Sustainable Green Building Research Articles

Investigation of Implementation Stages and Boundaries of Life Cycle Assessment Method

With the massive growth in the population of the world, the rapid consumption of natural resources and unorganized urbanization causes an impact of air pollution, water pollution, environmental destruction, and global warming to increase. With these factors threatening human health, the term sustainability gained popularity for restoring the deteriorating ecological balance. This awareness is called green buildings in the construction sector. The purpose of sustainable green buildings is the restoration of corrupted order and utilization of energy effectively. The Life Cycle Assessment method is one of the assessment systems developed for reducing the environmental impacts of products/services in evolving green buildings. Life Cycle Assessment determines the environmental impacts of the process that studies the extraction, use and disposal of the material by taking the life long evaluation of any product. As a result of this study and the in depth review of the literature portrayed the pros and cons, and the applications of the terms sustainability, green buildings and life cycle. The application stages of Life Cycle Assessment are defining the purpose and concept, stock analysis, analysis of effectiveness, evaluation of subfields with a determination of the boundaries as initial, intermediate and final. With the final analysis, the aim is to produce environmentally friendly products/services. Keywords: Sustainability, Green Building, Life Cycle Assessment, LCA Application Steps, Construction Materials DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-13-01

Day-light Analysis of an office building to enhance its energy efficiency

Sustainability has become increasingly significant in the construction industry in recent few years. The structure is considerably liable for 33% of energy consumption for cooling and counterfeit day lighting alone. In this way, energy consumption is a significant rule that needs extraordinary consideration while thinking about feasible structures. Understanding the circumstance, the need of the day is to adopt sustainable green building design approach which is a definitive answer for decrease the energy demand request of the structure. Various alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal energies end up being better in making an energy efficient built environment; alongside these rules successful usage of daylight plays a crucial role in creating energy efficient buildings. Ecotect day light simulation analysis is one such case which briefs up the concept of energy efficiency. This Software has been utilized to calculate building’s energy consumption by simulating its setting within the environment. It shows the sun path and shadow examination of a project or a structure on a specific day, time and spot consistently, which would support the specialists and architects/designers to go for elective designs for viable utilization of day light in development extends, this could before long become a vital piece of building and engineering plan for vitality proficient structures. This paper surveys and analyses of an office building and gives data about the day-light analyze simulation of a structure for accomplishing the best effectiveness of natural lighting and energy saving during the daytime to reach optimum daylight performance in building using the Ecotect Software.

BIM Management Measure for an Effective Green Building Project

In light of the gap in research and practice, with regard to achieving the sustainability goals of green building, while maximizing combination with building-information-modeling (BIM) as a social system—a gap that is expressed in the absence of integration of all stakeholders—a managerial measure is proposed to integrate them and promote sustainable green building. By using a framework for implementing BIM as a social system, and through network analysis, an index is developed to assess its integration into the green building—the Green BIM Index. This measure consists of comparing a social benchmark for optimal implementation with the actual implementation, in a given project. The index is intended to help score the BIM integration level in a green building. Comparing the BIM management measure results with social benefit assessments, and the effectiveness of BIM in nine case-studies enables to understand project outcomes in terms of schedules, budgets, and quality. The paper demonstrates the index applicability, pointing to possible significant economic improvements through the implementation of BIM social capabilities. BIM management benchmarking is helpful for the comparative evaluation of similar projects incorporating green building with BIM, indicating the level of integration to improve benefits.

Nanoscale insight on the durability of magnesium phosphate cement: a molecular dynamics study.

The sustainable green building material magnesium phosphate cement (MPC) is widely used in the fields of solidifying heavy metals and nuclear waste and repair and reinforcement. Magnesium potassium phosphate hexahydrate (MKP) is the main hydration product of MPC. The transport of water and ions in MKP nanochannels determines the mechanical properties and durability of MPC materials. Herein, the interface models of MKP crystals with sodium chloride solution in the [001], [010] and [100] direction were established by molecular dynamics. The interaction of the MKP interface with water and ions was studied and the durability of MPC in sodium chloride solution was explained at the molecular level. The results show that a large number of water molecules are adsorbed on the MKP crystal surface through hydrogen bonds and Coulomb interactions; the surface water molecules have the bigger dipole moment and the dipole vector of most of the water molecules points to the solid matrix, when the crystal surfaces of the three models all show hydrophilicity. In addition, plenty of sodium ions are adsorbed at the MKP interface, and some potassium ions are desorbed from the matrix. In the MKP[001] model, the amount of potassium ions separated from the matrix and diffused into the solution is the highest and the interface crystal is the most disordered. Due to the attack of water and ions, the K–Os bond loses its chemical stability and the order of the MKP crystal is destroyed, which explains the decline of MPC performance after the erosion of sodium chloride solution at the molecular level. Besides, in the three models, the Na–Cl ion bond is more unstable than the K–Cl ion bond due to the smaller radius of the sodium atom. The stability of ionic bonds in the models is as follows: MKP[010] > MKP[100] > MKP[001].

