Green building; Preservation of Natural Environment

Improved indoor air quality (IAQ) is one of the critical components of green building design. Green building tax credit (e.g., New York State Green Building Tax Credit (GBTC)) and certification programs (e.g., Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)) require indoor air quality measures and compliance with allowable maximum concentrations of common indoor air pollutants. It is not yet entirely clear whether compliance with these programs results in improved IAQ and ultimately human health. As a case in point, annual indoor air quality measurements were conducted in a residential green high-rise building for five consecutive years by an industrial hygiene contractor to comply with the building’s GBTC requirements. The implementation of green design measures resulted in better IAQ compared to data in references of conventional homes for some parameters, but could not be confirmed for others. Relative humidity and carbon dioxide were satisfactory according to existing standards. Formaldehyde levels during four out of five years were below the most recent proposed exposure limits found in the literature. To some degree, particulate matter (PM) levels were lower than that in studies from conventional residential buildings. Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) with known permissible exposure limits were below levels known to cause chronic health effects, but their concentrations were inconclusive regarding cancer health effects due to relatively high detection limits. Although measured indoor air parameters met all IAQ maximum allowable concentrations in GBTC and applicable LEED requirements at the time of sampling, we argue that these measurements were not sufficient to assess IAQ comprehensively because more sensitive sampling/ analytical methods for PM and VOCs are needed; in addition, there is a need for a formal process to ensure rigor and adequacy of sampling and analysis methods. Also, we suggest that a comprehensive IAQ assessment should include mixed mode thermal comfort models, semi-volatile organic compounds, assessment of new chemicals, and permissible exposure levels of many known indoor VOCs and bioaerosols. Plus, the relationship between energy consumption and IAQ, and tenant education on health effects of indoor pollutants and their sources may need more attention in IAQ investigations in green buildings.

The quality of indoor air is linked to detrimental health effects. Indoor air is a research and design issue in healthy housing, rarely considered in sustainable building. By analysing the relation between sustainable building and indoor air, a framework for discussion is constructed. The question is how the relation between healthy indoor air and sustainable building can be improved. The authors conclude that fresh air can be treated as an essential consumption good, which is produced by building services. Fresh air must be "created" in situations when the collected outdoor air needs to be filtered, heated, transported, consumed and replaced. After its use, the air is exhausted as waste material. The energy consumption, pollution process and recycling can be accounted for in life cycle assessment calculations. From the perspective of flows, airflows can be added to the flows of materials, energy and water during the entire life cycle of the building. The integration of flows in terms of consumption of fresh air will result in a better balance between strategies on the level of each flow. In this way it will be possible to make a stronger link between healthy indoor air and sustainable building.

This paper describes commercial building indoor air quality practices and then discusses them in the context of total building environmental performance. “Green buildings” generally have included some effort to address indoor air quality issues along with an unspecified number of other environmental concerns. Rarely, if ever, is analysis conducted to evaluate tradeoffs made among environmental features considered important in “green” buildings even though conflicts occur among design features intended to improve a building’s environmental performance. One “green building” feature may reduce certain environmental impacts while increasing others. A method is needed to examine the total environmental impact of designs. In order to identify best sustainable indoor air quality practices in commercial buildings, a newlydeveloped, comprehensive approach to building ecology is presented. This approach, tentatively titled the Systematic Evaluation and Assessment of Building Environmental Performance (SEABEP), uses sustainability criteria as the basis for comprehensive evaluation of the environmental performance of design features.

3rd.International Conference on Architecture, Civil Engineering, Urban Development and Environment, 2024

This article explores the benefits of green facades in improving indoor air quality (IAQ) and their potential impact on energy efficiency. Green facades, also known as living walls or vertical gardens, are vertical structures covered with plants that can be installed both indoors and outdoors. They have gained attention in the field of sustainable architecture due to their ability to provide multiple advantages, including enhanced IAQ and energy efficiency. The research presented in this article is based on a comprehensive review of existing literature, real-world data, and simulation tools. The findings highlight the significant role of green facades in air purification, the reduction of harmful pollutants, and the overall well-being of building occupants. Green facades act as natural insulators, minimizing heat absorption in the summer and heat loss in the winter, thus reducing the energy needed for cooling and heating a building. The article also discusses the various types of green facades, such as direct greening, indirect greening, and living wall systems, and their potential applications in different climate conditions and building types. Additionally, it provides a visual representation of the process by which green facades contribute to improving IAQ, including the absorption of carbon dioxide and harmful air pollutants. The effectiveness of green facades in improving IAQ and energy efficiency remains significant. Incorporating green facades into smart building design can contribute to creating healthier and more sustainable indoor environments, reduce air pollution, and enhance the well-being of building occupants.

