Browsing by Subject "Green building"
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Item Best practices in green affordable housing(2008-12) Raish, Julia Katherine; Moore, Steven A., 1945-This report is an exploration of the theoretical and applied aspects of green affordable housing. First, it presents an in-depth examination of the current status of green affordable housing by exploring the synergy between green rating systems which guide and certify developments and the financial and policy mechanisms which either support or curtail them. Second, this report will analyze diverse case studies from around the country in order to examine how green affordable housing is developed in various real-world contexts. Two-tiers of case studies are presented: secondary and primary. Secondary case studies receive a brief overview while the primary case study examines in-depth an ongoing development in Austin, Texas. The primary case is also an example of current innovative movements and provides a glimpse into what the future of green affordable housing might look like. And lastly, conclusions are drawn from the research that itemize best practices in green affordable housing. The report concludes that green affordable housing is not an easy development practice and thus, recommendations are provided to ease some of the existing barriers to further development. This report also concludes that while costbenefit analyses and arguments for energy-efficiency are salient, concerns for public and environmental health need equal weight in the argument and advocacy for green affordable housing. I argue that green affordable housing should be developed with an integrated design process specific to local context, with a local visioning process that cultivates community connections. And most importantly, education for housing providers and tenants regarding on-going operations and maintenance is a crucial part of that integrated design process.Item Building green in Austin : meeting your desired bottom line(2008-12) Bean, David Lawrence; Paterson, Robert G.During the past couple of decades, developing buildings that are actually sensitive to the needs of the environment has started to be a common trend. Today, the green building movement has reached all corners of the United States and even the world. The United States Green Building Council formed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system to serve as a guideline for measuring the degree to which a building is considered to be environmentally friendly and “green”. The LEED system outlines a number of requirements necessary to achieve one of four different certification levels: Platinum, Gold, Silver or Certified. Each of these levels requires a different number of points awarded based on achievement of various credits during the design and construction phases of a building project. The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it is to explore the green building movement and discuss the overall benefits of building green. Included in this is a discussion of what it actually means to develop a LEED Certified building, and what a building’s certification status means for both short and long-term costs and benefits toward meeting a developer’s desired bottom line. Secondly, building on that investigation, a determination will be made as to whether or not it is financially viable for a developer to construct a LEED Certified building in Austin, Texas and still achieve his or her desired bottom line as it relates to his or her profit margin.Item Building healthy affordable homes : an assessment of the health dimensions of green communities’ building standards(2010-05) Jang, In Young; Mueller, Elizabeth J.; Paterson, RobertDespite the considerable improvements in housing conditions during the last decade, housing still remains a critical determinant of one’s health. Broader social and environmental issues that are associated with housing and health problems have emerged. Such issues include neighborhood characteristics, individual behaviors and associated health outcomes, social backgrounds, and housing affordability as well as the physical conditions of housing. Many low-income families’ substandard housing conditions make them suffer from housing-related health problems more seriously. This report suggests a green affordable housing program, in particular Green Communities, as one of the solutions to address this issue. To understand how Green Communities affects one’s health, this report evaluates existing Green Communities’ criteria against housing health performance criteria that are developed based on a literature review. After the evaluation, this report suggests how current green affordable housing practices can be improved to be a health promotion tool.Item Designing for disasters : incorporating hazard mitigation methods into the LEED for new construction and major renovations framework(2010-05) Gray, Meredith Eileen, 1984-; Paterson, Robert G.; Lang, Werner X.; Zarnikau, JayGreen buildings are increasingly in demand yet current green building practices often do not consider hazard mitigation. High-performance buildings that can withstand hazards, protect residents, and do not need to be rebuilt following a disaster are truly sustainable buildings. This report focuses on current hazard mitigation and disaster resilience standards for wildfires and earthquakes through an in-depth analysis of case studies and best practices for these hazards. The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) framework is the ideal vehicle to incorporate hazard mitigation methods into official green building certification. Language for a new LEED Hazard Mitigation and Resilience credit area is established using guidelines for hazard mitigation for wildfires and earthquakes.Item Green building in the community college: a study to illuminate student and faculty perspectives(2009-12) Kovac, Jason Robert; Roueche, John E.Green building has become a popular topic of debate and discussion among stakeholders in higher education. Public expectations for colleges and universities to invest in green building are on the rise. These expectations are fueled in large part by the growing awareness of the detrimental impact of traditional building practices among students and other stakeholders. Community college leaders find themselves on the cusp of a serendipitous convergence—evidence suggests that green building is becoming increasingly cost effective, and supports positive growth of student learning outputs on standardized tests. This research was designed to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity to probe the experiences of faculty and students in these new green facilities, towards a more robust understanding of how educators can maximize the effect of new and emerging building projects across the country. Using reflexive photography, photo elicitation, and qualitative interviews, compelling stories from teachers and learners were collected and analyzed. Research synthesis includes recommendations for communication and organizational learning strategies, an argument for using green community colleges as a testing ground for innovation, and notes on the unique needs of faculty and students in a green community college.Item Green jobs for all : a case study of the green building sector in Austin, TX(2008-08) Walsh, Elizabeth A., active 