Multifunctional and Environmentally Friendly TiO2-SiO2 Mesoporous Materials for Sustainable Green Buildings.

This work deals with the formulation of environmentally friendly, cheap, and readily-available materials for green building applications, providing the function of air purificator by improving the safety and the comfort of an indoor environment. High surface area TiO2–SiO2 samples, prepared by a simple, cost effective, and scalable synthetic approach, proved to be effective in maximizing the properties of each component, i.e., the photocatalytic properties of titania and the high surface area of silica. TiO2 was introduced onto an ordered mesoporous silica Santa Barbara Amorphous-15 (SBA-15), that is featured by interesting insulating features, by using an incipient wetness impregnation method. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated in gas phase oxidation of ethylbenzene, which was selected as model volatile organic compound (VOC) molecule. The morphological, textural and structural features along with the electronic properties, the hydrophilicity and heat capacity of the materials were investigated in depth by scanning electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, N2 physisorption, diffuse reflectance UV-Vis, FT-IR spectroscopies, and modulated DSC (MDSC) dynamic scan. Outstanding performances in the ethylbenzene abatement results are promising for further application in the green building sector.

Impact of building greening on building energy consumption: A quantitative computational approach

Abstract As China’s urbanization process continues to accelerate, building energy consumption is becoming an increasingly serious issue, and more attention is being focused on the use of sustainable green buildings to control building energy consumption. The aim of this study is to establish a method to quantitatively predict the impact of greening on building energy consumption. First, we used NASA satellite data to establish the Beijing Land Characteristics Index, including land surface temperature (LST), normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI), building silhouette (BS), impervious surfaces index (ISI), and modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI). Then, we used the spatial autoregressive model to explore the relationship between building greening and outdoor temperature and finally used the degree-day method to establish the connection between building greening and building energy consumption. The regression results show that the outdoor temperature of the building has a high spatial autocorrelation. For every NDVI increase of 0.1, the outdoor temperature is reduced by 1.317 °C. Using the final model to calculate the Shuangjing commercial district data, for every NDVI increase of 0.1 in the Shuangjing area (116.4656241, 39.89360353), the building energy consumption decreased by 7.771%. The results of this study provide strong support for urban greening policy implementation and a more accurate quantitative forecasting method for greening investment and building energy consumption to meet the general cleaner production trend in building construction.

Comparison Study between Conventional Building and Sustainable Green Building

Comparison Study between Conventional Building and Sustainable Green Building

Practical Study of Sustainable Green Building Materials: Faculty of Engineering Building, Menoufia University

Practical Study of Sustainable Green Building Materials: Faculty of Engineering Building, Menoufia University

A Review on Transformation of Thermoplastic as an Alternative towards Sustainable Green Building Construction Material

A Review on Transformation of Thermoplastic as an Alternative towards Sustainable Green Building Construction Material

Experimental investigation of discarded additive material combination and composition to appropriate thermal insulating properties of the composite cement mortar

Novel disposal of waste material and the promotion of sustainable green building material needs comprehensive characterization. In this work, industrial and agro wastes, such as egg shell (ES), fly ash (FA) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) were supplemented for sand in different proportions to appropriate the thermal insulating properties of composite cement mortar and their properties compared with normal cement mortar (NCM). The findings reveal that the incorporation of these solid wastes reduces the thermal conductivity of the composite cement mortar significantly without compromising on the other important properties such as workability, water absorptivity and compressive strength. The customized mortar with EPS and ES provides a significant reduction in thermal conductivity of 40% and 16%, respectively, with 25% replacement of sand by volume, whereas the mortar modified with FA was able to provide 17% higher compressive strength in comparison with NCM. Adopting these mortars appropriately for plastering the building structures will greatly reduce the energy consumption in buildings and also promote effective use of waste materials.

Research on Development Countermeasures of Prefabricated Buildings in New Rural Construction -- A Case Study of Longfeng Village, Hunan Province

This paper introduces the present situation of the development of prefabricated buildings under the background of the development of prefabricated buildings advocated by the state. Through field visit, questionnaire survey and interview in Longfeng village, Hunan province, the present situation of the structure system of rural dwellings was investigated and researched, and its main problems were investigated and analyzed from various perspectives of energy conservation, environmental protection, thermal insulation, seismic resistance and the like. According to the survey data, this paper analyzes the difficulty of assembling rural self-built houses. Finally, the paper puts forward the corresponding development countermeasures for the construction of new rural dwellings on the road of sustainable green building, and provides strategies for the construction of new rural areas.

