Achieving Construction Sustainability Goals

As times are changing in the architectural community, architects are now discovering the best ways to construct a sustainable building. The cities and states want to help out the community, which forces designers to design sustainable, adding stricter energy and water usage standards. We are now starting to understand that the most effective placement of the building on the site demands knowledge provided by all groups. An integrated team is needed to provide the knowledge required in areas such as: 

1. Building orientation and massing for energy efficiency
2. Required staging area for construction
3. Best area to preserve for natural landscaping
4. Access to transit and area amenities
5. Cost effective connection to existing utilities
6. Best site usage for storm water management  

Therefore, if we bring together subcontractors and contractors, it can reduce the waste of time and even material during the construction process. This will better suit the needs  of sustainability by using less quantity of the materials, maximizing the efficiency of the building and also the team.

You can read more about how intergraded design is being implemented through the AIA, by visiting:

http://www.aia.org/practicing/groups/kc/AIAB081827

Plywood and it's Life Cycle

Plywood is used heavily in construction as building material, as well as for structural support for many everyday items. There is a large demand for an item this versatile. It is usually created with a blend of tropical woods, Birch, Pine, Cedar, Douglas, and SpruceFir. The woods are cut into blocks and are steamed in a 194 degree water. Once they are put through a lathe, they are trimmed to 3 millimeters. The pieces are then covered with resin and are put together. To put them together, they are heated and hot pressed at 212 degrees. However this is where the faults began, they are transported final sanding and trimming where a immersive amount of CO2 is put into the air. Since it is mostly shipped from China and transported to North America, a lot of fuel is used and  loosed into the atmosphere having a negative impact on the environment. This is why plywood should be recycled, instead of being burned and releasing more toxins into the air. This is being improved as Life-Cycle Assessment and Life-Cycle Inventory work together to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases as products, such as plywood, is produced. 

Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA): is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from cradle to grave (i.e., from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling).

http://www.gdrc.org/uem/lca/lca-define.html

A  Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI): study provides the measurement of the material flows, energy flows, and environmental releases for the production of a defined amount of a product. LCI is also known as a cradle-to-gate or gate-to-gate study, and is the building block for performing an LCA.

http://www.galvanizeit.org/sustainable-development-and-hot-dip-galvanizing/what-is-sustainable-development/life-cycle-inventory-and-life-cycle-assessment

The Living Building Water Challenge Petal Vs. LEED Water Use Reduction Credit

    

The Living Building Water Challenge and the LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, are both a rating system that provide a scale for measuring a building’s incorporation of green building strategies as compared to using methods that used by conventional buildings that we commonly see. To bring sustainable water features into their rating systems, LEED created their Water Consumption and Conservation Credit and the Living Building Challenge takes it a step further by establishing their water petal. 

LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world and it’s system is more obtainable for builders to achieve. It is a point-based system, meaning the more efficient your are with handling your water, the more points you receive. Depending on rather the building is commercial or not, calculations are are taken place on occupants estimated usage to determine the amount of points awarded. For more information how a building accumulates points, visit: http://www.usgbc.org/credits/retail-nc/v2009/wec3

The Living Building Challenge is comprised is bit harder for builders to achieve because of two main rules. According to the International Living Future Institute, “One hundred percent of the project’s water needs must be supplied by captured precipitation or other natural closed loop water systems,12 and/or by re-cycling used project water, and must be purified as needed without the use of chemicals.” The last rule states that in order to be be verified after construction, the building must function for 12 consecutive months before becoming a candidate. 

The International Living Future Institute: https://living-future.org/sites/default/files/reports/FINAL%20LBC%203_0_WebOptimized_low.pdf

These are both important systems that will lead us into the future and steer us into to the right direction. In some countries, a decrease in portable water is becoming a huge issue, and its resources are very valuable. We must move forward in taking action to redefine water as waste and use it as efficient as possible. As an architectural community, The Living Building water Challenge Petal and the LEED Water Use Reduction Credit is a good addition that we should make into our designs in order to make water efficiency more common.