Green Buildings Will Sustain the Future
Health of Billions
From: Amber Arneson, Guest Author, Clean Techies, More from this Affiliate
By 2050, the world's population is expected to hit nine billion. And, by that year, scientists have projected that 80 percent of the world's population will live in urban environments. In the United States alone, research indicates that people spend 90 percent of their time indoors, as noted in a TriplePundit article.
Unfortunately, buildings
can have concentrations of some pollutants that are two to five times higher
than typical outdoor concentrations, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). These pollutants can come in the form of aging infrastructure,
portable air conditioners, poor ventilation or other forms.
Because of this, more buildings will be needed to meet the increasing demand for high indoor environmental quality (IEQ) for growing populations, especially in developing nations and urban areas like Bangkok, Jakarta and Istanbul.
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevent (CDC) defines IEQ as the quality of a building's
environment in relation to the health and well-being of those who occupy it.
Buildings with a high IEQ are also generally energy efficient, which can
dramatically reduce the total operating cost of residential and commercial
buildings.
Taking all of this data
into consideration, what will influence future buildings around the world? How
will builders plan for more environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient
buildings to enhance work and residential spaces for future indoor populations
in urban areas around the world?
Here are some key trends
that will have an impact on the buildings billions of people will occupy:
A growing opportunity for renovation
A move towards more
energy efficient buildings can start with existing buildings. According to the
EPA, existing buildings account for nearly one-third of the electricity
consumed, and generate up to 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
The good news is that
the Whole Building Design Guide, a program of the National Institute of
Building Sciences, states that "IEQ improvements to an existing building
can occur at any point during the use of a building."
Not only is renovating
and reusing the existing inventory of buildings around the world an
environmentally-friendly decision, it's also an economic opportunity.
Typically, building renovations require more labor and use less material, which
is a benefit for the environment and local economies.
An article from Middle
East Climate Control also points out that in the "Foreseeable future, the
greatest energy, operating and service performance-improvement opportunities
can be found in the world's inventory of existing buildings."
Read more key trends at
ENN affiliate, Clean Techies.
