What is a Green Building?
Green buildings – also known as healthy and high-performance buildings – provide a response and alternative to traditional building methods that contribute to energy and water inefficiencies, higher utility costs, poor occupant health, natural resource depletion, unnecessary maintenance and operational costs, and negative environmental impacts.
In general, healthy and high-performance buildings are designed and built with a more thoughtful, holistic and systems-based approach, ensuring energy and water efficiency, resilience to extreme weather and emergency events, and taking long term environmental and human health impacts into consideration.
Consider these facts:
- Americans spend 90% of their time indoors, where air quality can be up to five times worse than outdoors.
Meanwhile, buildings in the U.S. account for approximately:
- 40% of our energy use
- 37% of our greenhouse gas emissions
- 65% of our waste output
- 12% of our water use
Healthy high-performing buildings offer a solution and have been shown to:
- Reduce energy use by up to 50%
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 33%
- Recuse solid waste by up to 70%, and
- Reduce water use by 40%
All this while also lowering maintenance costs by over 10% and significantly increasing occupant satisfaction.
Why Build Green?
It’s not every day that an opportunity with a triple bottom line benefit presents itself. High-performance benefit People, drive Profit, and benefit the Environment.
Occupant Benefits
- Improved occupant performance, comfort, and health
- Flexible spaces
Economic Benefits
- Competitive market advantage
- Improved tenant satisfaction
- Reduced sick days/absenteeism
- Reduced operating costs
- Increased resale and rent values
- Optimized life-cycle performance
- Future-ready and resilient to weather and emergency events
- Responsive to investor and insurance requirements for climate preparedness
Environmental Benefits
- Improved air and water quality
- Reduced waste stream
- Conservation of natural resources
- Reduced energy use, water use, and emissions
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At Green Building Alliance, we inspire and drive the market for the creation of healthy and high performing buildings. We’re here to:
Provide Resources
Not sure where to start? Check out GBA’s Resources page to learn the basics, as well as ways to incorporate high-performance practices into your building project, school, business, or community.
Connect the Dots
GBA has more than 1,000 individual and corporate members who are contractors, architects, engineers, commissioning agents, designers, landscape architects, and LEED-accredited professionals who can help YOU create your own healthy and high performing space.
GBA hosts over 100 events per year, all focused on providing education and networking for partners and members. From LEED to Living Building Challenge, from Passive House to net-zero energy, from building tours to workshops, GBA will school you on anything and everything related to sustainability and the built environment.
Check out GBA’s events calendar to get involved.
“Build” A Movement
Ready to take your building knowledge to the next level? Become a GBA member today and gain access to exclusive benefits, including discounted and member-only events, access to personalized technical assistance from a variety of skilled practitioners, and more.
Learn more and become a member today! Join GBA