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About sustainable construction
Term paper on sustainability in construction
About sustainable construction
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EEco, short for environmentally efficient, contemporary oasis, is the ideal in green living spaces in Mile High City. The EEco concept was developed after the Tornado of 2009. City planners wanted homes for citizens that had tornado safety features, but was also eco-friendly with a soft carbon footprint. Originally, the land the EEco’s were built on was mixed-use including commercial, industrial, and residential. To support sustainable land practices, the city agreed to rebuild using the same concept. The EEco I & II are located downtown and are perfect for urban lifestyles because they house large numbers of residents in the heart of MHC, Colorado, while including services such as medical clinics, gyms, shops, restaurants, and a public transportation hub.
Mile High City’s EEco I & II are not just environmentally friendly, but are much more pleasurable to live in than a regular home. Architectural Engineers designed these homes to have enough space for its target number of occupants to live comfortably, and have enough fully equipped bathrooms, kitchens, and living areas. The carpets, made from recyclables, have that soft, comfortable feeling, and cork flooring that is spongy and therapeutic to walk on. Mechanical and electrical engineers designed the futuristic technologies of communication devices, netbooks, and appliances that make life simpler and easier as well as being Five Star energy rated. People with disabilities especially benefit from living in these homes, because the EEcos are communities that replace group homes. So, disabled residents can get the help they need easily, with staff close by and in-building clinics, as well as be socially active with others in the community. Elderly and disabled residents have hous...
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...ground are EEco I & II’s gyms, salons, spas, and hydroponic gardens.
MHC’s EEco buildings are also beneficial to the community. Furniture for EEco’s homes and businesses are purchased from local craftsmen, and surplus produce and electricity is sold to city power companies. Green actions employed by EEco include but are not limited to the use of: sustainable building materials as well as recycled building wastes, renewable energy resources that enable EEco’s to use the grid as emergency backup only, polarized windows, passive solar for natural light and heat, open ventilation system for cooling and air quality, rooftop gardens, hydroponics gardening, and local artists and interior designers for building aesthetics. All the eco-friendly accomplishments of MHC’s green homes have led to LEED platinum certification and a fresh start for the residents of EEco I & II.
Norman, A. (2004, Jan). A Citizen's View of Home Depot. Retrieved Feb 12, 2005, from http://www.sprawl-busters.com/hometown.htm
Even tho the green revolution had stopped starvation in some of the world, it has also caused some. The green revolution was the use of new technology to grow food for the people of the world that started in the 1950’s. These new technology were such things as Gmo’s, pesticides, fertilizers. The main goal was to stop hunger and make second and third world countries better and not living in poverty. The green revolution Raised the amount of food in the world, made the world's population increase in a dangerous rate and harmed and damaged the earth and its people.
Canada and the United States have both played a role in creating unjust environmental conditions for people of color. As educators, we must teach our students to become active citizens and become critically aware of their surroundings such as their living environment. In the Ted Talk video “Greening the Ghetto” Majora Carter talks about her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx New York, which relates to environmental racism. What is Environmental Racism?
An aging population, a younger generation who prefer walkable places, economic shifts, and the environmental impacts of suburban development are all contributing factors” (Beatz 141). Reshaping Metropolitan America gives an argument, as well as a blueprint, on how we can transform our infrastructure and housing demands by 2030.
From the quaint café on the corner of First and Main that booms on Sunday mornings, to the community park and pond where families feed the ducks and children play in the midday sun, reminders of an urban area’s identity are scattered within its limits. This identity is composed of a certain level of community shared by the inhabitants of urban areas, and this sense of community develops over generations as people become personally intertwined with other people and structures contained within the fabric of their environment. This sense of community is the heartbeat of thriving urban centers and is what encourages people to take pride in their city — to take pride in their home. It is therefore alarming when one rounds the corner of Main to discover their favorite café has closed up shop, or the duck pond is gated because of contaminated water, or the historical home is deserted and falling apart. As building blocks of community like the café, pond, or the home are eliminated, the identity of urban environments is lost. Cities’ sense of being erodes and the vitality and joy of the area and its inhabitants decays.
