Module 6: Green Building

• Overview
• Rating Systems
• Green Leasing
• Program Planning
• Practices
• Running Your Program
• Resources

Green Building Technologies and Practices

« Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next »

Water efficiency and quality

Fresh water is a finite resource and is becoming more threatened as the demand for water increases. Water use in buildings is divided between indoor and outdoor—indoor water use includes toilets, urinals, lavatory faucets, kitchen equipment, cooling towers, and other uses. Water-efficiency technology has seen great progress, and therefore a great potential to save water in buildings. See the Water Conservation Module for more information.

Energy

Buildings in the U.S. consume large amounts of energy. It is estimated that 18 percent of the total U.S. consumption of energy is by commercial buildings¹. Within commercial buildings, 75 percent (3,101 trillion BTU) of the energy is electrical^1[14]. Depending on your building type, cooling and lighting systems can use up to 50 percent (1,509 trillion BTU) of the electricity¹.

Significant decreases in energy consumption can be attained through inexpensive and ordinary building practices or technologies. Increasing energy efficiency in buildings not only lowers operating costs and pollution from power plants, but also occupant comfort.

See the Energy module for more information.

An important practice in green building is building commissioning, the process of verifying that building systems are performing as intended so they can deliver proper and efficient performance.

For more information about building commissioning and to locate a member in Georgia, see the Building Commissioning Association (BCxA) Web site.

For a guide on commissioning existing buildings, see: http://eber.ed.ornl.gov/commercialproducts/retrocx.htm

 

 

« Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next »