Throughout a building's life cycle
Green buildings use environmentally friendly procedures and sustainable infrastructure. Building green structures is crucial because they safeguard occupant health, increase worker productivity, and ensure that energy, water, and other resources are utilized effectively. Additionally, they make sure that the environmental effect is minimized throughout all building stages, including planning and design, construction and maintenance, and finally, renovation and building demolition. These buildings ensure that the needs of the present generation and those of the future generation are met efficiently with reduced impacts to the environment. Due to this, the green building can be termed as a sustainable building.
Resources are depleting daily
Around the globe due to overexploitation, rapid population growth and unsustainable use of natural resources. For development and productivity to occur, natural resources are needed. Green building is an excellent way of minimizing resources while increasing productivity. Green building plays a significant role in improving productivity. For instance, it improves occupant's productivity by creating an environment that is comfortable and relaxing enough to boost the morale of an individual to be productive (Eichholtz & Quigley, 2013, PP 55). Green building also reduces operating costs and saves on natural resources such as energy and water by ensuring that they are used efficiently and in a sustainable manner.
The use of minimal operation costs
Helps to maximize profits in business. It ensures that these resources remain so that they can be utilized in a productive manner in other sectors and the future. (Hwang & Tan, 2012, PP 356) Green building also reduces the release of toxic materials and greenhouse gases by business. It ensures that the environment and its resources are protected from climate change that can have adverse effects on them, which may reduce their productivity. The improvement of productivity by the green building is hence important in the growth and development of the social, economic, and environmental sector.
LEED is being used internationally
To certify buildings as a way of ensuring that green buildings are put in place to help improve productivity (Data, 2016). There are also tools and frameworks being used globally to help in promoting and providing green buildings across the world they include, IPD Environmental code, GHG Indicator, Agenda 21, FIDIC's PSM and ISO 219331.
The aim of this research is to show the current trends in green buildings
For an academic purpose to be used to educate learners and business people. The research will focus on how green building has improved productivity. It will look at the current trends in the green building markets and the predictions made for the near future on green building. It will also review different frameworks and tools being used by governments globally to promote green building.
Analysis
Green building is already being adopted widely around the globe. According to World Green Building Trends 2016 Dodge Data and Analytics, the green construction sector globally continues to double each three. Survey respondents from 70 countries reported 60% of their projects being green by next year. In 2015, a report that was prepared for the USGBC by Hamilton stated that green construction in the United States generated around $167.4bn in the previous 3 years which supported more than 2.1 million occupations yielded $ 147.7 billion in earnings for building workers.
According to Hamilton
The estimate of the economic effect of green construction for the year 2015 to 2018 shows a significant increase in impact on GDP, occupations, and labor salaries in comparison to the year 2011 to 2014. It means that there will be massive reductions in energy and water usage and reduced use of poisonous materials for construction. A report by McGraw Hill in 2014 predicted a substantial growth in green building (Zuo & Zhao, 2014, PP 275). He stated that by next year, 84 percent of companies constructing new homes would make 15 percent of them to be green.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
Is one of the internationally acknowledged certification green building organizations with more than 90,800 projects in 165 nations and territories. It offers third-party authentication that a structure was planned and built using stratagems focused on improving performances in all the metrics that matter like saving water and energy (Ghaffarian et al., 2013, PP 11). LEED-certified structures are resource effective since they use less amounts of water, energy and decrease greenhouse gases discharges. Many nations that have adopted green building have certificates from LEED that approve of their building. By July 2017, more than 19.3 billion square feet of structure space was LEED- certified across the world, and approximately 202 million square feet attain LEED certification each day.
International Frameworks and Assessment Tools
Currently, the world is promoting and ensuring the green building is going on in the markets. Governments in various nations are using frameworks and evaluation tools to ensure this. There are general structures already in place that provide a green building for sustainability internationally. The Green House Gas indicator employs the use of UNEP rules when determining the levels of Greenhouse Gas Discharges from organizations. The other one is Agenda 21 which is a full blueprint or a strategy of action that is to be taken worldwide, countrywide and in local areas by the agencies in the UN, administrations and other groups in every area in which individuals affect the surroundings.
International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) is a mainly considered as a Project Sustainability Management that was formed so that it could help stakeholders such as engineers in setting sustainable growth aims for their projects that are acknowledged and established to be in the interest of the society in general. The guidelines in the PSM are under 3 broad sustainability titles, namely, they include, social, environmental and economic. The Sustainability Reporting Framework offers direction for administrations to practice on the base for disclosure on which they can easily attain their sustainability goals. It also gives shareholders a universally related and comparable context to help them comprehend the released information.
Another tool used globally by governments is the IPD Environmental Code. It is a global standard that can be used to measure the environmental performance of company structures and allow assets executives to come up with high-quality, compare performance data concerning the level of quality of their buildings in the globe (Reichardt, Fuerst, Rottke, and Zietz, 2012, PP 100). Finally, there is ISO 21931 framework for approaches of valuation for environmental performance of buildings for sustainability in building construction. It recognizes and defines matters that need to be prioritized when using approaches that should be used for the evaluation for the existing structure properties in the stages of construction. These tools and frameworks are being used around the world to ensure that green building is taking place when it comes to construction. Nations have come to realize that green building improves productivity.
Technology has also been adapted across the globe
As a solution to productivity. Technologies ensure that work is made easier, saves time, and provides goods that are efficient and of high quality. It can be argued that more top technology is the only solution to productivity. But as seen above, green building is also a solution. Green buildings ensure that occupants and employees are productive by providing a comfortable environment where they work. It also ensures sustainability when it comes to the utilization of resources such as water and energy.
Technology and green buildings are hence both solutions
To improving productivity. Green building has limitations such as they are expensive and take longer to construct compared to other buildings. Despite these constraints, they are as good as technologies when it comes to promoting and improving productivity in businesses.
Conclusion
Green building has significant benefits in the social, economic, and environmental sector. It is because it helps and improves productivity in an individual's life in all these areas. The green buildings should continue to be embraced by businesses around the globe for sustainable productivity. There are international frameworks and tools present that nations that have not yet embraced them should use to guide them on the proper ways to go about green buildings. Sustainability is a necessity when it comes to productivity. In the construction sector, it can only be achieved by green building. Each generation is significant hence all needs should be catered for without favoring and discrimination. Growth and productivity are essential to our everyday lives. It is, therefore, necessary for us to ensure that we achieve it sustainably. Both technology and green building can be incorporated to make productivity better our lives. The research topic is of great significance when it comes to educating and sensitizing people on the need to embrace green building as a way of improving productivity.
Reference
ListData, D., 2016. Analytics. (2016). World Green Building Trends
Eichholtz, P., Kok, N. and Quigley, J.M., 2013. The economics of green building. Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(1), pp.50-63.
Ghaffarian, Hoseini, A., Dahlan, N.D., Berardi, U., Ghaffarian Hoseini, A., Makaremi, N. and Ghaffarian Hoseini, M., 2013. Sustainable energy performances of green buildings: A review of current theories, implementations and challenges. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 25, pp.1-17.
Hwang, B.G. and Tan, J.S., 2012. Green building project management: obstacles and solutions for sustainable development. Sustainable development, 20(5), pp.335-349.
Reichardt, A., Fuerst, F., Rottke, N. and Zietz, J., 2012. Sustainable building certification and the rent premium: a panel data approach. Journal of Real Estate Research, 34(1), pp.99-126.
Zuo, J. and Zhao, Z.Y., 2014. Green building research–current status and future agenda: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 30, pp.271-281.