To Study an Awareness on Sustainable Green Building Practices Amongst Construction Industry Players

Green building is refers to both a structure and the using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource efficient throughout the building’s life cycle. Green building concept is introduced in 1960s and has gradually spread throughout the world and emphasized more on to energy conserving for office building in 1970s. In Malaysia, the green building concept has been accepted after announcement of 9th Malaysian Plan (2006-2010) in 2006 with focusing more on Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE). Furthermore, Malaysia has launched its own Green building Index (GBI) in year 2009. However this GBI is concentrated only on the measurement of green building but not for other aspects of green building such as indoor environmental quality, sustainable site planning and management, and so on. Moreover, the development of green building concept has occurred with limited understanding and guidance, and some cases have added a cost to the development. Therefore, this paper aims to identify factor influencing green building practice in Malaysia as well as to study awareness on green building practices amongst construction industry practitioner. The findings of this research were based on the questionnaires mailed and e-mailed to 75 construction industry companies; Property development company, Contractor company, Architect firm and Property management company within Klang Valley area. The findings have identified independent/government rating system as the main factor influencing construction industry player to undertaking green building practice. The results also revealed that the awareness amongst the construction players towards sustainable green building concept is moderate, and property development companies contributed to the highest mean score. These results show the willingness of the respondents to participate and committed with the green building development. This will allow recommendations to help ensure more sustainable green building development in Malaysia in the future.

The Future of Green Building Materials in Egypt: A Framework for Action

Sustainable development has become a significant worldwide concern. The past few years have seen a lot of changes. Some of these affect how we do approach - and how we should approach - environmental issues. Because of their adverse impacts to sustainability, knowledge about building materials became a crucial dimension of green change in building and design. The problem is that in Egypt there is still no database for green building ma-terials. In spite that there are currently over 120 international green labelling programs for building materials worldwide, they cannot be locally used. This is because building materials and the way they are extracted, manufactured, used, transported, recycled or disposed differ from country to country. All these factors result in insufficiency of data & information on green building materials and those who are involved in the design, construction & man-agement of building materials are acutely lacking the basic information on materials that would allow them to make constructive changes. That's why the introduction of a system for specification, assessment & se-lection of green building materials is considered to be one of the corner-stones of promoting sustainable green building development in Egypt as an attempt to fulfil Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals developed by the United Nations to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by 2030. The aim of the research is to develop a framework for a system for evaluat-ing sustainability of building materials in Egypt to achieve greener steps to-wards sustainability with a new way of scoring sustainability of building materials that evaluates both positive & negative ecological, social & health and economic impacts through the whole life cycle. This system could be applied in the development of the New Cites that considers the unique chal-lenges of the region and the local market and could be applied all over the country taking into consideration the nature of each region with its available building materials and specific climatic conditions and the different regional priorities and requirements. The research was based on an inductive approach through studying & analy-sis of the life cycle of the building materials, the different aspects and crite-ria for the evaluation of green building materials, currently available re-sources of information about building materials in Egypt and the interna-tional & national reference values & benchmarks that could be used as a base for the new system. Findings will lead to a proposed framework of a system for specification and assessment of green building materials in Egypt. This framework de-scribes all the kind of information required and the procedures that should be taken for the development of the system from collecting data till the es-tablishment of online guide for green building materials and a digital library for accessible and reliable information on green building materials that ena-bles building designers, constructors and developers to make reasoned choices based upon the health & environmental impacts of their decisions and eases the use & selection of Green Building materials in Egypt over the coming years.

Earthquake resistant sustainable steel green buildings made of wide flange rolled sections

Earthquake resistant sustainable steel green buildings made of wide flange rolled sections

The First IEEE International Conference on Sustainable Green Buildings and Communities [Society News

Presents information on the IEEE International Conference on Sustainable Green Buildings and Communities Conference.

