When people first think about building or redeveloping their existing building into an eco-friendly building, they quickly reject the idea because they think it will be too expensive to upgrade and not benefit them too much. The general opinion on green buildings is that they require a very high initial investment compared to the originally calculated cost of the building and that the cost of the renovation will not be outweighed by the benefits. This notion is completely wrong because people normally only consider the environmental benefits of eco-friendly buildings, unconsciously ignoring all other benefits for society and themselves. These people can easily ignore problems that aren't right and decide they don't want to waste extra money doing something they can't even see the effects of. While most people are quick to ignore the options to upgrade the existing building or create a new eco-friendly building, the long-term benefits outweigh the small initial investment required. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Founded in 1993, the United States Green Building Council was established as a national nonprofit corporation that promotes sustainability in building design. They developed the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) system to evaluate new and existing buildings based on their environmental attributes and sustainable features. LEED is the “Common Standard for Sustainability” (California) and is quickly becoming the standard for green building design. Buildings can incorporate several ways to create a more eco-friendly building into their initial design and will be evaluated by the USGBC for its LEED certification. Buildings are divided into different levels of certification based on their degree of eco-friendliness, and there are countless ways that buildings can invest in their building depending on their specific circumstances. Surprisingly enough, not many architecture firms build green buildings. friendly buildings today. This extremely low demand for green buildings can be explained by the fact that people associate green buildings with adding more money to their project to help the environment. Some people have this mentality that if it doesn't directly affect me then it's not my problem and someone else will take care of it. Some people do and some don't understand that being green is beneficial to the environment, but many people simply don't care enough about the environment enough to want to waste their money on it. These people who don't care, refuse to believe that there is such a thing as climate change, or if they do, they don't believe that humans are responsible for climate change. Some people won't even admit that anything is wrong and believe that nothing has changed or that all change is natural. Sallie Baliunas, who has a PhD in astrophysics from Harvard, says that going green is just a waste of money because “cuts in greenhouse gas emissions do not prevent any significant increase in temperature” (Baliunas) and if we wanted to achieve some effect we should reduce much more. When people hear things like that they believe it's just a waste of money to try to prevent something that can't be stopped. What they don't know is that, even if these predictions are true, there are many reasons other than reducing carbon emissions that should convince people to want to help create a greener world.Green buildings are able to reduce emissions like everyone else. is aware because they are designed to save energy consumption. This reduced energy use will reduce emissions of natural pollutants created through the burning of fossil fuels, which are the primary source of non-renewable energy used in most buildings. These pollutants released into the atmosphere during the burning of fossil fuels are considered the main causes of climate change. Green buildings can help reduce pollutant emissions through many different ways, which can be customized to the building's environment and its occupants. Buildings can employ different methods such as solar energy generators, maximize the use of sunlight over fluorescent lighting, and facilitate public transportation to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Reducing overall energy use in buildings that rely on electricity generated by burning fossil fuels also helps reduce emissions that pollute the world and decrease global warming. Although there are many sources of energy, renewable sources are not used enough around the world. Most of the time the electricity we pay for, whether we know it or not, is produced by burning fossil fuels. We are inadvertently contributing to the problem of climate change depending on where we get our electricity. Sometimes we have a choice and can buy electricity created from renewable resources, but other times we can't because they are too far away. Even though renewable energy is not being generated widely across the world, people should not be discouraged if they want to do their part to help prevent climate change. People and companies that cannot directly purchase energy from renewable sources can still purchase green certificates. Green certificates are the equivalent of “buying ownership of reduced emissions” (California) to support facilities that produce energy from renewable sources elsewhere even if they purchase energy created through the burning of fossil fuels. If more people took the initiative to support renewable energy, it could become more readily available around the world and help reduce climate change, benefiting everything on earth. Another environmental benefit of constructing or retrofitting current building designs to a greener one is water conservation. The two main ways green buildings can conserve water are through rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling. By creating a building that captures rainwater, that water can then be reused for other uses or even to water indoor and outdoor plants instead of having to pay more for water. Studies show that if you apply the methods used in standard green buildings to capture rainwater, you can expect a water reduction “of more than 50% for landscaping” (California). Gray water, on the other hand, is waste water collected in closed environments, including used water from bathroom sinks and washing machines, excluding toilet water which cannot be reused. If water from indoor plumbing is collected after use and then reused, it can “reduce water consumption at or below common standards/practices by more than 30%” (California). Gray water can be reused for other tasks such as watering plants and for use in toilets, among other things, saving clean water for drinking and other uses.futures. Waste reduction is also a very important