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Sustainable Design: Building a Greener Future

By Kristen Kohler

The hum of traffic and construction fills the air as you make your way down a city block. The dense urban landscape surrounds you; high rises and storefronts line the streets, pedestrians crowd the sidewalks, and bikers and cars speed down lanes of traffic as you move through the bustle of human life. All of these elements make up the built environment. 

The built environment is composed of the systems, buildings, and infrastructure that humans have created, and we see it woven into every aspect of modern life. It is the house you live in, the streets you drive on, the systems that give you running water, and the heating vents that keep you warm in the winter. It is agriculture, grocery stores, public parks, and more. But with the increasing development of the built environment comes unprecedented global change, and not always for the better. We are depleting our natural resources at an alarming rate, dumping millions of tons of waste each year into landfills, and emitting greenhouse gasses that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. As we move further into the 21st century, these issues pose an increasingly large threat to the future of humanity and the environment. 

Buildings, in particular, can have a substantial impact on our environment. The building sector consumes resources in the operation and construction of buildings and creates a sizable amount of waste with the creation and renovation of projects. Buildings currently contribute to nearly 40% of all carbon emissions that are released in the United States, use considerable amounts of potable water, and generate millions of tons of debris through construction and demolition each year. As the negative environmental impacts of the building sector grow, so do the need for sustainable design. 

Sustainable design is a practice that prioritizes minimizing the environmental impact of buildings. It encompasses the entire life cycle of a building, from construction to operation to the end of its use. One of the main objectives of sustainable design is the use of clean energy sources. Clean energy, or renewable energy, is energy that is supplied from sources that are not depleted through use. Examples of such sources include water, wind, and the sun. Renewable sources are converted into heat and electricity to power systems such as lighting, heating, and running water. In contrast, there are also non-renewable sources, such as the Earth’s supply of coal and other fossil fuels. These non-renewable sources are what are currently used to fuel most of the built environment. The problem is that burning these fossil fuels to create energy releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which traps heat and contributes to climate change.

Solar energy is perhaps the most well-known of these renewable sources. In one hour, the sun produces more energy than humankind uses in one year. This energy from the sun can be converted into electricity and heat in many ways and is most often harnessed through the use of solar panels in architecture. Solar panels are able to utilize solar energy through photovoltaic cells, also called PV cells. When sunlight hits a solar panel, PV cells within the solar panel absorb the energy from the sunlight, creating an electric current. The White House is one example of a building that uses solar panels to create electricity. It is partially powered by solar panels, featuring 167 PV panels on the roof of its maintenance building. 

Another facet of sustainable design is reducing the material waste that is produced throughout the life cycle of the building. The American Geophysical Union’s Headquarters building, for instance, is one that has been dedicated to producing less waste. In 2016, it was decided that the headquarters building, located in Dupont Circle in Washington D.C., would be renovated to be more energy efficient. To reduce waste during the renovation, they recycled and reused as many materials as they could from the old building. The floor of the original building’s lobby was kept intact, and the floor of the expanded spaces was made from crushed toilets, glass, and granite that were part of the original building. Bricks were reused for the exterior of the building, and various office materials were kept intact for continued use, such as chairs, electrical cabinets, exit signs, and interior doors.

There are also systems that are designed to reduce waste from more than just building materials. Water scarcity issues are growing globally; around 2.2 billion people do not have access to potable water. In light of increasing water shortages, it is becoming even more important to conserve the water that we have, and buildings are a large consumer of this supply. Design inefficiencies such as overuse in plumbing and cooling, unnecessary use of potable water, and leaks result in the loss of billions of gallons of water annually. One way to combat this level of water waste is through water reclamation systems. Water reclamation is the process of recollecting wastewater and treating it to be reused. Buildings can also be designed to collect stormwater, reducing impact on the building’s regional supply of clean water. Apple Park, which is Apple’s headquarters located in Cupertino, California, uses water reclamation systems to recycle water and reduce water waste. Over 30 million gallons of water are recycled for irrigation use, toilets, and cooling. 

But if there are sustainable alternatives, why are we still burning fossil fuels? The costs of research, development, and implementation of more sustainable systems in our existing infrastructure often turn people away. This is where we begin to see the need to incentivize and regulate the future of design. 

One way that sustainable design is incentivized is through the use of certification systems that advocate for sustainable building practices. There are hundreds of sustainable building certification systems that exist; the most widely used of these systems around the world is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system, which is operated by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). To obtain LEED certification, projects earn points that correspond to categories such as carbon emissions, water use, materials, energy, waste, and many other things that factor into the environmental footprint of the project. There are different levels of LEED certification, with Platinum certification being the highest and awarded to projects that earn 80+ points. In April of 2022, the Phipps Exhibit Staging Center, located in Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, achieved LEED Platinum, earning a total of 84 points. The Exhibit Staging Center features many aspects of sustainable design, from sustainable sourcing of building materials to clean energy to a green roof. 

LEED and similar certifications incentivize green building through qualifying buildings for tax credits, but there are also long-term cost benefits that come with sustainable design systems. According to the USGBC website, buildings that qualified for LEED certification between 2015 and 2018 saved $1.2 billion in energy savings, $145.9 million in water savings, $715.3 million in maintenance savings, and $54.2 million in waste savings. 

There is also legislation being put into place that can make real change. In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law. This bill allocates billions of dollars towards implementing clean energy systems in existing buildings and upcoming projects, as well as developing resources and sourcing these clean energy systems in the United States. 

These changes will not happen overnight, but new research and innovations have spurred improvements in sustainable systems that can then be implemented in the design of buildings. This approach to sustainable development promotes active change and advocacy that is much needed for a safer and healthier environment in the future.