Green building provides significant economic, environmental, and social benefits. It reduces energy and maintenance costs for buildings, lowering taxpayer expenses. Green buildings also improve occupant health and satisfaction. Environmentally, green roofs decrease pollution and stormwater runoff, while sustainable materials reduce landfill waste. Green construction and renovation creates new jobs, helping unemployment. Wide adoption of green building techniques is an important step towards addressing climate change and its effects.

1. Benefits of Green Building

2. In today’s world, commercial and residential
construction companies are forced to take into
account the effects of climate change more than
ever. As water levels rise and our atmosphere
deteriorates, we are forced to search for viable
alternatives to our current way of life, viable
sustainable approaches to supporting our global
populace. While by no means do I profess to have
the answer to something as encompassing,
pressing, and global as climate change, I do know
an answer to part of the equation, and that is
green building.

3. First and foremost, cost alone
should be enough reason for us
to integrate green building
techniques on a universal
scale. Contemporary high
performing green buildings
offer the best value for
taxpayers in regards to not only
life cycle cost benefits, but also
to general human health and
performance. In fact, according
to GSA, a conclusive study
reflects that the twelve earliest
green federal buildings display
a 12% reduction in energy use
along with a 27% increase in
occupant satisfaction. Even
more significant is that the top
third of studied buildings in this
survey exhibited 45% less
energy use, 53% lower
maintenance costs, and 39%
less water use.

4. Regardless, the most significant positive aspect of green building is its effect,
or lack thereof, on the environment. For instance, take into account the
“planted roof,” a core component of green building design. By utilizing a
“planted roof,” a building will reduce pollution from power usage in addition
to decreasing the city’s heat island effect. Just as well, planted roofs reduce
stormwater runoff. For big cities, this decreased runoff translates to
decreased water pollution, a very clear benefit of enormous proportion for
metropolitan areas.

5. Not to mention, the materials themselves pose a remarkable lack of negative
influence on the environment. In fact, with a meticulous building approach,
green companies can reduce landfill trash by an astounding 95%. Considering
the increasingly significant issue of where to place our trash, this figure
represents a solution in the face of dilemma; more than that, it represents an
available solution right now, not in a week, not in a month, not in a year, but
right now.

6. In the wake of all this, is the actual creation of green jobs. For
example, by renovating existing roofing structures, we are
creating new jobs for new people, and are thus decreasing
unemployment across the board. Of course, renovating existing
roofing structures is merely one example of nearly innumerable
opportunities for job creation. Take into account the occupations
that would be created across the design, engineering,
manufacturing, construction, and operations industries. It is
truly nearly immeasurable to quantify the vast positive impact
of incorporating green building on a larger scale.

7. Green building may not solve all of our problems, but it is
absolutely a step in the right direction. There is no need for a
leap of faith, only a need for the acknowledgement of
solutions that are right in front of us. For more information,
please do not hesitate to reach out to me via my contact page.