Oct 20 2003
In a recent column leading environmentalist, Dr. Patrick Moore, has answered a question on what ‘green building’ is.
He opens by stating that building green is a measure of environmental friendliness and that low impact housing uses renewable resources in construction and once built uses energy efficiently.
The only renewable major building material is wood. It also has the advantage of requiring less energy than concrete and steel in all manufacturing stages and also results in less water, air pollution and lower greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, when compared to a corresponding wooden structure, a concrete building required 70 percent more energy to build and steel 140 percent more energy. Wood is also 8.5 times better at insulating than concrete and 400 times better than steel. This reduces energy consumption in use.
High efficiency heating, cooling, appliances and lighting should be installed in the house. It is also possible to buy "green" electricity produced by wind, hydro, and biomass sources. Ground source heat pumps are also available to use renewable earth energy from beneath the home to provide heat, air conditioning and hot water.
Source: ESPN Outdoors