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 Green
Building
Requirements
Guidelines
 Introduction
Acknowledgements
What
is a Green Building?
Why
Green Design?
Green
Design Process
 Green
Design Strategies
Performance
Ordinances
Using
these Guidelines
Required
Practices
Suggested
Practices
Siting
and Form
Landscape
Transportation
Envelope
and Space Planning
Materials
Water
Systems
Electrical
Systems
HVAC
Systems
Control
Systems
Construction
Management
Commissioning
Appendices
Case Studies
Additional Resources
Site
Map
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Green
Design Strategies
This
book has many Recommended Practices that can reduce the ecological
and resource impacts of buildings, and enhance the health and satisfaction
of their occupants. Several strategies surface repeatedly throughout
these Practices.
Use
less to do more. The most effective green design solutions meet
several needs with a few elements. For example, a concrete floor
may be simply finished with a colored sealant that reflects daylight
for better illumination, and eliminates air pollutant emissions
from floor coverings. The floor can also be used to store daytime
heat and nighttime cold to provide occupant comfort. One carefully
designed element serves as structure, and finished surface, distributes
daylight, and stores heat and cold – saving materials, energy
resources, capital and operating costs.
Careful
combinations of design strategies are very effective. Buildings
are complex systems of interacting elements. Intelligent green design
considers the effects of one or more elements on the others, and
on the building as a whole. For example, the need for mechanical
and electrical systems is greatly affected by building form and
envelope design. Synergistic strategies such as daylighting, solar
load control, and natural cooling and ventilation using wind and
stack effect can all work together to reduce lighting, heating and
cooling loads – and the cost of equipment needed to meet them.
Careful combination of several reinforcing strategies can save resources
and money – both in construction and operation.
Build
to adapt and to last. Buildings designed to adapt to changing
uses over long useful lives reduce life-cycle resource consumption.
Long-lasting structural elements that provide generous service space
and accommodate movable partitions can last centuries, instead of
being demolished because they cannot adapt to unforeseen uses. Durable
envelope assemblies improve comfort and reduce life-cycle maintenance
and energy costs. Robust interior walls designed to be moved, and
mechanical and electrical systems that make changes easy, save materials
and money when tenant improvements or renovations occur.
Avoid
creating problems, instead of fixing them after the fact. Preventing
problems from the beginning makes practical and economic sense.
For example, using low-toxicity building materials and installation
practices is far more effective than diluting indoor air pollution
from toxic sources with large quantities of ventilation air. Similarly,
designing to minimize heating, cooling and lighting loads is far
more profitable than installing more or larger mechanical and electrical
equipment.
Take
advantage of site conditions. Climate-responsive design rediscovers
the powerful relationship of buildings to place. Buildings that
respond to local topography, microclimate, vegetation and water
resources are typically more comfortable and efficient than conventional
designs that rely on technological fixes to ignore their surroundings.
Santa Monica has excellent solar and wind resources for passive
solar heating, natural cooling, ventilation and daylighting, but
has few local water supplies, many of them recently polluted. Taking
advantage of free natural resources, and conserving scarce high-priced
commodities are two of the best ways to reduce costs and connect
occupants to their surroundings.
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