas there will certainly be numerous other roles by other professionals, it might not necessarily be cost-effective to employ Green Star accredited professionals for all these roles. The aforementioned four GSRS accredited professionals will be enough to clearly articulate the standards of Green Star prior to, during, and even immediately after the completion of the construction. This implies that these professionals will be engraved in this construction project right from the building’s design all through to its completion, and slightly beyond the completion of the construction process. This is where both the theoretical and practical knowledge of these professionals will come in handy in this construction project. Commissioning Clauses Commissioning codes and guidelines will be quite fundamental in this office development especially as per the specifications of CIBSE and ASHRAE respectively. One of the most effective ways through which these codes and guidelines will be enshrined in this construction process in Dee Why CBD will be by requiring the bidding contractors to meet the commissioning clauses even in their tender documents. In summary, therefore, there will be need for an exhaustive initial commissioning, commissioning, as well as the monitoring of quality mainly through tendering, especially for the electrical, civil, structural, and mechanical works. Transferability of the available and acquired knowledge during a construction project, or any project for that matter, is crucial in the commissioning clauses of the Green Star Rating System. This is particularly important to the users of the constructed building, and the knowledge thereof is usually obtained from the designers of the project through the contractors. Ideally, such knowledge is usually transferred from the said parties to the developer themselves. For the office development to be developed in the Dee Why CBD, it will be essential that the design team transfers the knowledge they gained throughout the development of this building to the eventual owner of this particular building. There are various ways through which this transferability may be achieved. Some of these strategies include the use of documentation of the design of the building, the architectural and artistic drawings of the office development, a manual containing operations and restoration information, the report from the commissioning processes, and plan of training those who would manage the building even after its completion. Building Tuning According to GSRS, the kind of finishing given to a given construction building structure plays an important role in ensuring comfort to the occupants of that structure. Sustainability of the building even in the years to come is also achieved through building tuning as it essentially helps in the reduction of maintenance costs during the building’s life. Technically, building tuning is normally carried out after the entire building project has been completed and handed over to the developer, in which the streamlining of all building systems is done accordingly. For this new proposed office development to be constructed in the Dee Why CBD, it would be recommended that a section of the design team actively take part in tuning the building in question. It would also be recommended that as part of the tuning process, the completed building is professionally monitored at least once in every month. The findings of the assessment will then be compiled in form of a report and handed over to the developer preferably once in every three months. Another tuning aspect to be done will be the complete re-commissioning within a period of one year following the completion of the construction. It is also a requirement by the GSRS that a report be prepared on the tuning process of the eight-storey building, and then be handed over to the developer as well as to the design team. Independent Commissioning Agent GSRS also has a requirement that for all their projects, there must be an independent commissioning agent who oversees all matters relating to commissioning completely free of bias, and with extreme impartiality. Another strategy, therefore, for the green development of the office development at hand will be the appointment of an independent agent who will be tasked with providing the necessary pieces of advice on commissioning. The design team and the developer will both find such pieces of advice quite useful. By extension, this independent agent will be required to proof-check the commissioning of all building systems in the said office development. Building User’s Guide The environmental performance of any green building usually becomes easier for the occupants of the building to thrive in mainly if a Building User’s Guide is made available to the users of that building. This is a strategy that is highly recognized by the Green Star in all its projects. It is mandatory that the guide be as easy and demystified as possible since its end users (in most cases) are not experts and may not understand any complex terminology used in the Building User’s Guide. The building owner for this construction project will, therefore, be provided with a similar guide for his office development. S/he can then provide the tenants and other building users with copies of the original guide provided to them. Environmental Management GSRS is also keen in ensuring that an acceptable environmental management system is adequately established and thoroughly followed alongside the provided specifications regarding building and construction of green buildings. The construction project in question will supposedly be required to meet the required environmental management system as specified by the Green Star. This may be effectively accomplished by setting a requirement especially during the tendering process in which the winning contractor will be required to have an already established comprehensive Environmental Management Plan (EMP) as established in Section 4 of the NSW Environmental Management System guidelines of 1998 or 2007. The other mandatory qualification for the contractor will be that they will be required to have been validly certified by the ISO14001 Environmental Management System (EMS). The accreditation should not expire before the conclusion off the contractor’s term of operations, and they should have been accredited by the time they will be applying for the contract. Waste Management Going by the GSRS guidelines, it will be mandatory for the contractor for this project to not only prove their Waste Management Plan (WMP), but also implement the plan as well during the entire project phases. Through this plan, the contractor will be in a position to track the records on the waste, which they will then handover to the developer every three months. As an added requirement, there will be need for the contractor to ensure that they do recycling of all waste products emanating from the demolitions and wastes from the construction. The contractor will be required to recycle up to 87% of these wastes. CONCLUSION Overall, it can be inferred that adhering to The Green Star Rating System while undertaking a building construction is clearly costly, at least in the short-run. Most of the strategies recommended by the GSRS involve a lot of extra costs. The best part of it, however, is that most of these costs are only meant to yield environmental sustainability and cost effectiveness in the long run. It will just be a matter of time, for example, for the owner, the users, and the energy producers, for the office development to be built in the Dee Why CBD to start enjoying the long term energy savings as a result of the Green Star recommendations widely discussed in this report. REFERENCES Francese, D., De, J. P., & Passaro, A. (2012). Sustainable Mediterranean construction: Sustainable environment in the Mediterranean region : from housing to urban and land scale construction. Milano: Angeli. Kibert, C. J. (2012). Sustainable construction: Green building design and delivery. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Lechner, N. (2001). Heating, cooling, lighting: Design methods for architects. New York, NY [u.a.: Wiley. Rückert, K., & Shahriari, E. (2014). Guideline for Sustainable, Energy Efficient Architecture & Construction. Berlin: Technische Uni Berlin. Sustainable building design manual. (2004). New Delhi: The Energy and Resources Institute. Read More

