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Sustainability Home
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The design, construction and maintenance of buildings has a tremendous impact on people and nature. Have you heard these statistics?
- Buildings consume 40% of the world's total energy, 25% of wood harvest and 16% of water used.
- The building industry in the nation's largest manufacturing activity, representing more than 50% of the nation's wealth and 13% of Gross Domestic Product.
We know that reducing demand for resources lessens environmental impact and protects clean air and water. Case studies indicate that sustainably designed buildings can provide more comfortable, healthier, energy and resource efficient living environments.
Why BUILT GREEN™?
The Built Green Multi-Family checklist serves as a menu that developers, designers and builders use as a guide in making the hundreds of decisions that are part of the home building process. By selecting certain components, these decision makers can build a home with the following characteristics. The extent to which the home contains these features is determined by the decisions made during the building process.
- Cost Savings - The BUILT GREEN program places a premium on the utilization of energy efficient designs and products, which can result in a home that is less costly to operate.
- Reduce Health Risks - The BUILT GREEN program promotes a series of construction practices and design components that improve indoor air quality for both occupants and installers.
- Improve Water Quality and Protect Salmon - The BUILT GREEN program promotes building practices and landscape designs that improve water quality and contribute to the preservation of native salmon runs
- Protect Our Northwest Natural Resources - the BUILT GREEN program promotes building practices, waste reduction processes, and design elements that reduce the impact on our environment.
So why aren't more buildings being built sustainably? We have some good ideas, but we'd like to participate in a few select multi-family projects to test those ideas. We're fairly convinced that many in the building industry are resistant to trying what may appear to be innovative building methods because they have concerns with cost, with unfamiliar materials and techniques and they're unwilling to take on additional risk. We're also pretty sure that the somewhat linear, traditional ways that decisions about building projects are made is a stumbling block to innovation.
And we're willing to pay for some mutual education.
If you're interested, look at the 2004 BUILT GREEN Incentive description, including a Schedule of Events and Pre-Application:
We consider the BUILT BREEN™ system to be an effective way to incorporate sustainability into multi-family projects. We also think that a more integrated decision making process - involving the entire project team as well as the eventual tenants who are most effected by building decisions - is a valuable method to alleviate the concerns decision makers have of going off into uncharted territory. The purpose of this Program is to find out just what it takes to get a private sector project certified under the BUILT GREEN™ Rating System.
If this program interests you, then we want to hear from you.
Peter Dobrovolny, Sustainable Building Coordinator.
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Sustainability Home
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For more information about Seattle City Light's sustainability activities, please e-mail Peter Dobrovolny at peter.dobrovolny@seattle.gov or call Peter at 206.615.1094.
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