The Center for Democracy and Technology has been releasing Congressional Research Reports on theopencrs.com. Just last week, they released a great primer on green building by Eric Fischer called, Issues in Green Building and Federal Response: an Introduction. In it, he cites some staggering numbers on the environmental impact of building:
- Residential buildings in the US account for more than 20% of our energy consumption
- Building demolition and construction account for 60% of the non-industrial waste in the US (in 1996). Only 25% of it is recovered through recycling.
- Buildings produce 40% of the CO2 emissions in the US and that number is climbing.
So, it seems to become more energy-efficient, we need to figure out how to build (and tear down) more efficiently. However, building efficiently isn’t the only answer,
The location of a building can have significant transportation and ecological impacts. For example, if an organization constructs a new green building for its offices, but chooses a location with no access to public transportation, the additional energy required for transportation by private vehicle may exceed energy savings from the operation of the building itself.
Which is why selection of the site is a part of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. In light of that, it would be great to see some well-sited projects like Loblolly. Loblolly was built in 2007 by Kieran Timberlake Architects and is a residence on Taylor’s Island, MD. The house was built with prefab materials and only takes a wrench to assemble, once the materials are delivered to the site. It can also be completely disassembled leaving the prefabbed pieces whole — if they are reused then there is no waste. All of the materials came from within 500 miles of the site and the builders have gone so far as to incorporate the trees from the site into the foundation. Imagine if we could get this type of building philosophy integrated into an environment with an existing public transportation infrastructure. It looks like from the KTA blog, that this dream is becoming a reality in New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward.
