GREEN BUILDING BASICS
This term refers to designing and constructing buildings that minimize environmental impact while creating healthy spaces for people.
What is a green building?
Using adaptable designs and long-lasting materials helps achieve this environmental goal
What is reducing waste?
These systems use solar collectors to heat water for domestic or radiant use
What is active solar heating?
This type of roof uses soil and plants to reduce heat gain and manage stormwater.
What is a green roof?
This U.S. rating system awards points in categories like energy, water, and materials.
What is LEED?
This approach ensures efficiency in energy, water, and materials throughout a building’s life-cycle.
What is resource efficiency?
It’s often more sustainable to do this with an existing building than to demolish and rebuild.
What is reuse it or renovate it?
This device moves heat between the ground or air and buildings for efficient temperature control.
What is a heat pump?
These vertical plant systems help cool buildings and improve aesthetics.
What are green walls?
The Cooper Science Building earned this LEED certification level.
What is Silver?
These natural elements are used in passive building systems.
What are sunlight, wind, and rainwater?
Smaller, efficient spaces that lower resource use are examples of this design strategy.
What are compact, efficient designs?
These systems, often used in large buildings, distribute cooled water to reduce air conditioning demand.
What are chilled beams or cooling towers?
Green roofs improve this aspect of the urban environment by filtering pollutants.
What is air quality?
This U.K. system is one of the earliest green building rating methods.
What is BREEAM?
A green building design must adapt to this factor, whether hot, cold, or humid.
What is climate or local climate?
This type of heating captures sunlight through south-facing windows and thermal mass.
What is passive solar heating?
This system can heat or cool a building by transferring energy from the earth.
What is a geothermal heat pump?
Both green roofs and walls help support this by providing homes for insects and birds.
What is habitat or biodiversity?
This rating system, from Japan, stands for “Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency.”
What is CASBEE?
This sustainability concept follows the principle of “reduce, reuse, recycle.”
What is green design?
This type of cooling relies on trees, shading, and natural ventilation rather than air conditioning.
What is passive cooling?
The Bullitt Center uses this innovation to process waste sustainably.
What are composting toilets?
By managing rainfall runoff, green roofs help reduce this urban problem.
What is stormwater or flooding?
This challenge requires buildings to generate their own energy and water, as seen in the Bullitt Center.
What is the Living Building Challenge?