2008; Sletto, Bjørn; Oden, MichaelThe “green jobs for all” movement aims to make “green collar” jobs – those that support families and the environment – accessible to every working man and woman. This report investigates the potential role of the green building sector in this movement in Austin, TX through a literature review and interviews with sixteen green building professionals. The findings suggest that Austin’s green building sector does appear to offer quality green collar jobs with few barriers to entry in the market. As such, it stands to play an important role in the green for all movement locally and nationally. Unlike some other sectors of the green economy, the green building sector, at least in Texas, does not appear to be limited to “eco-elites,” a.k.a., the white, wealthier Americans who tend to dominate mainstream environmental movements. Although it is not clear that the green building sector is growing the environmental movement by involving people whose demographic background is different than most mainstream environmentalists, it does appear that contractors and subcontractors who build “green” take particular pride in their work. New jobs are expanding tin the green building sector and green practices among existing trades often gives firms a competitive edge. There are many potential roles for the city to take in its support of the green building sector. Voluntary programs are the most popular on all fronts, but the case can also be made in some cases for mandates. Rating systems are essential to resolve imperfect information in the market, but rating systems using nationally standardized codes might facilitate the efficiency of real estate markets by giving appraisers and lenders a rating system they can trust.Item Greening America’s schools : the need, the promise, the reality(2009-05) Lanini, Lucia Diane; Butler, Kent S.The United States has over 26 million students in primary and secondary schools nationwide. The result of such a large school-aged population, in combination with an increasingly environmentally conscious culture, has been a national effort towards green and sustainable school design. In theory, high performance school design utilizes a combination of key technologies in order to improve the learning environment while saving money, resources, and energy. An abundance of literature supports the lofty promises of this design strategy, but in an industry that has only recently begun to gain widespread support, very little substantive research of case studies has been documented. This report explores the history and characteristics of green schools, followed by a case study of Pickle Elementary School, located in Austin, Texas. Through the use of quantitative, qualitative and anecdotal research, this report begins to unveil the reality of this ever-growing movement towards greening America’s schools.Item How green is the market? : creating a tool to evaluate the success of the new generation of “green” residential Greenfield development(2006-12) Price, Sarah Tiemann; Butler, Kent S.As the population of the United States continues to grow as projected, it is clear that the need for new homes will grow with it. At the same time, there is increasing dissatisfaction with conventional sprawling suburban development. In response to this dissatisfaction, new types of alternative or “green” Greenfield developments are appearing all over the country. What these developments have in common is that they all strive to be better than conventional suburban development; better places to live that are also better for the environment. This report compiles a database of these different developments and their characteristics. Next, it examines if these “green” residential developments are in fact a success in the marketplace. To do this it looks at conventional and innovative real estate evaluation methods. A new evaluation tool that can be used to evaluate the market acceptance of the new generation of “green” Greenfield development is then proposed. Finally, the need for further study including the creation of an evaluation tool to measure the environmental “success” of these projects is examined.Item Predicting wind driven cross ventilation in buildings with small openings(2012-08) Lo, Liang Chung James; Novoselac, Atila; Siegel, Jeff; Corsi, Richard L.; Ezekoye, Ofodike A.; Banks, DavidDesigning wind driven cross ventilation for a building is challenging due to the dynamic characteristics of wind. While numerous studies have studied various aspects of cross ventilation, few have had an opportunity to examine the topic with a holistic approach utilizing multiple research techniques. Thus, this dissertation combined three different investigation methods: wind tunnel analysis, full scale experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to examine the physics of wind driven cross ventilation. Following the systematic approaches of the three methods, this study first conducted full scale measurements of wind properties, façade pressures, air flow rates through small window openings, and tracer gas concentrations in a multi-zone test house. Secondly, a scaled model of the test house was studied in a boundary layer wind tunnel (BLWT) for its façade pressures and ventilation rate under various wind incident angles. Finally, a CFD model of the test house was simulated under various constraints to determine the factors which affect indoor air distribution during wind driven cross ventilation events. The full scale experimental results showed a strong correlation between the cross ventilation rate and the wind velocity component normal to the inlet openings. This correlation suggested that the cross ventilation flow rate could be estimated from wind conditions alone. A closer examination of the wind characteristics also revealed that the cyclical pattern of changing wind direction could be impacted by obstructions which are kilometers upwind, suggesting that distant landscapes could have an impact on cross ventilation flows. The combination of CFD and full scale measurements also showed that local heat sources can generate significant buoyancy driven flow and affect indoor mixing during wind-driven cross ventilation scenarios. Experimentally validated parametric CFD analyses demonstrated the effect of interior heat loads in driving internal airflow, and suggest that a small source (35W/m2) can increase the indoor mixing from less than 1 ACH to 8 ACH between indoor spaces. Finally, the wind tunnel and CFD coupled analysis was found to predict the cross ventilation flow which was also validated against the full scaled measurements. The prediction, which may only be applicable to similar building types with small openings, showed significant agreement that such method has potential as an innovative design tool for natural ventilation in buildings.Item Thermal mass applications in the hot‐humid region of Austin, TX(2010-12) Kerbacher, Mariel Elizabeth; Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering; Novoselac, Atila; Xu, YingThermal mass can be successfully implemented in the hot‐humid region of Austin, TX especially when well designed and with supplementary aids like nightcooling and day‐lighting. This study shows that in some situations thermal mass can be actually more beneficial at reducing electricity demands in hot‐humid regions than in the hot‐dry regions that are so emphasized in the literature.