Sustainable Construction

The late Charles J. Kibert, PhD, was Director of the Powell Center for Construction and Environment at the University of Florida and Professor in the M.E. Rinker Sr. School of Building Construction. He was co-Founder and President of the Cross Creek Initiative, a sustainable construction non-profit organization.

Preface xv

Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview 1

The Shifting Landscape of Green Buildings 2

The Roots of Sustainable Construction 5

The Vocabulary of Sustainable Development and Construction 10

Rationale for High-Performance Buildings 14

State and Local Green Building Initiatives 15

Green Building Progress and Obstacles 17

Trends in High-Performance Green Building 18

Book Organization 24

BREEAM Case Study: Bloomberg European Headquarters, London 25

Summary and Conclusions 27

Part I: Green Building Foundations 31

Chapter 2: Background 35

The Driving Forces for Sustainable Construction 37

Ethics and Sustainability 40

Basic Concepts and Vocabulary 48

Major Environmental and Resource Concerns 57

The Green Building Movement 62

Case Study: OWP 11, Stuttgart, Germany 70

Summary and Conclusions 73

Chapter 3: Ecological Design 79

Design Versus Ecological Design 81

Contemporary Ecological Design 89

Key Green Building Publications: Early 1990s 90

Key Thinking About Ecological Design 93

Evolving the Concept of Ecological Design 97

Thermodynamics: Limits on Recycling and the Dissipation of Materials 107

Case Study: Kroon Hall, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 110

Synthesis 113

Summary and Conclusions 114

Part II: Assessing High-Performance Green Buildings 117

Chapter 4: Green Building Assessment 119

Purpose of Green Building Assessment Systems 119

Major Green Building Assessment Systems Used in the US 123

International Building Assessment Systems 127

BREEAM Case Study: Bloomberg European Headquarters, London 129

Green Star Case Study 134

GBEL Case Study 140

Summary and Conclusions 142

Chapter 5: The US Green Building Council LEED Building Rating System 145

Brief History of LEED 146

Structure of the LEED Suite of Building Rating Systems 147

LEED Credentials 149

LEED v4.1 Structure and Process 150

Green Building Certification Institute Relationship to the USGBC and LEED 152

LEED Certification Process 152

LEED Building Design and Construction Rating System 155

Regional Priority 173

Case Study: Stephan C. O’Connell Center at UF, Gainesville, Florida 174

Summary and Conclusions 177

Chapter 6: The Green Globes Building Assessment System 179

Green Globes Building Rating Tools 180

Structure of Green Globes for New Construction 182

Section 1: Project Management (100 Points) 183

Section 2: Site (150 Points) 184

Section 3: Energy (260 Points) 184

Section 4: Water (190 Points) 184

Section 5: Materials (150 Points) 185

Section 6: Indoor Environment (150 Points) 185

Green Globes Assessment and Certification Process 185

Green Globes Professional Credentials 187

Case Study: Health Sciences Building, St. Johns River State College, St. Augustine, Florida 188

Summary and Conclusions 194

Part III: Green Building Design 195

Chapter 7: The Green Building Design Process 197

Conventional Versus Green Building Delivery Systems 197

High-Performance Green Building Delivery System 200

Executing the Green Building Project 201

Owner Issues in High-Performance Green Building Projects 202

Setting Priorities and Making Other Key Initial Decisions 203

Selecting the Green Building Team 204

Role of the LEED Accredited Professional or Green Globes Professional in the Process 204

Integrated Design Process 205

Role of the Charrette in the Design Process 210

Green Building Documentation Requirements 212

LEED Documentation 212

Green Globes Documentation 214

Case Study: Theaterhaus, Stuttgart, Germany 214

Summary and Conclusions 218

Chapter 8: The Sustainable Site and Landscape 221

Land and Landscape Approaches for Green Buildings 222

Land Use Issues 223

Sustainable Landscapes 229

Green, or Living, Roofs 233

Vertical Landscaping 235

Enhancing Ecosystems 235

Stormwater Management 236

Low-Impact Development 237

Heat Island Mitigation 241

Light Trespass and Pollution Reduction 243

Assessment of Sustainable Sites: The Sustainable Sites Initiative 244

Case Study: Iowa Utilities Board/Consumer Advocate Office Building 245

Summary and Conclusions 250

Chapter 9: Building Energy Efficiency Strategies 253

Building Energy Issues 254

High-Performance Building Energy Design Strategies 258

HVAC Systems 279

Water-Heating Systems 284

Electrical Power System Components 286

Innovative Energy Optimization Strategies 291

Smart Buildings and Energy Management Systems (EMS) 300

Ozone-Depleting Chemicals in HVAC Systems 300

Case Study: The Pertamina Energy Tower: A Primer on Sustainable Skyscraper Design, Jakarta 301

