Sustainable Design

The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a 501 c3 non-profit organization committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.

With a community comprising 78 local affiliates, more than 18,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 140,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009-2013. USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students.

Buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% water consumption and 15% of GDP per year, making green building a source of significant economic and environmental opportunity. Greater building efficiency can meet 85% of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs. The USGBC, United States Green Building Council, developed a green building rating system, LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Not only has the ‘green idea’ swept across the United States for recycling, re-purposing, conservation, et cetera green building has become an important factor in todays construction. Architects, engineers, and designers have realized the how much of the built environment uses our resources, so their using sustainable practices now so as to conserve our future resources. From site planning to materials and resources there are many routes to incorporate points to achieve LEED Certified status.

Churches account for less than 5 of LEED Certified buildings in the United States. People who are active in erecting churches/chapels are jumping on the bandwagon for green design in their community churches.

The LEED green building certification system is the preeminent program for rating the design, construction and operation of green buildings. 35,000 projects are currently participating in the LEED system, comprising over 4.5 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 91 countries.

By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.

Sustainable design (also called environmental design, environmentally sustainable design, environmentally conscious design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability.

While the practical application varies among disciplines, some common principles are as follows:

Low-impact materials: choose non-toxic, sustainably produced or recycled materials which require little energy to process

Energy efficiency: use manufacturing processes and produce products which require less energy

Quality and durability: longer-lasting and better-functioning products will have to be replaced less frequently, reducing the impacts of producing replacements

Design for reuse and recycling: “Products, processes, and systems should be designed for performance in a commercial ‘afterlife’.”[3]

Design Impact Measures for total carbon footprint and life-cycle assessment for any resource used are increasingly required and available. Many are complex, but some give quick and accurate whole-earth estimates of impacts.

Sustainable Design Standards and project design guides are also increasingly available and are vigorously being developed by a wide array of private organizations and individuals. There is also a large body of new methods emerging from the rapid development of what has become known as ‘sustainability science’ promoted by a wide variety of educational and governmental institutions.

Biomimicry: “redesigning industrial systems on biological lines ... enabling the constant reuse of materials in continuous closed cycles...”

Service substitution: shifting the mode of consumption from personal ownership of products to provision of services which provide similar functions, e.g., from a private automobile to a carsharing service. Such a system promotes minimal resource use per unit of consumption.\Renewability: materials should come from nearby (local or bioregional), sustainably managed renewable sources that can be composted when their usefulness has been exhausted.

Healthy Buildings: sustainable building design aims to create buildings that are not harmful to their occupants nor to the larger environment. An important emphasis is on indoor environmental quality, especially indoor air quality.