Green Certification – What You Need to Know

Is green certification worth the effort? Before you can answer this question, you need to have a firm understanding of what green certification really is. Green certification for a building gets to show that that particular building was built in accordance to strategies that improve efficiency on a number of metrics such as Carbon Dioxide emissions reduction, enhanced indoor environment quality, energy efficiency and water usage efficiency. This certification goes beyond residential buildings; commercial buildings can also get green certification.

Why go green? Green certification has a number of benefits that as the owner or the tenant you will get to enjoy. These benefits can be grouped into various thematic areas.

Environmental Benefits

When it comes to the impact on the environment, green buildings have the highest potential of helping in the conservation of our environment and reducing negative impacts on the environment. These negative impacts include environmental degradation, emission of greenhouse gases and general pollution of air, water and soil.

How is this possible in the first place? According to studies, the building sector is high on gas emissions. Compared to other emitting sectors, it is the one sector that has huge potential for reducing its gas emissions. Through green buildings, it is also possible to save on energy at a global level and reduce rise in temperature rise.

Social Benefits

Other than having these benefits at the global level, a green certified building has a lot to offer for the individuals living in the building. As intimated above green certified buildings operate on efficiency and this efficiency brings with it a lot of benefits for you as an occupant. You stand to save more in terms of energy costs every day, than what would be the case if you were not in a green certified building. Utility costs are also lower as compared to those of other buildings. The quality of air in the building is better, meaning better standards of living for you and your family. This in the long run translates to lower healthcare costs, higher productivity for employees as a result of better ventilation.

The other benefit that you stand to enjoy with a green certified building is better natural lighting which saves on electricity costs that you would have otherwise incurred if you were in a building that was not green certified.

What’s more is that in green certified buildings there is efficiency in water usage since these buildings are fitted with low flow appliances.

Economic And Financial Benefits

From what we have discussed above, we can see that there are numerous advantages that can be enjoyed at an environmental and social level. At an economic level, there is a lot that you stand to gain as a green certified owner.

When compared with other buildings that are not green certified, the green certified building stands out in terms of construction costs. Green certified buildings help you save on money as they have lower construction costs. What’s even more rewarding is when it comes to property value. The green certified building fetches a much higher property value for building developers. Yet another benefit of green buildings is that they have increased occupancy rates as compared to other buildings. The operating costs of these buildings as compared to other buildings is also very low.

What Next?

From the above, it is clear that a green certified building has more advantages as compared to other buildings that may in the same category. As a property developer, then it is prudent that you get your building a green certificate.

So what makes a green certified building. Going by the major part of this article, we can simply put it that a green building is a building that s environmentally friendly. We will now look at the features that make a green certified home stand out.

A green building incorporates an array of strategies that makes the building healthier, energy efficient and does not deplete natural resources. These strategies need to be incorporated from the design to its construction. This means that even the material used in the construction is used in a way that the building’s maintenance costs are reduced. There is much deeper consideration in the material used in the construction process. The material should aid in energy conservation and further go on to improve the health of occupants and their productivity. Green material that is to be used is mainly from recycled content. Other than this, the material needs to be available locally and be plentiful. Other than this, the material needs to be in plenty.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the world and explore those green buildings that have led the way in as far as going green is concerned. A look at countries tend to show that Europe is ahead of the pack with more and more buildings going green than in any other part of the world. Though this is the case, there have been steps made so that more green buildings are constructed to emerging markets. Such steps include the emphasis on buildings that bolster efficiency in energy use and minimize the depletion of resources.

Therefore, as a building developer there is a lot to think about especially in the design of the building project that you are working on. For your building to be green certified, you need to think through its usability and environment friendly nature. By ensuring that you have an ecofriendly building ensures that you enjoy all these benefits. From having its value at a higher value than that of other buildings within the same range, to being efficient in terms of maintenance, it is quite clear that the benefits that one stands to gain are many. Take into consideration the materials that you use, not only will they be cheaper, but you will also be lauded for your efficient design, that makes the workplace and living space a joyful and healthy experience.