Green Buildings

The Green Building, Manchester, England

 Green building, Ireland

 The David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh is the first building of its kind to be certified as a green building.

Introduction

"What is a green building?" by Paul Ziegler is an excellent overview of the topic.

Next, visit the Green Building Alliance (GBA) homepage.  The GBA is located in Pittsburgh and is one of the leading promoters of green building in the world. For your information, Eamon Geary, the website owner is an Allegheny grad, '06.

a. Tour some of the buildings on their website to see how many ways you can make a building green.

b. Read their information on Green Building Basics to deepen your understanding.

A company called Capital E has produced a report called The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings. When you read the report think very hard about how well the data from their study of California buildings will apply to northwest Pennsylvania.  Look over their Power Point and note how much of their savings from a Green Building investment comes from increases in Productivity and Health. 

*Would that convince you to invest the additional premium? 

Finally, it's not just the inside of the building that counts. Here's a website that describes how to surround a building with green infrastructure.

Take a few minutes and play some games with their green infrastructure calculator. Do you really think you can save that much money over the life of the investment?

Additional Cool Websites

Check out the green features of Allegheny's North Village. This document was prepared by juniors in the environmental science department.

About halfway down this website, originally developed for an ES Junior Seminar, there are some links to green dormitories at other colleges. They might give you an indication of what is being developed for North Village.

Prepared by Eric Pallant and Terry Bensel 12/05. Updated by Eric Pallant 10/06.