Sustainability tools for the assessment of construction materials and buildings

The construction industry, being the backbone of the European economy, has played a significant influential role in the development of the energy strategy of Europe and is also anticipated to be an important contributor in its successful implementation. Holistic sustainability assessment tools that are able to evaluate and optimise the environmental performance of construction materials and buildings are considered a key for the development of advanced building designs and use of sustainable building materials and elements and green energy- efficient systems that will raise high the sustainability level of the European built environment. The aim of this work is to present the current legislation addressing the construction industry, as well as the state-of-the- art Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools that are used for the sustainability assessment and optimisation of construction materials and buildings. In view of that, the standardised LCA methodology, and the approach of EcoHestia, a comphrehensive building sustainability assessment tool, are discussed. Through the employment of EcoHestia, the environmental impact of a case study building is defined, also providing a detailed breakdown of the contribution of each construction material in the overall environmental performance of the building. The analysis of the results has not only determined on the construction materials of the building that are most harmful to the natural resources and the environment, but also showcased the effectiveness and added value of utilizing this approach in moving forward towards a more sustainable green building sector.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.16.3.16172

Strategic project management as an innovative approach for sustainable green campus buildings in Africa

Purpose Across the African continent many colleges and universities are facing hurdles in sustaining green building initiatives. Often the barriers to green building are not purely financial, they include a significant number of non-financial issues directly connected with the way green building initiatives are integrated within the management of these higher learning institutions (HLIs). The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons behind widespread barriers and the ways in which the barriers could be overcome through strategic project management. Design/methodology/approach The paper includes a critical review of existing literature on barriers to sustaining green building initiatives and an argument is built on the need to manage these initiatives as projects. Consequently it establishes that there is a seamless connection between HLIs strategies and projects, hence strategic project management as a framework to sustain the green campus culture. Findings Despite numerous barriers facing African HLIs in embracing green campus buildings (GCBs) as part of their permanent business undertakings; this review strongly suggest a change of direction from “traditional approaches” to strategic project management, where all green building initiatives are transformed to programmes and portfolios dealing with sub-sets of the core business of HLIs. Practical implications Strategic decision to include green campus building initiatives (GCBIs) as part of HLIs core strategic business projects will bring permanence in GCB thinking and resources will be allocated to GCBIs and green campus thinking may become a norm and one of the metrics for organization success. Social implications Strategic project as a way to creating a conducive-environment for GCBIs success will become a constant and part of the way in which African HLIs are managed. Originality/value Contemporary management approaches like strategic project management is embraced as mean for allowing under-resourced African HLIs achieving significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

An Exploration of Green Building Costs and Benefits: Searching for the Higher Ed Context

Green building certification on college campuses is relatively new. When determining the financial feasibility of a certified green building at an institution of higher education, the full building lifecycle perspective is important to consider. In this paper, I first provide a background on campus sustainable development and green building rating systems. I then review the studies that have addressed the upfront green premium and down-the-line green building operating costs. Lastly, deficiencies in the studies are highlighted as well as future research recommendations in order to cure these deficiencies.

A study on the color change benefits of sustainable green building materials

Environmental issues have become a topical subject in recent years. Numerous recycling resources can be found in our living environment, such as fallen leaves, wood chips, recovered iron powder, waste newspaper, waste concrete, reservoir silt, etc., which are utilizable waste materials. Related regulations stipulate that the waste blending ratio of recycling green building materials should be higher than 50%. In this study, three waste materials, including wood chips, concrete, and waste newspaper, were mixed with gypsum and dissolved in thermochromic material, which is made into bricks. The thermal radiation of sunlight can be absorbed by the bricks to change the hue. The experimental modules were divided into ABCD groups, which were mixed with allochroic powder of different specifications. The RGB values of bricks at different temperatures and hours were measured by a color analyzer. The results showed that the rate of change in the RGB values of the ABCD groups is higher than 10.9% when the day–night temperature difference exceeds 5°C. These allochroic bricks can be applied to the external walls of buildings, providing landscape, building, and interior designers with another media for artistic creation.

Analysis of Energy Conservation of an Institutional Building using Design Builder Software

Buildings contribute impact on CO 2 emission and energy consumption. Electric energy consumption in buildings is about 40% of the total energy consumption of India. In this work building simulation technology is used to evaluate a variety of envelope thermal characteristics and low carbon technology in an integrated manner at the early design stage itself to assist the delivering of sustainable green buildings with a high rating of performance and energy consumption. Building simulation enables designer to identify the key energy loads, test their strategies and compare permutation of design strategy in order to optimize the energy consumption. Design Builder (DB) software is used to carry out a series of sensitivity analysis on set of design parameters, with an aim to achieve a comfortable and energy efficient building. Several parametric studies have been conducted to enable building designers to carry out analysis of energy efficient building model related to building orientation, construction, air infiltration, natural ventilation, window type, openings, and lighting. To calculate the energy saving, basic condition of building model is compared with Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) building model. Consider basic condition of building is case A and condition of building according to ECBC is case B.