2012

People lives indoor most of time. Buildings directly influence occupants' health and productivity.The effect of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in buildings on occupants' health, well-being, and productivity is an important topic in occupational health and public health. Buildings which are facilitated by green features provide clean and more comfortable environment for their occupants. Better ventilation, higher indoor air quality, environmentally friendly materials and optimized lightening are the features that influence people in green buildings. This paper aims to find out green buildings impacts on their occupants' health and productivity. Data has been collected through literature review. Results reveal that buildings with green features and environmental friendly materials provide better indoor environment quality for their residents compared conventional buildings. Consequently, high indoor environment quality will lead to less indoor pollution and improve ...

Current World Environment

Good indoor air quality is crucial for the health, happiness, and satisfaction of the occupants. Since we spend so much time indoors, it is essential to maintain a reasonable level of indoor air quality. One of the elements contributing to the decline in indoor air quality was the interior materials. Having acknowledged this, green building rating systems have incorporated the use of low-emitting materials as a credit that may be gained. A system for assessing commercial interiors with a focus on interior materials exists and has been used by several commercial offices. This study aimed to understand the indoor air quality in green-rated commercial interior spaces that have won points for the use of low-emitting materials and indoor air quality. A post-occupancy review was conducted on an IGBC rated green commercial interior office space, in which various pollutant concentrations were measured and observations were made regarding space usage, cleaning processes, and maintenance. Alm...

Current Environmental Health Reports, 2015

Green building design is becoming broadly adopted, with one green building standard reporting over 3.5 billion square feet certified to date. By definition, green buildings focus on minimizing impacts to the environment through reductions in energy usage, water usage, and minimizing environmental disturbances from the building site. Also by definition, but perhaps less widely recognized, green buildings aim to improve human health through design of healthy indoor environments. The benefits related to reduced energy and water consumption are well-documented, but the potential human health benefits of green buildings are only recently being investigated. The objective of our review was to examine the state of evidence on green building design as it specifically relates to indoor environmental quality and human health. Overall, the initial scientific evidence indicates better indoor environmental quality in green buildings versus nongreen buildings, with direct benefits to human health for occupants of those buildings. A limitation of much of the research to date is the reliance on indirect, lagging and subjective measures of health. To address this, we propose a framework for identifying direct, objective and leading BHealth Performance Indicators^for use in future studies of buildings and health.

Journal of Community Health Research, 2020

Introduction: The main benefits of green buildings for energy and water conservation have been investigated and well recognized in previous studies. However, indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and human health benefits of green buildings have not been examined comprehensively. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review over the current status of green and non- green buildings on their occupants’ health and satisfaction. Method: A systematic search was conducted throughout the following databases: Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Springer. We reviewed 690 articles that examined the relationship between buildings and health. In total, after excluding the irrelevant titles and non-­English articles, 40 papers were included in the final analysis. Articles that evaluated IEQ factors and occupants’ health through surveys from 2005 to 2018 years were selected for investigation. Results: The most important result of this study was identification of important factors in IEQ, includin...

2000

Current guidelines for green buildings are cursory and inadequate for specifying materials and designing ventilation systems to ensure a healthful indoor environment, i.e. a "healthy building," by design. Public perception, cultural preferences, litigation trends, current codes and regulations, rapid introduction of new building materials and commercial products, as well as the prevailing design-build practices, pose challenges to systems integration in the design, construction and operation phases of modern buildings. We are on the verge of a paradigm shift in ventilation design thinking. In the past, thermal properties of air within a zone determined heating, ventilating, and airconditioning (HVAC) specifications. In the future, occupant-specific and highly responsive systems will become the norm. Natural ventilation, displacement ventilation, microzoning with subfloor plenums, along with the use of point of source heat control and point of use sensors, will evolve to create a "smart" responsive ventilation-building dynamic system. Advanced ventilation design tools such as the modeling of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) will be used routinely. CFD will be integrated into air quality and risk assessment models. . "Indoor air quality factors in designing a healthy building," Annual Review of Energy and the Environment,

Building and Environment, 2020

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