Green building has come forth over the past decade as a positive movement to produce high-performance, energy-efficient structures that improve comfort and health for resident, meanwhile, minimizing environmental impacts. Nevertheless, a common sense that green features is expensive and not suitable for affordable housing. Recent studies are showed that green buildings have a modest initial cost premium, but the long-term benefits far exceed the additional capital costs. For this report, I will introduce a financial analysis -Net Present Value (NPV), and discuss the impacts of NPV analysis for green affordable housing.
It is often easy to castigate large cities or third world countries as failures in the field of affordable housing, yet the crisis, like an invisible cancer, manifests itself in many forms, plaguing both urban and suburban areas. Reformers have wrestled passionately with the issue for centuries, revealing the severity of the situation in an attempt for change, while politicians have only responded with band aid solutions. Unfortunately, the housing crisis easily fades from our memory, replaced by visions of homeless vets, or starving children. Metropolis magazine explains that “…though billions of dollars are spent each year on housing and development programs worldwide, ? At least 1 billion people lack adequate housing; some 100 million have none at all.? In an attempt to correct this worldwide dilemma, a United Nations conference, Habitat II, was held in Istanbul, Turkey in June of 1996. This conference was open not only to government leaders, but also to community organizers, non governmental organizations, architects and planners. “By the year 2000, half the world’s people will live in cities. By the year 2025, two thirds of the world population will be urban dwellers ? Globally, one million people move from the countryside to the city each week.? Martin Johnson, a community organizer and Princeton professor who attended Habitat II, definitively put into words the focus of the deliberations. Cities, which are currently plagued with several of the severe problems of dis-investment ?crime, violence, lack of jobs and inequality ?and more importantly, a lack of affordable and decent housing, quickly appeared in the forefront of the agenda.
Housing in inner city areas was poor quality and in a 1991 census it was found that over 1 million homes in the inner cities still lacked the basic amenities of bathrooms, WC’s and hot water. The occupants have low incomes and are often elderly, young
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.
Typical loans don’t cover the cost of incorporating green aspects when choosing to build eco-friendly. However, there certain companies that offers energy efficient mortgages (EEM’s). One company, My Energy Loan (www.myEnergyLoan.com) does both residential and commercial eco-friendly loans, included in there services are ideas to help improve efficiency. They do an assessment and make suggestions on some ideas of improvements including lowe...
In this regard, city authorities all over the world are increasingly adopting energy efficiency measures in a quest to become sustainable into the future. Consequently, this has led to the emergence of the term ‘green cities’ (Aulisi & Hanson, 2004). New York City, viewed by many as an urban, concrete jungle, was recently named the “greenest city" in the United States. This is mainly because most of its residents live in energy-efficient buildings, and use public transport, bicycl...
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.
In a world where over half of the human population calls a city their home, the need to restructure and revolutionize the way we design our urban environments has never been greater. Currently, the notion that these vast metropolises of metal, concrete, and sludge could one day be fully realized pillars of sustainability is certainly laughable. However, when these same cities are constantly growing and multiplying across the globe, all the while using a greater and greater chunk of our planet’s energy, this impossible task becomes a necessary focus. To strive towards the closed, continuous loop of “true” sustainability could greatly alter the image of the modern city. Any improvement over the current state of urban affairs could carry weight, and even if that goal is not entirely fulfilled, the gained benefits would be immense.
So many things in buildings can make a person act or feel important. An example of this would be someone who is not used to having nice things and when they go out on vacation it’s something as simple as a nice hotel suite to take away the stress that life can sometimes give to a person. But on the other hand a person that already lives in a nice big house with new things may not appreciate the capacity of a nice hotel suite because they already get that on a daily basis. (Clayton & Myers, 2009)
The Green movement began in the Western World during the 1970’s around the time of the Vietnam War. The green movement is a social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvements to the current health of the environment. The Green movement also promotes the conservation, restoration, and the overall improvement of our environment. Many people disagree with the green movement and its values because they don’t see the immediate benefits from them. However, supporting the green movement by recycling, researching alternative energy sources, and mandating eco-friendly laws will lead to a better, greener, country.