Green Building
Definition
Green building refers to the practice of designing, constructing, and operating buildings in a way that reduces their environmental impact and enhances occupant health. This includes energy efficiency, water conservation, sustainable materials, and indoor air quality. Green building certifications like LEED and BREEAM provide standardised benchmarks.
Why It Matters
The built environment accounts for nearly 40% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, making green building practices essential for climate targets. Green-certified buildings often command higher rents and occupancy rates, aligning sustainability with financial returns.
Related Terms
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
LEED is a globally recognised green building certification system developed by the US Green Building Council. It provides a framework for healthy, efficient, and cost-saving buildings across several categories including new construction, interiors, and operations. Projects earn points across categories such as energy, water, materials, and indoor environmental quality to achieve certification levels from Certified to Platinum.
BREEAM
BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world's first and one of the most widely used sustainability assessment methods for buildings and infrastructure projects. Developed in the UK, it evaluates performance across categories including energy, health, materials, waste, ecology, and management. BREEAM ratings range from Pass to Outstanding.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is energy derived from natural sources that are replenished at a rate faster than they are consumed, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass. Unlike fossil fuels, renewable sources produce little to no direct greenhouse gas emissions during operation. The transition to renewables is central to global decarbonisation efforts.
Life Cycle Assessment
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic methodology for evaluating the environmental impacts of a product, process, or service throughout its entire life cycle. This includes raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use, and end-of-life disposal or recycling. LCA helps identify the most significant environmental hotspots and improvement opportunities.