Material Sustainability
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Jessica Meadows & Natasha Morris Material Sustainability Senior Project Fall 2009 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo TABLE OF CONTENTS SUSTAINABLE & GREEN BUILDING .......................................................................................................... 1 WHY DO WE CARE? ................................................................................................................................... 1 LEED ........................................................................................................................................................... 2 MATERIALS: ................................................................................................................................................... 3 CONCRETE: ............................................................................................................................................... 3 TIMBER: ...................................................................................................................................................... 6 STRUCTURAL INSULATED PANELS: ................................................................................................... 8 STEEL: ......................................................................................................................................................... 9 COMPARISON OF MATERIALS: ............................................................................................................ 13 GREEN BUILDING FINANCIALS ................................................................................................................14 MOVING FORWARD: .................................................................................................................................... 16 CASE STUDY: ................................................................................................................................................. 16 CONCLUSION: ............................................................................................................................................... 17 APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................................... 19 REFERENCED PERSONS ....................................................................................................................... 19 WORKS CITED .......................................................................................................................................... 19 CASE STUDYCALCULATIONS ...............................................................................................................22 CASE STUDY WINDRUSH DOCUMENTS ............................................................................................24 Material |SUSTAINABILITY ii SUSTAINABLE & GREEN BUILDING beginning stages of any project. Through new techniques and practices, designers are able to To be able to address the concept of Green directly focus their attention to areas that can Building, a conclusive definition of Sustainability minimize, and ultimately eliminate the damaging and green is required. The definition of impact that buildings generate. Green Building sustainability is a process or state that can be has proven itself as an environmental benefit, as maintained at a certain level indefinitely. well as an economical means of design that is Broadly, this can spread across social, economic both cost effective at the time of construction, and environmental dimensions. As the concept and throughout the entire life span of the of sustainability has grown more prevalent, it building. has set a common goal to meet the needs of the present without WHY DO WE CARE? compromising the ability “The term Green To be able to work towards for future generations to refers to the sustainable design and be meet their own needs. Building quality and characteristics of motivated about new innovations, it is important In the terms of Engineering the actual structure created that we understand why and Building Construction, using the principles and building green is so sustainability is a broad methodologies of sustainable important. In the last few design philosophy in which construction. years, it has been obvious focus is driven towards Similarly, Green Design that the world is becoming minimizing the overall describes the application of more aware of green‐house impact of the built sustainability principles to gases, depleting natural environment on the natural building design. resources, waste production, environment and human Sustainability is the and energy consumption. health. By efficiently using What is often neglected is water, energy, and natural foundational principle how much of this is caused resources, the underlying various efforts to by the construction, environmental impact is ensure a decent quality of life operation, and disposal of minimized. Human health is for future generations. ” buildings. While there is protected and enhanced by – Charles J. Kibert some variation, there is providing safe, productive general agreement that 50% living and working environments. And most of material resources taken from nature are importantly, by reducing pollution, waste and building‐related, over 50% of national waste environmental degradation, the natural production comes from the building sector, and environment is protected and preserved for 40% of the world’s energy along with 13.6% of future generations. all potable water is consumed by buildings (Anink, Boonstra, Mak, 2004). The EPA ‘Going green’ is a term that is quickly spreading estimated that in one year, 136 million tons of across the world over many industries and building‐related debris and 22% of total stream professions. The concept of Green Building has waste was generated from construction and drastically changed the way that construction demolition (USGBC). Almost 50% of worldwide and design is approached from the very carbon dioxide emissions are produced Material |SUSTAINABILITY 1 primarily by the construction and operation of (USGBC) fully developed LEED into a Green buildings, and the production of cement alone Building rating system that plays a crucial part produced 8% of the total CO2 emissions in 2000 in most building development across the United (Kang and Kren, 2007). States today. The LEED rating system is built upon six main categories: energy saving, water Obviously, these effects on the local and global efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved environment cannot be neglected. The entire life indoor environmental quality, and stewardship cycle and impending impact of a product needs of resources and sensitivity to their impacts to be taken into serious consideration when (USGBC). LEED uses a point system to accredit designing a building. Recently, there has been a buildings on their practical use of green design, great deal of evidence that service life construction, operations, and maintenance predictions are inaccurate, or by any means the where applicable in the six different categories. buildings are not withstanding as expected. In A building going through certification can Sweden, 25% of buildings that have been acquire up to 69 points which places the demolished since 1980 were less than 30 years building into one of four LEED categories. The old. Similarly, in Tokyo, the average lifetime of levels are Certified (26‐32 points), Silver (33‐38 buildings has dropped to 17 years (Berge, 2009). points), Gold (39‐51 points), and Platinum (52‐ It is important to analyze and fully understand 69 points). To date, over 5 billion square feet of what is included in the extraction phase of raw commercial building space is involved with the materials, the production phase, the building LEED system, but out of 19,524 projects that are phase, and the decomposition phase – so that registered, only 2,476 of these projects have each person involved in the design and completed the certification process (USGBC). construction process can make educated decisions and work towards a fully sustainable Having a LEED accredited professional on a model. design team counts as an additional point towards that building’s LEED compliance (Cotton, 2007). The majority of professionals LEED that hold a LEED accreditation are Architects, not Engineers or Contractors. In fact, per the Green Building is not a very new concept, but latest USGBC LEED Directory, less than 1% of the demands of our society have drastically LEED Professionals are Structural Engineers. catapulted this design approach to a level of Jeff Gatlin, a Mechanical Engineer with necessity. In general, designers have always Thompson Engineering, has his LEED consciously chosen materials or building plans designation, but feels that most people “who that have minimal environmental impact. In this want LEED certification get close, then see what day and age though, it plays such an important is involved and [they] back off ” (Cotton, 2007). role in the building sector that it is necessary to have a framework to measure a building’s Not only are professionals hesitant to achieve energy levels, environmental impact and long their designation, but some owners are very term sustainability. In 1994, Robert K. Watson, timid to pursue LEED accreditation because of senior specialist of Natural Resources Defense the assumption that additional costs will be Council, began the development of the accrued through the certification process. Gatlin Leadership in