Green building

This article is about green building construction. For the building on the MIT campus, see Green Building (MIT).



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.

A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally.[1] Other commonly used terms include sustainable design and green architecture.

The related concepts of sustainable development and sustainability are integral to green building. Effective green building can lead to 1) reduced operating costs by increasing productivity and using less energy and water, 2) improved public and occupant health due to improved indoor air quality, and 3) reduced environmental impacts by, for example, lessening storm water runoff and the heat island effect. Practitioners of green building often seek to achieve not only ecological but aesthetic harmony between a structure and its surrounding natural and built environment, although the appearance and style of sustainable buildings is not necessarily distinguishable from their less sustainable counterparts.

Contents
1 The environmental impact of buildings
2 Green building practices
3 Green building worldwide
3.1 Standards and ratings
3.2 Australia
3.3 Canada
3.4 Germany
3.5 India
3.6 Israel
3.7 Malaysia
3.8 New Zealand
3.9 United Kingdom
3.10 United States
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
6.1 International
6.2 Australia
6.3 Canada
6.4 New Zealand
6.5 United States
6.5.1 National organizations
6.5.2 Regional organizations
6.6 United Kingdom
6.7 Other resources

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