Differentiating green buildings from conventional buildings: environmental performance perspective

Abstract

In the current situation, where people concerns about sustainability environment, building occupants seek to be comfortable and productive in their workplace. Occupants with local control over their environment generally have an improvement in their work effort and productivity. However, work productivity of occupants can be de-motivated and interrupted due to poor environmental conditions. Thus, the intervention to ensure a healthy working environment should always be the first step towards improving productivity. In the governing concern on improving occupant’s working environment, Green Building movement is fast becoming a necessity. It is therefore impressive that there is already emerging national consensus on the definition of a green building and a rapidly increasing number of green projects in both the public and private sectors. Green buildings can be defined in various ways however, giving definition compared to ‘conventional’ buildings is a supplementary problem. There is no doubt that the term has a very positive connotation. Further, green buildings generate lot of benefits to people and the environment. However, no evidence that the level of occupant comfort and satisfaction are greater in ‘green’ rather than conventional buildings. Hence, this study was aimed to identify facts for differentiating green buildings from conventional buildings in terms of environmental performance. The available literature was reviewed and preliminary investigation was conducted in selected green rated and non-green buildings. The indoor environment quality criteria which is developed based on GREENSL® rating system was evaluated in selected buildings to identify differences between green and conventional buildings. According to the results of literature survey and preliminary investigation, green buildings showed high environmental performance compared to conventional buildings in terms of indoor air quality, thermal comfort and lighting quality whilst there was a less satisfaction with acoustic comfort in green buildings. However, the success of green buildings depends on the quality and efficiency of the installed green systems. The rating system can be used as the common language and standards of measurement to define green buildings, differentiating from conventional buildings.