Sustainable Construction Green Building Design and Delivery

Abstract

The significant additions and changes for this fourth edition of Sustainable Con struction: Green Building Design and Delivery include revisions to the chap ters on LEED and Green Globes, both of which have changed significantly over the past few years. LEED version 4 is now the main building assessment product being offered by the US Green Building Council for projects, and this recent addition is covered in detail. Because the US Green Building Council also allows projects to opt for LEED version 3 and familiarity with both systems is needed to allow flex ibility for owners and project teams, LEED v3 is also addressed in an appendix. Green Globes has also changed; version 2 of this important rating system is covered in detail. Information about the other major assessment systems, such as Green Star, Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency, Build ing Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, and Deutsche Ge sellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen, has been updated. In addition to the changes to bring the information about the major building assessment systems up to date, a new chapter on carbon accounting addresses the increasing interest in reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment, from a green building perspective and also to provide clarity about the contribution of build ings to climate change. A major emerging issue is transparency, and demands for transparency are appearing regarding several performance issues. These include the provision of information about building product ingredients and the risks of these ingredients to human health and ecosystems. Risk-based assessment, Health Product Declarations, and other approaches are emerging to address this demand, and manufacturers are buying into the concept of being more open about the content of their products. In addition, many major cities are requiring transparency regarding the energy perfor mance of buildings. In New York City, for example, building owners are required to provide information about the performance of their buildings on an annual basis. This requirement dovetails with the shift in building assessment system strategies that explicitly provide credit for reporting of both energy and water data. Transpar ency is described and discussed in several locations in this fourth edition.