The Implications of Green Building on Construction and Environment

What is a green building? Green building is a concept that starts with the understanding that the built environment has profound effects, both positive and negative on the natural environment, as well as the people that live in these buildings every day. Green building is an effort to increase the positive and lessen the negative effects throughout the life cycle of a building. Green building was being used and developed on a smaller scale since the 1980s and 1990s. Green building became an important aspect of construction that LEED was developed in the mid to late 90’s, prior to that the United States Green Building Council or the USBGC was set up in 1993. LEED’s development grew from a recognition standpoint to an award standpoint. Since the 1990s, agencies and countries have developed their own green building programs and standards. Today, a LEED plaque shows a distinction amongst other buildings, it shows that the building was constructed or is being operated to be healthy, high-performing and resource efficient. More than 60,000 commercial buildings worldwide are taking part in LEED, with 1.7 million square feet certified every day. LEED has also created an entire green building industry, expected to be worth up to $248 billion in the United States in 2016. The uses of green buildings in construction have been developed for buildings to live homogeneously with the environment and its surroundings. The acknowledgement that construction is affecting the environment in a negative manner is the first step in improving our environment. This realization is the most important step because if we don’t realize what we are doing to the environment then we will never try to fix it.