Evaluating performance and costing of green building

Abstract

Development is gradually converting the bio diverse habitat in to a concrete jungle which consists of an impervious cover to landscape resulting into a lack of woodland habitat and conservation of the most precious element on the earth “WATER”. The vast canvas of built environment necessitates a greener color into it picture. Sustainable development is a development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” Sustainable construction tries to incorporate the general sustainable development concepts into conventional construction practices. One of the ways to achieve sustainable construction is the Green Building Design, which is the core area of attention for greener built environment. Green Building Designs have environmental considerations as a basic scrutinizing criteria which attempts to integrate and achieve concepts of energy efficiency, water conservation and recharge, solid waste management, exploration of renewable energy resources, use of eco friendly materials and to minimize the negative impact on the nature, plant and animal species, non renewable material conservation and preserve resources and processes that prevail in nature. Several Green Building Rating Systems have been developed to objectively evaluate energy and environmental performance that spans the broad spectrum of sustainability.