Green Definitions............................................................

Green Building
Green or sustainable building is the practice of creating healthier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and demolition. Research and experience increasingly demonstrate that when buildings are designed and operated with their lifecycle impacts in mind, they can provide great environmental, economic, and social benefits.

Active Solar
Refers to mechanical harvesting of the energy from the sun. The most common application is the use of Photovoltaic Panels.

Daylighting
Natural lighting design to provide natural light in occupied spaces throughout the day to minimize the need for electrical lighting, and thus reduce energy consumption.

Indoor Air Quality
indoor air is often 3 times more polluted than outdoor air and paints and finishes are some of the leading causes for these hazards. Paints and finishes can release a variety of VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) into the air for years after application. New paint manufacturing technologies have made it possible to use low-VOC and zero-VOC products.

Gray Water system
Uses water from faucets and showers to water landscaping instead of being treated according to black water standards through municipal sewer systems or septic tanks.

Lifecycle Costs
The life cycle costs of a building more accurately represent how the upfront costs of efficient technologies, higher insulation, will pay back through energy savings over the lifetime of the building.

Low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds)
Paints and Sealants- use water as a carrier instead of petroleum-based solvents, which reduces the levels of harmful toxins. To meet EPA standards paints must not contain more than 200 grams per liter of VOCs and varnishes must not contain more than 300 grams per liter. As a general rule, low VOC paints have less than 50 grams per liter VOC.

Passive Solar
Design aspects that do not have any moving parts or technologies that heats a building using the properties of the sun and its path through the sky.

Photovoltaic Panels (Solar Panel)
Is an assembly of solar cells that generates electricity from the sun.

Rain Catchments
Harvests water from roofs through a series of gutters and stores storm runoff to be used later in landscaping, thus reducing the storm runoff from a site.

Rapidly Renewable Materials
Any material that can regenerate itself in a short period of time, such as bamboo (6-10 year grow back period), agricultural by-products such as wheat and sunflowers.

Solar Hot Water
A glass front face containing a series of tubes with a liquid (often water). The liquid is heated from the sun and used to heat a storage tank, or used directly for hot water use in the home.

Thermal Mass
An area of masonry, concrete, adobe, that has low insulating factor, but high heat storage potential. It is necessary to couple passive solar design with interior thermal mass in order to store heat gain and slowly release it through out the night.

Zero-VOC
Any paint with VOCs of 5 gram per liter or less.

Links..................................................................................

Carbon Footprint Calculator