Greening the Triple Bottom Line with High Performing Buildings
Buildings have an economic, social and environmental impact on our world. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that there are nearly five million commercial buildings in the United States and 76 million residential buildings. These buildings use one-third of the energy consumed in the U.S. and nearly two-thirds of all electricity. It is also projected that by 2010 the U.S will have another 38 million buildings. There is a growing awareness of the need to change the ways buildings are built such that we create buildings that improve the economic, social and environmental performance compared to buildings of the past.
Changing the way buildings are sited, oriented, designed and constructed can reduce the lifetime costs of buildings. In a 30-year life of a building, the initial cost is just 2%, while the salaries are 92% of the cost of ownership (Figure 1). A green building or a high-performance commercial building is one that is designed to improve the environmental performance while increasing the productivity of the people that use them.