Oregon design professionals views on structural building products in green buildings: implications for wood

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 390-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Knowles ◽  
Christine Theodoropoulos ◽  
Corey Griffin ◽  
Jennifer Allen
Keyword(s):  
Structural Material ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Group Interviews

Buildings have been shown to have impacts on the environment. Consequently, green building rating systems have become a tool to help reduce these impacts. The objectives of this study were to identify gaps in information and access to green building materials as viewed by Oregon design professionals. The scope was limited to the major structural materials: concrete, steel, and wood. This article focuses on the results unique to wood products. Information was collected through group interviews. Each group was composed of professionals representing different aspects of material selection and construction of different scales. The results showed that structural material selection is driven by building code, cost, and building performance requirements. The environmental performance of the material was not considered. However, once the material was selected, designers tried to maximize environmental performance. The results showed that green building rating systems do not influence structural material selection, and interviewees noted that there is room for improvement in this area. Respondents had a positive view of wood and a strong desire to use more wood, particularly Forest Stewardship Council certified wood. Wood was viewed as the most sustainable structural material available. However, there were some concerns about wood products, with formaldehyde emissions being the most significant.

scholarly journals Effect of LCA Data Sources on GBRS Reference Values: The Envelope of an Italian Passive House

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1883
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Palumbo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Threshold Values ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Passive House ◽  
The Impact

Scientific literature provides evidence that mitigating the effects of a building’s operation does not in itself ensure an overall improvement in its environmental performance. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) plays a key role in gauging the overall environmental performance of a building although several authors argue that the lack of LCA threshold values makes it difficult to compare design options or measure whether reduced impact targets are achieved. This has led the Green Building Rating Systems (GBRS) to include the LCA within their evaluation criteria and, in like Active House (AH), establish threshold values of the main impact categories to quantify the level of performance achieved. Since the reliability of the data sources is a crucial issue for applying the LCA method, the effectiveness of their implementation within the GBRS also strictly depends on the origin of the impact values. To quantify the extent to which the source affects the impacts calculated by the LCA threshold value in AH, the present study compared the outcomes of two assessments carried out in parallel using two different data sources: AH–LCA evaluation tool v.1.6 and the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). A Passive House (PH)-compliant, small residential building was selected as a case study, as this is a standard that excels in ultra-low-energy performance. Moreover, given the crucial role that the envelope plays in the PH standard, the analysis was undertaken on the envelope of a PH-compliant building located in Northern Italy. To stress the influence of embedded effects in a Passive House, the assessment focused on the production and end-of-life stages of building materials. The comparison showed a relevant difference between the two scenarios for all the environmental indicators: e.g., deviations of 10% for Global Warming Potential, 20% for Acidification Potential and Eutrophication Potential, and 40–50% for Renewable Primary Energy.

scholarly journals Embodied Carbon as a Material Selection Criterion: Insights from Sri Lankan Construction Sector

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2202
Author(s):  
Amalka Nawarathna ◽  
Muditha Siriwardana ◽  
Zaid Alwan
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Selection Criterion ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Embodied Carbon ◽  
The Government

The choice of materials is crucial in responding to the increasing embodied carbon (EC) impacts of buildings. Building professionals involved in material selection for construction projects have a vital role to play in this regard. This paper aimed to explore the extent to which building professionals in Sri Lanka considered EC as a material selection criterion. A questionnaire survey was conducted among a sample of building professionals in Sri Lanka. The results indicated that the consideration of EC as a material selection criterion remained low among key professionals, such as architects, engineers, and sustainability managers, despite their reasonable influencing powers and knowledge of EC. Those respondents who had considered EC as a selection criterion said they had been primarily driven by green building rating systems and previous experience. Those respondents who had not considered EC during material selection commonly reported that they had been prevented from doing so by the lack of regulations and the lack of alternative low carbon materials. Respondents believed that the involvement of actors, such as the government, professional bodies, environmental organizations, activist groups, and the public, may be significant in promoting the greater consideration of EC during material selection.

