Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The construction industry's response to sustainable development is sustainable construction. [1] In 1994, the definition of sustainable construction was given by Professor Charles J. Kibert during the Final Session of the First International Conference of CIB TG 16 on Sustainable Construction as "the creation and responsible management of a ...
Precycling is the practice of reducing waste by attempting to avoid buying items which will generate waste into home or business. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also cites that precycling is the preferred method of integrated solid waste management because it cuts waste at its source and therefore trash is eliminated before it is created.
Energy recycling is the energy recovery process of using energy that would normally be wasted, usually by converting it into electricity or thermal energy.Undertaken at manufacturing facilities, power plants, and large institutions such as hospitals and universities, it significantly increases efficiency, thereby reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas pollution simultaneously.
Sustainable refurbishment describes working on existing buildings to improve their environmental performance using sustainable methods and materials. A refurbishment or retrofit is defined as: "any work to a building over and above maintenance to change its capacity, function or performance' in other words, any intervention to adjust, reuse, or upgrade a building to suit new conditions or ...
While energy efficiency, thermal comfort, indoor air quality and (day)lighting are very prominent in the debate on building performance, there is much longer list of building performance aspect that includes things like resistance against burglary, flexibility for change of use, and many others; for an overview see the building performance ...
The EPA has created over 40 programs and policies towards helping to deal with biofuels and greenhouse gases as well as find ways to be more energy efficient and help to slow down climate change. Their climate programs provide models and processes to inventory greenhouse gas emissions and evaluate the effects of global change on the environment ...
Material efficiency is associated with Green building and Energy conservation, as well as other ways of incorporating Renewable resources in the building process from start to finish. The impacts can include material efficiency include reducing energy demand, reducing Greenhouse gas emissions , and other environmental impacts such as land use ...
Electricity is considered the energy carrier with the lowest entropy (i.e. highest quality) as it can be transformed into mechanical energy at efficiency rates well above 90%. In contrast, fossil fuel chemical energy can only be converted into mechanical energy at a typical efficiency rate of 25% (cars) to 50 percent (modern power plants).