Green Building Components - Site Development

Low-impact Development

Low-impact development aims to maintain the natural hydrology of a the site where possible by minimizing impervious areas, maintaining natural slopes and depressions in the landscape, infiltrating and storing rainwater.

LID practices, including bioretention are easily integrated into existing infrastructure, like roads, parking areas, buildings and open space.

For example, bioretention technology can transform parking-lot islands, street medians, tree-planter boxes and landscaped areas near buildings into specialized stormwater-treatment systems through the use of permeable pavement in low-traffic areas, parking areas and walking paths. Parking lot design can reduce impervious cover and increase stormwater infiltration Roof gardens can be designed to capture and use rainwater.

Local permitting agencies can use LID as a model in revising local zoning and subdivision regulations in favor of more cost-effective, ecologically sound development practices. Developers can achieve greater project success and cost savings through the intelligent use of LID. Designers can apply these techniques for innovative, educational, and more aesthetically pleasing sites.  

Synergistic Strategy

The very essence of integrated design is the blending of these elements and systems to solve numerous problems with interrelated benefit: one idea creating many solutions.  For example, a design that emphasizes daylighting and cross-ventilation reduces the need for electricity to maintain ambient air temperatures and adequate lighting.  The Energy Policy Act of 2005 defines a "high performance building" as a building that integrates and optimizes all major high-performance building attributes, including energy efficiency, durability, life-cycle performance and occupant productivity.  Low energy, zero-carbon building begins with passive-design strategies, i.e. site orientation, operable windows, funneling and baffling wind, collecting and dispersing heat through interior thermal mass and exterior shading.  It then integrates those strategies with mechanical systems powered by renewable resources – e.g., solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal heat-exchange systems, bioremediation and agile-energy systems – making the building's envelope an active component of the design.

Incorporating a green roof or walls into the design of multi-family housing may cost more initially, but provides the multiple benefits listed below.  Ultimately, a living membrane can actually reduce the life-cycle cost of the project, and qualify the developer for green-building certifications and financing incentives that attract green investors.  It also helps to bring down the ambient temperature for a broader area and increase the diversity of plant and bird life in the city by replacing the landscape that was sacrificed to the building's footprint. Such synergy, and the potential for great benefit and the lowest additional cost, occurs only in green building.

What is more, Biotechture Ltd, a UK company specializing in sustainable-facade greening systems, has suggested the greatest benefit may occur from retrofitting biomembranes into existing buildings, as they will always make up the majority of the building stock.

Important Resources

Building Green - Integrating Agriculture into the Built Environment

Heat Island, Video segments demonstrating thermal gradient differences between developed and undeveloped areas

American Association of Landscape Architects Green Roof Central 

Greenroofs 101 and Green Roof and Green Walls database

Integrated Design Collaborative

Getting Aggressive about Passive Design, McGraw Hill Construction

AeroTurbine - Becker's Darrieus and Savonious Combination

Rana Creek 

Verdant Surfaces

Plan for Net Zero

A net-zero building is designed to rely on renewable energy, and could be designed to use passive-solar energy exclusively.  A net-zero building need not be attached to the grid, but depending upon its size and energy source, it may generate more energy than it can use in a given period and will need a system for storing the excess.  While a net-zero building is hooked up to the grid, it does not draw more energy from the grid than it contributes, within a 12-month period.  Typically, photovoltaics or wind turbines generate all of the building's net energy need, returning excess energy back to the grid on optimum days, while drawing energy from the grid on days when the atmosphere is cloudy or still.

Important Resources

EPA's online Power Profiler offers a calculator for determining the carbon footprint of any building 
The Home of Carbon Management: How to Calculate the Carbon Footprint of any Location

Elements of Building Green 

Green-building codes, rating systems and building guidelines share the elements outlined below. TheDepartment of Energy Smart Communities Network provides a comprehensive overview of the elements of green building and includes links to publications, local success stories, and sites with information on green-building construction and materials. 

Important Resources

CalRecycle’s Green Building Basicsh

The Affordable Housing Energy Efficiency Handbook

US Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Building Divisions Program 

2008 Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings

Whole Building Design Guide: Gateway to Up to Date Information on Integrated Whole Building Design Techniques and Technology

Sustainable Building Toolkit 

GREENGUARD Environmental Institute ANSI Authorized Standards Developer, GEI establishes acceptable indoor air standards for indoor products, environments, and buildings:

Green from the Ground Up: Sustainable, Healthy and Energy-Efficient Home Construction. David Johnson and Scott Gibson, Taunton Press, 2008

Home Building IndustriesToolbase Services  Building Systems, Design & Construction Guides, Construction Methods and Best Practices 

Publications 

Move New Brownfields Study to Green Building Components: Site Development

New Brownfields Study
The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization and Office of Sustainable Communities report just released Water Quality Impacts of Brownfields Redevelopment: A study of Five Communities demonstrates redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites in inner cities brings substantial environmental benefits. Fact sheet.