Eco-labeled wood products in the U.S. residential construction industry: Architects’ awareness and usage of certified wood and green building programs

2014 ◽  
Vol 90 (05) ◽  
pp. 605-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tait Bowers ◽  
Indroneil Ganguly ◽  
Ivan Eastin
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Residential Construction ◽  
Efficient Design ◽  
Renewable Materials ◽  
Environmental Friendliness ◽  
Certified Wood ◽  
The U.S

The use of environmentally friendly building materials has experienced slow growth within the residential construction market due to higher cost and low availability of certified wood. The development of green building programs (GBPs) marked the beginning of the effort to adopt energy-efficient design guidelines and utilize eco-friendly renewable materials in structures. These programs were targeted at reducing environmental impacts by integrating eco-friendly materials into the design and construction of buildings, including promoting the use of environmentally certified wood products (ECWPs) harvested from sustainably managed forests. This research was designed to determine which attributes influence architects’ decisions to use environmentally certified wood products in residential construction projects and how this might influence their perceptions and use of green building programs. The results indicate that architects who have participated in a GBP were more likely to have used ECWPs. The material attributes that influence architects’ selection of materials are mainly related to economics and function as opposed to environmental friendliness. These results will help to inform and broaden the understanding of issues that influence the adoption and utilization of environmentally certified wood products, and identify some of the factors that can contribute to their continued growth in the U.S. marketplace.

Impact of Environmental Assessment of Green Building Materials on Sustainable Rating System

2013 ◽  
Vol 689 ◽  
pp. 398-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usman Aminu Umar ◽  
Hassan Tukur ◽  
Mohd. Faris Khamidi ◽  
Adam Umar Alkali
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Housing Developments ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Green Building Materials ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
The Impact

As education and concern pertaining to environmental and sustainability issues like implications of resources destruction, decrease in bio-diversity as well as climate change multiply, so has the need for housing developments that lead to less damaging effects on the environment, whilst enabling living standard to be sustained. Builders, developers and material providers have addressed this demand by creating approaches and technologies that minimize energy, water and main material consumption, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and sustain or enhance surrounding ecological systems and services. Several administration and non-governmental institutions in addition have aimed to change the sustainability of the building industry by developing green rating systems that can be used to evaluate the environmental performance of new and existing building. This paper discusses material resources criteria and the impact as a sustainable rating tool.

scholarly journals Development of a Green Building Materials Integrated Platform Based on Materials and Resources in G-SEED in South Korea

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang ◽  
Tae ◽  
Kim
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Resource Selection ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Green Building Materials ◽  
Integrated Platform

Various eco-friendly materials are used in the construction industry. South Korea employs the Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED), a green building certification system, in which materials account for 11% of the evaluation criteria. However, data for each eco-friendly material are managed individually by different institutions, causing inefficiency, increased costs, and potentially greater environmental impacts associated with material and resource selection. Hence, this study develops a green building materials integrated platform (GIP) that collates information on eco-friendly materials across different industries in South Korea, to support the G-SEED evaluations. Guidelines and standards related to each evaluation item were analyzed and used to compile a green building materials database. The database includes 12,636 data points representing product prices and environmental impact data. This database was used to develop the four-level Excel-based GIP. Case studies were conducted on actual G-SEED buildings to analyze the economic efficiency and environmental performance achieved by using alternative materials to those recommended by the GIP. Case 1 exhibits improvements in economic efficiency and environmental performance of 17% and 10%, respectively, whereas Case 2 exhibits improvements of 8% and 21%, respectively. Thus, both case studies boast superior combinations of green building materials compared to existing alternatives.

scholarly journals Construction professionals’ environmental perceptions of lumber, concrete and steel in Japan and China

2012 ◽  
Vol 88 (05) ◽  
pp. 593-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisuke Sasatani ◽  
Ivan Eastin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Environmental Perceptions ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Renewable Materials ◽  
Environmental Friendliness ◽  
Environmental Attributes ◽  
Main Factor ◽  
Japan And China

As green building programs (GBPs) are introduced in Asian countries, the question of how GBPs evaluate the “greenness” of construction practice becomes one of the most critical uncertainties for the building material industry. To better understand construction professionals’ perception of greenness and the greenness of different building materials in Japan and China, surveys were conducted in both countries in 2009 and 2010. The surveys were designed to evaluate professionals’ perceptions of the relative importance of the major environmental attributes of resource efficiency. Chinese and Japanese professionals ranked the environmental attributes similarly even though their construction practices are very different. They perceive that saving energy and saving water are substantially more important environmental attributes than using renewable materials, having a low carbon footprint and using recycled materials. Second, the survey was designed to gain insights into the respondents’ perceptions of the relative environmental performance of the three major structural building materials (wood, concrete and steel). In both countries, construction professionals perceive lumber as having the best environmental performance relative to concrete and steel. However, Chinese and Japanese professionals have different perceptions of lumber in terms of its environmental friendliness. In Japan, energy efficiency of houses, the level of pollution generated during the manufacturing process, and CO2 emissions contribute to the evaluation of the environmental friendliness of lumber. In China, the sustainability of the resource is the main factor perceived as promoting the environmental friendliness of lumber.

