What is Green Building?

The term “green building” is moving steadily from fringe to mainstream, but its meaning is getting blurrier in the process. Sounds good on a brochure, but is it accurate? What does “green building” even mean?

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.” (via Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, “The Federal Commitment to Green Building: Experiences and Expectations,” September 18, 2003)

That’s one of the most clear, compact and intelligent summaries I’ve seen in a while.

Here’s another effort to clarify the idea of “green building” from Green Harmony Home.

A sustainable building, or green building is an outcome of a design which focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource use – energy, water, and materials – while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building’s lifecycle, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal.

Green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:

• Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
• Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
• Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation

I’ll continue to cast about for a more universal and straightforward definition of “green building” but this will provide a point of reference for now.