Chapter 10: Built Environment Hydrologic Cycle 313

Global Water Resource Depletion 314

Hydrologic Cycle Terminology 318

Benefits of Water Efficiency 320

High-Performance Building Hydrologic Strategy 320

Building Plumbing Fixtures and Controls 324

Nonpotable Water Sources 328

Wastewater Strategies 333

Baseline Water Model Example 337

Use of Low-Flow Fixture Strategy 338

Use of Alternative Water Sources Strategy 339

Case Study: Lott Clean Water Alliance, Olympia, Washington 348

Case Study: Blackwater Recycling System, Salesforce Tower, San Francisco 350

Summary and Conclusions 352

Chapter 11: Closing Materials Loops 355

The Challenges of Materials and Product Selection 357

Issues in Green Building Materials and Product Selection 358

Selecting Building Materials and Products with a Focus on a Closed-Loop Materials System 365

Life-Cycle Assessment 368

Materials and Product Certification 375

Key and Emerging Construction Materials and Products 375

CLT Case Study: Brock Commons at the University of British Columbia 381

Case Study of Closing the Loop: Ecoworx® Carpet Tiles 385

Design for Deconstruction and Disassembly 389

Case Study: Project XX Office Building, Delft, Netherlands 392

Summary and Conclusions 395

Chapter 12: Built Environment Carbon Footprint 399

Human Impact on the Biogeochemical Carbon Cycle 400

Climate Change and the Carbon Cycle 403

Climate Change Mitigation 407

Defining the Carbon Footprint of the Built Environment 411

Reducing the Carbon Footprint of the Built Environment 418

Carbon Neutrality and its Applicability to Buildings 419

Focusing on Mitigating Project Climate Change Impacts 421

Carbon Neutrality Case Study: The Hong Kong Zero Carbon Building 422

Carbon Neutrality Case Study: Glaxosmithkline Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry, Nottingham, UK 423

Carbon Footprint Case Study: Rinker Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville 428

Chapter 13: Indoor Environmental Quality 435

Indoor Environmental Quality: The Issues 435

Integrated IEQ Design 445

Addressing the Main Components of Integrated Design 449

HVAC Systems and IEQ 465

Emissions from Building Materials 468

The WELL and Fitwel Building Standards 474

Summary and Conclusions 475

Part IV: Green Building Implementation 479

Chapter 14: Construction Operations and Commissioning 481

Site Protection Planning 481

Managing Indoor Air Quality during Construction 486

Construction Materials Management 489

Construction and Demolition Waste Management 492

Commissioning 495

Summary and Conclusions 501

Chapter 15: Green Building Economics 503

General Approach 504

The Business Case for High-Performance Green Buildings 507

Economics of Green Building 509

Quantifying Green Building Benefits 510

Managing First Costs 522

Tunneling through the Cost Barrier 525

Summary and Conclusions 527

Chapter 16: Resilience in the Context of Sustainable Construction 529

Resilience Concepts and Scope 530

Codes and Standards for Built Environment Resilience 532

Designing Resilient Buildings 535

Green Building Assessment and Resilience 536

Community Resilience 539

Resilient Community Case Study: Boston 540

Resilience Building Case Studies: Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, and the Salt Lake City Public Safety Building 542

Chapter 17: The Cutting Edge of Sustainable Construction 547

Articulating Performance Goals for High-Performance Green Buildings 548

The Challenges 548

Revamping Ecological Design 556

Today’s Cutting Edges 559

Case Study of a Cutting-Edge Design: The Federal Building, San Francisco 561

Case Studies of Green Skyscrapers 566

Summary and Conclusions 578

Appendix A Green Globes for New Construction Based on ANSI/Gbapp01-2019 581

Appendix B WELL Building Standard® Features Matrix and Fitwel Building Standard® Features Matrix 589

Appendix C The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) v2 Rating System for Sustainable Land Design and Development 595

Appendix D Resilient Design Strategies at Building Scale 599

Appendix E Abbreviations and Acronyms 601

Glossary 607

Index 621