27 Sep Sustainable Building – Building the Future

Environmental sustainability and construction haven’t typically gone hand in hand. The energy-intensive industry is a massive consumer of raw materials and natural resources. According to the World Green Building Council, it generates around 39% of global carbon emissions.
However, there has been a shift in the industry towards more sustainable building methods. With an aim to minimise the effect on the environment.
There are three factors influencing the move towards greener construction:
1 Increased Government Regulations: New regulations require increased environmental measures with more scrutiny of how projects are designed, constructed and maintained.
2 Controlling Costs: As with any project, cost is key and with the cost of raw materials rising construction companies are looking for cost-effective alternatives.
3 Expanding Environmental Concerns: As the consumer becomes more environmentally conscious there is growing demand for environmentally sustainable buildings and pressure on constructors to design eco-friendly buildings.
So what is Sustainable Building?
A sustainable building that in its design, construction and operation aims to reduce or eliminate its negative impact on the environment and can even have a positive impact. This can be any building from high rise office buildings to your i3 Garden Studio.
The World Green Building Council outlines a number of features that can make a building ‘green’: These include:
• Efficient use of energy, water and other resources
• Use of renewable energy, such as solar energy
• Pollution and waste reduction measures, and the enabling of re-use and recycling
• Good indoor environmental air quality
• Use of materials that are non-toxic, ethical and sustainable
• Consideration of the environment in design, construction and operation
• Consideration of the quality of life of occupants in design, construction and operation
• A design that enables adaptation to a changing environment
How Can the Construction Industry be More Sustainable?
A Recent article in Forbes made the following suggestions:
• Create a long-term strategy that considers the environmental impact of the project at every stage.
• Use ethically sourced materials
• Implement sustainable design and construction processes supported by data to track the project.
• Optimise logistics to reduce mileage and emissions.
At i3 Studios we are committed to implementing the ideas of sustainability in our garden studios.
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