Green Building, Sustainability, Environmentally Friendly, LEED Building
Concrete is the
material of choice for all of these principles.
Question: What is Green Building?
Answer: Designing a home, both
inside and out, to increase performance and to conserve resources used in construction.
Question:
How is Concrete used in Green Building?
Answer: Concrete used in exterior walls are highly energy efficient
due to what is called the thermal mass.
Thermal mass essentially means the mass can store heat and
maintain cool temperatures; which minimizes indoor temperature fluctuations, and slows the transfer of heat throughout
the building.
Question: What is Sustainability?
Answer:
According to the U.S. EPA, Sustainability means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.”
Question: What makes Concrete
a sustainable material?
Answer: Concrete is a sustainable material because of its environmental benefits
during construction and during the life of the structure. Benefits during construction include: Minimal
Waste, Local Materials, and Recycled Content.
Benefits throughout the life of the structure include: Energy Performance/Thermal Mass, Durable, Cool,
Low Emissions, and Recyclable.
Read more about poured-in-place concrete and sustainability...
Question: What is Environmentally Friendly?
Answer:
Living in a manner that is considerate of the environment. For example: conserving energy, reducing air pollution,
recycling and conserving natural resources.
Question: How is Concrete Environmentally Friendly?
Answer: Concrete is one of the most energy-efficient building materials; utilizing
thermal-mass keeps the structure cool in the winter and warm in the summer, lowering energy needs considerably.
Structures built using concrete also have lower indoor air pollution.
Concrete uses some of the earth’s most plentiful and common minerals for its raw materials.
Concrete conserves resources by only removing the materials
needed to make concrete. Only a fraction of land is used to remove the material, compared to the multitude
of acres used when clear-cutting forests for lumber.
Question: What is LEED?
Answer:
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
LEED is a rating system created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to evaluate the environmental performance of a building and encourage market transformation towards sustainable
design. The system is credit-based, allowing projects to earn points for environmentally friendly actions taken during the
construction and use of a building.
Question: How can concrete be used to
help attain LEED certification?
Answer: Concrete can help a building earn between 19-23 LEED points.
Read how concrete can be used to attain LEED points by visiting the LEED page on ConctreteThinker.com.