factor in green building construction. When first designing a building, the deconstruction of the building must also be considered to try to prevent large-scale demolition of buildings. Large-scale demolition of buildings creates a lot of waste that ends up in landfills and therefore the building requires making all new materials for the building, both of which have negative effects on the environment. The goal of green buildings is to reuse materials recovered from the old building in order to reduce waste. Reusing more building materials from the old building means you will need fewer new materials for the building and will help support the environment. In addition to simply reusing old materials, all new materials should be durable and easy to repair or maintain to ensure that the material's long-lasting materials will be used for as long as possible. Another way to reduce waste is “the use of structural materials with the dual role of finishing material” (California), where it is possible to limit the amount of material needed to complete the building. All of these methods of reducing waste in building deconstruction are intended to encourage new building designs that are flexible so that anything that can have multiple uses does. The government provides many financial incentives for people to invest in building or upgrading their buildings into green ones. These incentives are intended to encourage people to think twice about how expensive they believe it will be to upgrade their current plans to green ones. Even without these incentives, there are many ways that owners can save money in the long term by transforming buildings into eco-friendly ones. Studies show that “homeowners accumulate their initial investment tenfold over the life of the building as a result of the savings” (Levin 39) resulting from the eco-friendly design of the building. Many people don't consider the long-term effects of converting to an eco-friendly design when deciding what to build and that's why the government needs these incentives to upgrade. Based on these long-term savings, it would be unreasonable for anyone to think that the small initial investment is not offset by the larger savings over time. Green buildings are designed to provide as much natural light as possible in order to reduce the buildings' dependence on electricity. This helps owners save money by reducing electricity consumption, while at the same time reducing pollutant emissions that would have been created if the energy had been required. Green buildings use on average “30% less purchased energy than conventional buildings” (California), which helps reduce the cost of electricity which will most likely increase over time. Some studies even show that there are “better sales in stores that use natural light” (Green), which is another element that encourages store owners to redevelop their buildings. Photovoltaics is an option that can be considered when designing an eco-friendly building as it can be used to “generate 20% of the [building's] energy on site” (California), which will help reduce energy costs further in the long term. Decreased dependence on electricity will help businesses run more efficiently because they won't have to worry about sudden changes in operating costs due to changing electricity costsor to power outages that can hurt their profits. For the maintenance of the building, the environment and for the owners' pockets in the long term, it is better to invest in creating or even just adapting the current design of the building to a more environmentally friendly one. A lot of energy is needed to regulate the temperature inside buildings so that it is comfortable for the people who live or work there. Poorly constructed buildings have problems with temperature moderation and cannot maintain heat well in the winter and cool in the summer. To remedy the effects of poor temperature moderation we tend to simply turn on the heat in the winter or the air conditioning in the summer, but the extra electricity use contributes to climate change and increased electricity bills, which may seem more important at the moment. There are ways to help buildings better regulate temperatures during the winter and summer, when electricity demand is highest. The urban heat island effect is a serious problem that occurs in cities where the average temperature is warmer than it should be because buildings are all crowded together and absorbing heat. One way green buildings combat this problem is by “increasing the reflectivity of roofs and other typically dark surfaces” (Green) since darker surfaces absorb more sunlight and raise the temperature inside buildings faster. When it's hotter than it should be inside buildings, people turn on air conditioners and use much more energy than necessary. Air conditioning units also contribute to increased heat and pollution in cities as they essentially dump all the hot air out the window to cool the room. The heat island effect is not only harmful because it heats buildings, but “it also directly contributes to reducing the creation of ozone” (California), another cause of global warming. Better temperature control inside buildings will help reduce “the large human health costs associated with smog” (Green) because pollutants, such as those released by air conditioners and heaters, that form smog will decrease. This is beneficial to both the owners of the building and the people who work or live in it because they save money while preventing possible health problems. Studies over the past ten years have shown that “employee productivity has been positively related to indoor environmental conditions”, (Green) means that green buildings are increasing employee productivity in the workplace. An example is that of VeriFone, a company that decided to renovate its existing building to make it more eco-friendly. They found that over the first eighteen months “the absenteeism rate dropped by 40% and productivity increased by more than 5%” (California), which is great news for companies looking to increase profits . All this is possible because the renovated building is able to reduce internal pollutants and improve the quality of the internal environment, helping people who work long days cooped up inside. Fewer people got sick at work due to poor air quality inside the building, as the increased air circulation helped keep everyone healthier. Gary Jay Saulson saw that “absenteeism is down, productivity is up, recruiting is better, and turnover is lower” (California). Another benefit of owning an eco-friendly building is that people who support eco-friendly buildings will want to work for a company that believes the same, increasing hiring. People who understand that.