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Section 2 Architectural Planning
Sustainability vs.
Green Building
Many people use the terms sustainability
and green building to mean exactly the same
thing. In fact, they are different. Strictly speak-
ing, the concept of sustainability includes
meeting the needs of humans for food, hous-
ing, and other needs and wants, without
using up resources that cannot be replaced,
and without affecting the environment nega-
tively. By extension, a sustainable building is
one that can be built, used for a long time,
and then reused or recycled, all without using
up resources and impacting the environment
negatively. Achieving true sustainability
will involve many complex changes in how
people think about resource use. Although
people around the world are working on it,
we are still a long way from accomplishing
sustainability.
Green building is not as ambitious as sus-
tainability. While recognizing that sustain-
ability is the “gold standard,” green building
strives to use materials and processes more
effi ciently, reduce pollution, and cause as lit-
tle damage to the environment as possible.
Green building is, in other words, the ongo-
ing process of trying to become sustainable.
As an example of the difference between green
building and sustainability, a home that uses
a solar space heating system for heat in the
winter is considered “green.” However, if
the same home occupies 5000 square feet and
requires a high output of energy from an air-
conditioning system in the summer, it is not
considered “sustainable.” As discussed later
in this chapter, from the standpoint of energy
effi ciency, a home must be a “net zero energy”
home to be considered truly sustainable. This
chapter uses the term sustainability to identify
the general concepts relating to green building
technology and sustainable design. Keep in
mind, however, that these concepts are evolv-
ing and that many buildings being constructed
using environmentally friendly practices are
still in the “green building” phase.
Sustainable Design
Concepts
To create a home that is truly sustainable,
designers and architects need to consider the
entire life cycle of the home. This includes the
design and construction stage, the occupancy
or use stage, and the end-of-life stage. See
Figure 11-2. Throughout their life cycle, tradi-
tional home designs typically use many nonre-
newable resources, use resources ineffi ciently,
and release potentially harmful substances into
the environment.
Figure 11-1. This botanist is recording data about
the poplar trees in this tree farm. Tree farming
is one way people have begun to help the
environment while providing wood and wood
products for buildings and other purposes.
(stefanolunardi/Shutterstock.com)