Management and Energy, out of the nine categories of the rating system which are Land Use and Ecology, Energy, Materials, Transport, Management, Water, Emissions, Innovation, and Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ). Under these two narrow categories, the report aims at how a new proposed eight-storey office development in the heart of Dee Why CBD should be designed in order to meet the environmental sustainability requirements as stipulated by the GSRS. These are systematically discussed in the subsequent sections of this report as follows: GSRS CATEGORY 1: ENERGY Conditional Requirement Greenhouse gas emissions are a serious menace particularly arising from the energy consumption that emanates from the day to day operations of a given building.

As per the Green Star guidelines, there should a deliberate intention for participants in a building construction to implement strategies that not only reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emitted, but also increase the overall optimal efficiency of the building in terms of the operational potential energy. For that reason, the client for this construction project will ensure that his contractor makes a deliberate attempt to maintain annual greenhouse gas emissions levels that are lower than 110kgCO2/m2 as stipulated by the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) Validation protocol for Computer Simulations.

Alternatively, the levels may adhere to the final Green Star Energy Calculator Guide version. Greenhouse Gas Emissions For an even greener building, the conditional requirement is not sufficient to entirely and completely keep greenhouse gas emissions to even safer levels. The accomplishment of this requirement will largely depend on the additional plans put in place to further reduce these emissions. First, the building owner should consider on-site energy generation in which there is a backup production of energy at the point of use (within the premises of the eight-storey building, in this case).

These may be in form of either renewable or non-renewable energy. They may as well be in the form of energy storage systems that can store energy for later use. Secondly, the owner of the building should implement building envelope in the construction of his office development. This is technically the link between the inside sections of the building and the external environment of the building. By adopting the building envelope technique, it serves as an alternative to both space heating and space cooling.

Reduction of the embodied energy is another strategy that the owner of this building may want to take into account. Embodied energy refers to the energy that is used by the construction participants in the demolitions and disposal of demolition wastes. Such reduction ensures that there are reduced energy use as well as greenhouse gas emissions in the course of the construction process. Second-lastly, the developer may consider employing technological installations that are energy efficient in the entire office development.

These technologies can go a long way in helping to moderate the energy use in the building, which is mainly dominated by cooling, space heating, lighting, and air conditioning (HVAC). As a result, therefore, there will be reduced monthly electricity bills with improved energy efficiency. Finally, the original design of this office development may be required to be in such a way that its lighting, cooling, and heating requirements are kept at their lowest. This may be achieved by installing this building with Phillips energy-saving bulbs rated 15W whose individual illuminance is 1750 Lumens.

For each of the eight storeys, the contractor will be required to install 75 Phillips energy-saving bulbs in every storey. This will translate into a total price of $39×75×8=$23,400 for the whole building to be lighted. An LG Solar Space Heating system may also be installed in the building. Eleven such systems will be sufficient for the entire building. The Green Star accredited professionals such as the structural engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer, and mechanical engineer incorporated in the design of this eight-storey building will be charged with proposing the best strategies that may be employed in the design in order to maximize the efficiency of heat and light.

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