Sustainable Design Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, the health and comfort of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objects of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimal waste, and create healthy, productive environments (“Sustainable Design”). Focusing primarily on the sustainable design principles, there are five, including: low-impact materials, energy efficiency, quality and durability, design for reuse and recycling, and renewability. As sustainability appears to become the necessary trend in architecture, the question concerning the cost versus outcome of “going green” really an investment or a waste of time and money comes to mind. With our research provided below, we believe the expenses may truly be with the investment in the end. Low-Impact Materials Low-impact materials include non-toxic, sustainably produced or recycled materials that require little energy to process. Three main areas of the home that call for much of the focus on low-impact materials include cabinetry, flooring, and countertops. Wheatboard, also called strawboard, is emerging as a great alternative to a traditional medium density particleboard. Straw is a byproduct of the harvesting process for barley and wheat, and American farmers who supply our country’s massive cereal industry produce an estimated 150 million tons of straw each year. Usually, the straw is burned, but new markets for wheatboard are giving farmers a second income. Bales of straw waste are finely ground, sorted and dried, bound with a resin, compressed into sheets, sanded, and cut to size. Along with the resin that occurs naturally when the straw is under pressure, hi... ... middle of paper ... ...donough.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Hannover-Principles-1992.pdf>. Web. IceStone. . 23 Sept 2013. Web. "Principles of Sustainable Design." National Building Museum. N.p. . Web. “Sustainable Design.” U.S. General Services Administration. GSA, 2013. . 23 Sept 2013. Web. Vetrazzo. . 23 Sept 2013. Web. Additional websites: • http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/Archive/General/Docs684.pdf • http://www.leeduser.com/credit/NC-v2.2/MRc6 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_resource • http://www.oas.org/dsd/publications/Unit/oea79e/ch05.htm • http://isofloc.com/our-insulation-products/isofloc-lm/
LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is a certification program for green buildings with stringent requirements for building energy efficient and environmentally responsible structures. Some requirements of this program include specific building materials, smart grid capable, gray water reclamation systems, green space minimums, high levels of insulation and low thermal transfer glass (US Green Building Council). Green buildings are a must if we are to sustain our current level of growth. Despite the higher initial cost of these buildings, the long term energy savings make these buildings a smarter choice for
Sustainability is one of the most controversial topics throughout the history, and as our society develop, we realize that being able to be sustainable is essential to survival of our race. The book Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Sustainability is a collection of articles on different side of various issues related to sustainability. In the book, Issue 8 discusses the ability of technology to deliver sustainability, and issue 16 and 17 discusses the sustainability of food and energy. While issue 16 and 17 are well-presented, the arguments in issue 8 are not very strong.
“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months”
These days, it seems that everyone is talking about “sustainability” or “going green.” However, these terms are somewhat confusing and difficult to classify. Over the past few decades, the concept of sustainable viticulture has emerged and is spreading awareness to grape growers and winemakers across the United States and beyond.
In recent development, sustainability has become an integral concern in the performance of architectural principles and technology, in which conscious approaches to energy and ecological conservation involves strategies during the design, construction, and operation of buildings. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Building Sector is the largest contributor to most of the energy consumed: in the United States by itself, buildings consume 47.6% of all energy produced and is responsible for 44.6% of CO2 emissions in 2010 (“Problem…” 1). In terms of sustainability, initial decisions in the design process can significantly help deliver results. Evaluations and explorations through the impact of materials, such as concrete, wood, bricks, masonry, and steel, can help improve reductions in energy through its applicability to a building. While wood and steel are simply identified for their strength, durability, and functionality in structures, accentuating these materials’ embodied energies and recyclability offer a more comprehensive understanding of their overall impact in sustainability — and ultimately reveal how both have advantages and disadvantages depending on the context.
In conclusion, the designers and builders of the tower have an undesirable job: creating a building that is functional, modern, sustainable and unique. At the same time it is honoring the memory of the people that died in and around the buildings that stood there before. While the green sustainable features have been criticized for being too expensive, they will do more than save just water, electricity and emissions. They and the grace of the building will inspire a generation of green and safe skyscrapers for the twenty-first century. This building has become one of the safest, environmentally friendly and expensive ever built, but as critics slate the building for various reasons, one cannot take away the determination through political, social and economic status that designers and workers have created such a beautiful building with great meaning.
Sustainability is an issue that everyone should be concerned about. If the planet Earth is going to exist, as we know it, everyone should wake up and do their part to help achieve a greater level of sustainability. In my English 101 class we learned about the issue of sustainability. Many different topics were discussed and researched throughout the course of the semester. Overall, I think that the sustainability project has been a learning and enlightening experience for everyone in this class. Many more things can be done next semester, since the groundwork has been laid to continue this project for time to come.
The world is developing every day and we continue to discover new and innovative ways to better our quality of life. A trend that everyone seems to be focused on is saving the environment, which is also known as sustainable living. Not only does this apply to our lifestyle and environment, but it also translates into design. Sustainable living is becoming more popular around the world and is a lifestyle using skillful and sensitive design. It eliminates negative environmental impact and requires renewable resources. We each have decided to research different furniture companies to broaden our knowledge of the innovative practices used in each company. Throughout our paper we will introduce each of our companies and the products and practices they use to produce sustainable furniture. Our research will show that sustainable furniture design is beneficial to consumers by allowing them to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle as their manufacturers develop innovative ways to make renewable furniture.
Whether you are considering building new or simply renovating, there are many verdant options that a company can use to reduce expenses. There is a price difference present between the costs of traditional and eco-friendly building materials. Typically these costs contribute about 2-3% towards the increase on price when choosing to use green building materials (Lawson, 2009). At first you think 2 - 3%, really is not significant at all, however if you consider many of the larger companies easily spends upwards of 5 – 6 million dollars on new constructions. That is quiet a magnitude of money; ranging anywhere from $100,000 – $180,000 in extra investments, depending on the options that are chosen.
Moving on from the organizational issues to the financial aspects, an analysis aiming to prove if sustainability is measurable or not will be provided, discussion based on IKEA’s sustainability report of 2015th year.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
The following are the current, more popular trends diploid in architectural design: Consideration of Green environment: We all understand that we reside in a world that is more environmentally conscious than ever. The protection of our Mother Nature extends to architecture. It is evident that more architects are trying to adopt eco-friendly items into their designs. This includes the selection of materials that don't leave much of a carbon footprint. Most places have enacted laws which most architects are governed like efficient use of land and energy, storm water filtration, waste-product reduction, native landscape use and minimal disruption of the habitat (Association of Cost Engineers, 1999).
... architectures would led to a more organic organization beneficial to the people that choose to make their lives in this city. Although this model of a sustainable city is not a perfectly closed loop, it lays the foundation for one that is. Over time, with constantly evolving and improving technology and new methods of design from the scale of products to buildings, the gaps in the loop could be closed, and a “true” sustainable city could be fully realized.
Sustainable fashion is among the developing design viewpoint and movement of sustainability with the main objective of establishing a structure, which can be sustained for the foreseeable future in terms of conservationism and social accountability. This implies that all the products made are developed with much consideration to the environmental and social influence all through its overall lifetime encompassing its carbon imprint. It is revealed that sustainable fashion is not just a short time trend but one, which could endure for a long time (Fletcher 76). Beforehand, conservationism used to represent itself in the fashion world through the contribution of a portion of transactions of products for a charitable reason.
Environmental sustainability is making decisions and taking actions in the interest of protecting the natural world, preserving the capability of the environment to support human life and ensuring that humans use the environment in a way that does not harm the environment. It also questions how economic development affects our environment vice versa.