Last Sunday I discussed the growing trend of developers who are building “green” communities. Specifically, more retirement community builders have jumped on the bandwagon and are promoting themselves as “green” retirement communities. I was surprised by the enthusiastic response I received from many readers who wanted to know more about green communities. Others simply wanted to know what it means to be a green community.
Since my knowledge on the specifics surrounding the green buildings and communities is somewhat limited, I turned to Wikipedia for the answer. According to their definition, “Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources – energy, water and materials — while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle.”
Buildings have a profound impact on the environment. In fact, it is estimated that buildings account for:
* Between 40 and 49% of total energy use
* 25% of total water consumption
* 70% of total electricity consumption
* 38% of total carbon dioxide emissions
Green building is a whole system of processes and techniques that altogether help reduce the impact of a building or community on the environment. Designing a green building requires builders to: use renewable resource materials from local sources if possible, reduce the energy load of the building and generate on-site renewable energy with solar, wind or hydro power.
For more information on green building, visit Wikipedia.org
