Green Building Designs | Energy Efficient Buildings | Environmental Construction

YOUR GUIDE TO BUILDING GREEN

The demand for environmentally friendly construction products and practices, or "Building Green", has increased in recent years. THE STEEL BUILDER adopted an early leadership role in green construction through our design innovations and continued consultation in the use of metal/steel and other emerging technologically advanced construction products and processes.

The American Iron and Steel Institute reports that steel is the most recycled material in North America, however... green construction goes far beyond just the recycling aspect - a building's design and construction methods, its end use, occupants' productivity and future maintenance requirements are among the many considerations that have changed the way THE STEEL BUILDER designs and constructs each structure. Our innovations continue to assist our clients with meeting their "Building Green" objectives and governmental mandated requirements. The following sections will assist you in discovering more about how building green can work for you.
 

WHAT IS GREEN?

A building is considered "GREEN" when its design reduce its overall environmental impact during its life cycle... from initial construction-to the end of its useful life. Those characteristics are measured by three criteria:

• The environmental impact the building will have during its useful life, e.g. energy use, efficiently designed use of space, materials recyclability, parking and landscape design and the current and emerging technologies utilized in its overall construction-all in an effort to conserve existing and future natural resources and save you money.
• The economic impacts, such as lowering operating costs, enhancing the asset's value, improving personnel productivity, as well as optimizing the overall lifecycle performance.
• Health and community, through the improvement of air quality, occupant comfort, and overall health conditions.

The US Green Building Council cites these advantages for building green:

• Decrease in a building's cost to operate, including energy savings
• Increase building value, improving its future return on investment
• Improved occupant comfort
• Increase in a building's occupancy capacity
• Increase in potential rental value
• Reduction in urban heat island effect and smog
• Mitigation of global warming

LEED Certification for Metal Buildings

USGBC's LEED program is designed for building owners and operators. To receive certification through the LEED program, designers, builders and building owners incorporate energy-saving strategies throughout the complete cycle of a building, from best construction practices to occupation and the end of the building's useful life. Strategies include: choosing environmentally sensitive design, roofing, insulation, delivery methods and other assorted criteria, which earn points toward certification.

To learn more about LEED Certification requirements, click here.

If you are interested in the LEED Certification chart, click here to download the LEED Certification PDF.

GREEN RESOURCES

Each of our steel building manufacturers are affiliated with several trade organizations involved in regulating general building practices. The following associations are focused specifically on the improvement of environmental building policies and products.

Cool Metal Roofing | LEED Information
Cool Roof Ratings Council | United States Environmental Protection Agency
Energy Star | Green Power Partnership
U.S Green Building Council | United States Department of Energy