scholarly journals CRITERIA FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF RESIDENTIAL AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS BASED ON GREEN BUILDING CONCEPT

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. V. Bakaeva ◽  
A. Yu. Natarova ◽  
A. Yu. Igin
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Ecological Assessment ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Minimum Criteria ◽  
The Impact

The article is devoted to the ecological assessment of buildings as the human environment based on the Green building conception. Authors proved the relevance of assessment of the impact of real estate as the man-made environment elements on the environment and human health. The concepts of comfort and safety of buildings and facilities for the people, which are considered as the basic category required for the formation of an effective human capital, were introduced in this article. The need to move from a traditional design and construction to the "green" was highlighted and its main objectives were marked. The actions of "green standards", which are an effective tool for environmental assessment of buildings, were described. The main objectives of the introduction of eco-standards and rating systems, and eco-certification were identified in this article. International and national standards were reviewed separately. The main criteria for evaluating the environmental performance of real estate included in the structure of various "green" standards are systematized. The structure of the existing national and international eco-standards, including Russian is reflected intuitively. Their basic features (for example, the minimum requirements for certification in one of the standards require compliance with all the criteria perfectly, and in the other - a certain set of minimum criteria) are marked, as well as strengths and weaknesses. In the article possibilities of adaptation of the most common eco-standards for use in other countries with different climatic, social, political and other features are indicated. Authors compare national and international "green" standards (including the Russian GOST R 54964-2012) in terms of their structure and composition of the main criteria for the environmental assessment of the property. The comparison highlighted basic categories common to all existing standards, as well as unique criteria inherent in this or that assessment systems. The authors also examined the application of various eco-standards and concluded that the same standard cannot be used simultaneously for residential, public and industrial buildings because the priority requirements for environmental safety directly depend on the destination of the property. The authors have formulated proposals for improvement of the Russian national ecological assessment system: the introduction of new criteria and a detailed study of existing, developing effective evaluation methodologies, the adjustment of the standard requirements depending on the destination of the property.

The Construction Specification Institute's Sustainable Reporting Data Format: GreenFormat

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Pat A Hooper
Keyword(s):  
Green Building ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Forest Stewardship Council ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Building Product ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Material Transportation ◽  
Construction Specification ◽  
Design Firms ◽  
Reporting Data

The increased utilization of green building rating systems, federal and state sustainable building programs, and the interest in green building by private commercial and residential builders has generated a wide range of building product manufacturer claims about the sustainable attributes of their products. Evaluating those manufacturer claims, which range from “environmentally friendly,” “low VOC,” “all natural,” to “100% recycled,” is a major challenge to specifiers, professional designers, and others who must make product selections to meet the rating system requirements. While there are independent third party certifications from the Forest Stewardship Council, Scientific Certification System (SCS), and Green Guard, the majority of the rating systems use a descriptor as a requirement such as “rapidly renewable,” for which there is no current certification. Some professional designers want information on material transportation and extraction, or product deconstruction or recycling. Some large design firms have created environmental questionnaires for manufacturers to complete; however, the questionnaires are not standardized. Manufacturers are faced with completing different questionnaires from a variety of major design firms. The Construction Specification Institute (CSI), the publisher of MasterFormat, has created a sustainable reporting data guide named GreenFormat©. The intent of this article is to describe GreenFormat, its data categories, and to provide background on the informational transparency.

RESILIENCE COVERAGE OF GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORKS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-53
Author(s):  
Samira Roostaie ◽  
Maryam Kouhirostami ◽  
Mahya Sam ◽  
Charles J Kibert
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Current Level ◽  
Rating Systems ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Global Sustainability ◽  
Resilience Indicators ◽  
Brundtland Report

ABSTRACT Sustainable development has been a popular concept since 1987 and the issuance of the Brundtland report. A diverse number of sustainability assessment frameworks are available to examine the environmental performance of buildings and communities. With the current pace of climate change and the increasing threat of stronger, more frequent natural hazards, however, there are doubts that sustainability alone is an effective response. Sustainability assessment frameworks in recent years have been criticized for not incorporating hazard resilience. To better understand the current level of emphasis put on resilience to natural hazards in green building rating systems, this study aims to assess the level of resilience integration in existing sustainability assessment frameworks. The results demonstrate an overall lack of resilience coverage in the frameworks with only four frameworks, CASBEE, LEED, Green Globes, and DGNB having resilience coverage of 27.5%, 15%, 2.6%, and 1.1% respectively. This confirms a need for more systematic integration of resilience indicators into sustainability rating systems to create combined frameworks for sustainability and resilience.

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