The Tiny house Blog

Insights and Tips for Green Building Construction

By
Jason Francis
Designed and built over 100 custom tiny homes, lived on a sailboat for 9 months, and loves to live life to the fullest with his wife and their 4 kids.
Updated on:
June 9, 2023
Man looking at plans

In the construction industry, saving materials and time can lead to higher profitability and satisfaction of not creating unwanted and unnecessary waste. Green design buildings are becoming a standard or priority for the building owners. With sustainable construction know-how, a construction company can expand its reputation and perception for its future green projects. Here is a look at some techniques and tips that significantly impact a sustainable building construction project.



Consider Ways To Achieve LEED Certification


One of the aspects of green buildings is to have LEED certification, also known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. When the building project achieves a LEED certification, the design and construction material used in the building construction attained the standard of a Green Building Design. Every different stage of the evaluation of the whole process has its specific certification. Various construction materials are available to help the construction project achieve green building certification from LEED. And also, integrating some of the building materials certified from LEED, such as Water Resistant General access doors, can significantly help achieve LEED certification.


Ensure That The Building Safety Experts Are Involved Early In The Design Phase


There are many factors and instances in construction projects, most especially for green design building construction. From planning, schematic design, and programming, the involvement of building safety experts is necessary during the stage to achieve green building design.


In building construction, design issues or problems identified at the late stage are expensive for clients and architects. It will generally require a re-work on the project and re-working the building plan design and layout. Early involvement with building safety experts in life safety and fire safety is as easy as conducting several meetings to discuss and examine those existing conditions, remove plans, concerns about separations and occupancy. Fire safety and life safety planning are vital, most especially in green building construction designs.


Choose Green Sustainable Construction Materials

Material selection is vital in green building construction. It is essential to research or speak with the suppliers to figure out their product materials, whether it is an eco-friendly type of material or not. And avoid as much as possible the use of non environmentally friendly construction materials.


Maintain Safety Protocols

Focusing on green design strategies doesn't mean forgetting some basic principles of the process. Setting up BMP or barrier management protocol to have aggressive management of fire and smoke barriers in the building and have standard operating procedure and practice for any person who enters a smoke and fire barrier.

Report deficiencies, penetrations, and quality control must be in documents to prevent undesirable incidents in the building.

Promote Accountability

Keeping integrity in a green construction project site means many moving parts, equipment and tools will have to work together. And all the people on the project site must follow guidelines and do their responsibility not to put their safety and the company's safety, or not to take shortcuts of the work that might compromise and affect the building's sustainability. It is where accountability becomes a vital factor. Conducting a standard inspection in every stage or progress of the construction process is one way of promoting accountability.

Ensure Proper Disposal of Waste Materials

Construction projects typically generate a lot of material waste on-site. Ensuring proper segregation disposal in the project is a must and not tossing everything into a giant trash bin then hauled it away for disposal. Generally, there are many waste materials in construction sites that can still be reused or recycled. Working with waste services that prioritize sustainability is one of the best ways of ensuring proper waste materials disposal.


Properly Maintain Your Equipment

Managing all equipment in a construction site can be overwhelming but is very important. A typical construction worksite will keep all the equipment running even if it is not necessary. However, green construction sites are required to reduce the energy consumption to lessen the carbon footprint and manage equipment usage, for instance, to shut it down if that task doesn't need it. Equipment in construction sites must not run at all times if not necessary.


Green building construction requires focusing on small details on how the construction and the building structure will impact our environment locally and globally. If you waste green construction materials, it requires additional energy production elsewhere. Reducing the energy consumption during the construction of green buildings has a significant impact on its perception both in the constructor and the building itself. Make sure your next construction project follows these green building tips!



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