LEED CoreConcepts&Strategies_3rd edition - Page 026
Extracted Content
Green building will change the way you think. Buildings that seem
to be individual, static objects will reveal themselves as fluid parts
of an environmental system that changes over time. Professionals
who appeared only distantly related will become partners in a
dynamic process that incoporates perspectives from different fields.
No problem can be solved from the same
level of consciousness that created it.
Albert Einstein
This section reviews three major concepts that are integral to green building and sustainability: systems thinking, life-cycle thinking, and integrative processes. In systems thinking, the built environment is understood as a series of relationships in which each part affects many other parts. Systems include materials, resources, energy, people, and information, as well as the complex interactions and flows between these elements across space and through time. Green building also requires taking a life-cycle approach, looking at all stages of a project, product, or service. It requires asking, where do building materials and resources come from? Where will they go once their useful life ends? What effects do they have on the world along the way? Questions such as these encourage practitioners to ensure that buildings are adaptable and resilient and perform as expected while minimizing harmful consequences. Finally, to achieve results that are based on whole systems across their entire life-cycle, building professionals must adopt an integrative process. This approach emphasizes connections and communication among professionals and stakeholders throughout the life of a project. It breaks down disciplinary boundaries and rejects linear planning and design processes that can lead to inefficient solutions. Although the term “integrative design” is most often applied to new construction or renovations, an integrative process is applicable to any phase in the life-cycle of a building.
In green building, solutions are examined through different perspectives, scales, and levels of detail, and then refined. The lens of each discipline involved in a project contributes to an overall view that leads to more effective designs. For example, sustainable neighborhood design strategies might be analyzed by land-use planners, traffic engineers, civil engineers, infrastructure designers, public health experts, and developers. The more each team member understands the perspectives and strategies of the others, the more integrated the design. The iterative pattern of an integrative process can be used throughout the project as details come into focus. Far from being time consuming, the process can actually save time by encouraging communication up front and bringing people together for highly productive collaborative work sessions.
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