Reinventing Green Building
Why Certification Systems Aren't Working and What We Can Do About It
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
Buildings and their associated systems are the largest source of greenhouse gases in the world. The 2030 Challenge aims to produce zero-net energy from new North American construction by 2030 while achieving a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions from existing buildings. With less than 4 percent of commercial and residential structures in the United States and Canada certified by 2015, we seem destined to fall catastrophically short of this target.
Reinventing Green Building combines a unique, insider's critique of the current state of affairs with a potent vision for the future. This highly visual, data-driven analysis brings together the wisdom of today's leading practitioners including:
Up-to-date information on green building issues, energy economics, and new technology Dramatic new approaches to certification system design and user experience Creative, outside-the-box solutions using the Internet of Things, big data analytics, and cloud-based technologies for building management
The green building revolution has failed to fulfill its promise to transform the marketplace in a meaningful way. Smart, simple, and sustainable: Reinventing Green Building presents a new approach to certification, designed to radically cut costs while dramatically increasing marketplace acceptance integrating true climate mitigation and better building performance.
Jerry Yudelson, dubbed "The Godfather of Green" by Wired magazine in 2011, has many years of professional experience in the green building field, elected as a LEED Fellow and having served as the president of the Green Building Initiative. He is the author of thirteen books in the field, including Dry Run, Choosing Green, and Green Building A–Z.
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The book's subtitle suggests that the contents within are broad, but the scope of this study is limited to the author's knowledge of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the major U.S. green building rating system. Yudelson, who has authored several books on green building, including Green Building A to Z, questions why LEED, with which he has been associated since 2001, no longer maintains a strong position in the green building market and why, after 15 years in existence, LEED has certified less than 1% of commercial buildings and homes in the U.S. He calls for a new certification model that is smart, simple for lay people to understand, and sustainable. Concerns for urban design and healthy buildings need not be abandoned, but he argues that climate change and looming water scarcities mean that priority must be given to five key performance indicators: energy use, total carbon emissions, water use, waste minimization, and ecological purchasing. Although textbook-like, the book is not overburdened with technical terms and writing, but its focus on LEED will likely limit its appeal to those within the building industry; environmentalists curious about green building are unlikely to get much out of it.
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