What is Green Building?
Green Building, green construction, or sustainable building is not new; it's the practice of designing, constructing, and operating buildings to minimize resource use, reduce waste and avoid negative environmental impacts.
For 25 years - and more - we've been designing, manufacturing and constructing 'Green Buildings' and components in a 'Green way. Creating buildings that deliver a positive impact on our climate and natural environment. It's in our DNA! Read More
Low Energy Buildings are what we are about. By helping reduce your energy consumption we help you reduce your energy bills, increase your property value and, if you're a business, increases your profits and marketing potential. If you're a homeowner it gives you more free cash to spend on the other things you'd like in life.
Lifestyle Living is, therefore, one more box our buildings can tick for you. It's also one of our aims when working with you and your professional advisors. Understanding the way you live and operate, sharing your aspirations for 'something better' is part of what drives us. Read More
Why Go Green?
Going green is not a fad or a fashion. It is a way of life and an important reason for adopting an eco-friendly lifestyle, making conscious decisions about sustainability, reducing harm to our world and creating positive conditions for the environment to flourish and thrive. Green buildings conserve precious natural resources and improve our quality of life.
Green Buildings are Sustainable, meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Read More
Green Building rating and certification systems require an integrated design process to create building projects that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition.
A Green Building makes efficient use of land, materials, energy, and water. It generates minimal or no waste and provides a healthy indoor environment. To deliver a Green Building requires close cooperation between the owner/developer, builder, architect/designer, structural engineer, suppliers and possibly neighbours or other stakeholders at all project stages. Read more
Green Building has to be a collaborative exercise, a practical partnership that expands and complements classical building design and concerns for economy, utility, durability, and comfort. A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally. Read more
Building for the 21st Century – Benfield ATT – image: Pinterest
Green Buildings are eco-friendly and, typically, occupants of Green Building are overall more satisfied with their accommodation than those in conventional residential and commercial buildings. Although some green building programs don't address the issue of the retrofitting existing homes, others do, especially through public schemes for energy efficient refurbishment. Green construction principles can easily be applied to retrofit work as well as new construction. Read more
How do you 'Build Green'?
Fabric First and delivering a ‘tight’ building envelope are taken as read. Creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout your building's life-cycle is another. This means considering the siting in relation to design, making components for efficient transport and on-site handling, executing on-site works with least waste and minimum time, considering how the building will be used and operated, what the requirements will be for maintenance, ‘future-proofing’ for possible changes in use and renovation, and – last but not least – eventual deconstruction, demolition, recycling and returning the site to nature. Read more
How to Build a Low Energy Home – Grand Designs Magazine
Top Tips for Building Green - sustainably
- Decide on your energy systems and on-site generation
o Solar
o Wind
o Geothermal - Specify your Thermal Insulation in relation to your
o site location, building orientation and surroundings
o heating / cooling / climate systems
o preference for natural, recycled or other sustainable materials - Consider your water use and management requirements
- Assess the health and comfort factors
- Choose materials, like wood, that are:
o good natural insulators
o are easily and economically recycled
o have good ‘end of life’ value - Consider prefabrication of components and building elements:
o in controlled environments
o that minimise waste both off-site and on-site
o for managing the site to improve the environment
o with ‘lean manufacture’ to reduce energy use
o offer complimentary material selection
Green Building Codes go beyond minimum code requirements, raising the bar for energy efficiency. They can serve as a proving ground for future standards, and incorporate elements beyond the scope of the model energy codes, such as water and resource efficiency. Download Summary of UK Building Regulations
Green Building Information & Guidance
- LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of green buildings which was Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
- BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) the UK’s own take on LEED for buildings and large-scale developments.
- EDGE – Currently the World Green Building Council is conducting research on the effects of green buildings on the health and productivity of their users and is working with World Bank to promote Green Buildings in Emerging Markets through EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) Market Transformation Program and certification.
- Green Star in Australia
- Green Building Index (GBI) predominantly used in Malaysia
- The History of Green Building & Construction: The Beginning of Green Homes
- Green building materials: determining the true definition of green
- Green Building – articles from Benfield ATT
- Simply Talk to Us – Benfield ATT, Chartered Building Consultants & Chartered Surveyors
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