Doing Well by Doing Good? Research Paper Example

Abstract

The suitable ranges of the temperature or the localized controls are a big plus to the workers, and the research does put its support on the notion of the grater productivity from all of the improvements. The issue of the sick building syndrome should be a by gone, but it is experienced until now. The energy star buildings are also not healthier but in some cases they appear to be healthier and recently a finding should be done on the LEED buildings that tend to safer and better environments. But still there is some of the evidence that there is an economic pay off to all the tenants that mostly pay attention towards the quality of space. The tenants should pay an additional rent for the healthier and more productive spaces or they must have a right of being given a discount to the spaces that are less healthy. We also have the cases of the rent differentials, even though the tenants do not admit to be willing to pay the additional rent, whereby we see the economic support for a differential that will preserve until all the buildings develop their environmental workspace quality (Sayce, 2007).

Introduction

Green Buildings and LEED Certification

Green building is the construction of structures and using the procedures that are friendly to the environment throughout the life cycle of the building. The life cycle may include the design, renovation, deconstruction, maintenance and operation. The procedure harmonizes and expands the design of a classical building in regard of the economy, comfort, durability and the utility as well. On other hand there are a number of the new technologies that are developed to work hand in hand with the current practices to create the green structures (Sayce, 2007). But the in the real sense the green buildings are to reduce the general impact that is faced by the built environment in regards to the health of a human and the natural environment. This happens through:

• Resourcefully Using energy, water and other resources.
• Improving the productivity of employee as well as protecting the health of an occupant.
• Environmental degradation, waste reduction and pollution.

The action of the green building is to reduce the buildings environmental impact since they do consider for a large amount of the land use, water consumption, and alteration of atmosphere, air and energy. According to the statistics of the EPA, the reduction of the amount of natural resources that are being consumed by the buildings and the pollution given out is considered to be critical for the sustainability of the future. This is because of the overestimation of the green building and underestimation of the environmental impact of the building. In the recent years, the figure shows that the overestimation is almost 300%.

There are examples of advantages towards building green. The benefits comprises of the social environmental and the economic. Furthermore, the current initiatives of sustainability are calling after a synergistic and an integrated design to all the new retrofitting and the construction of an existing structure (Building Design and Construction, 2006). The approach integrates the life cycle of the building with the green practice that is employed with a purpose of a design that creates a synergy between the practices used. Green building joins together a number of techniques and practices to reduce and mostly to eliminate the impacts of the buildings towards the human and environment health. It always stresses on taking the advantage of the renewable resources that are always hazardous to the environment. To put it clear, the hazardous waste is type of the waste that holds potential or significant threats to the health of the public or the entire environment. The type of waste can be reactive, toxic, corrosive and flammable. But according to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, based in the United States of America, states that the hazardous waste is sometimes known as the solid waste that has the ability to increase the death rate or a waste that can lead in a serious illness that is irreversible, and a waste that contains a substantial danger to the health of a human or the environment when it is not disposed, properly treated, transported or stored in good condition.  The waste may be in form of a gas, a solid or a liquid. Additionally, the waste can be regarded as a special kind of waste since it cannot be disposed using any other common means just like other our everyday lives by-products. The treatment of the waste might be available depending on the physical of the waste. But in other cases there is nothing much that can be done to prevent the harm caused by the waste. The hazardous waste is ignitable or flammable. This is a type of waste that is capable of catching fire at any given time. The examples of such waste are the waste oil and any used solvent. To identify that the waste is flammable, we can therefore try it with a test method known as the Seta flash Closed-cup Method for Determining the Ignitability (Building Design and Construction, 2006). The hazardous waste is corrosive. This means that it can be either a base or an acid. When the Ph of a waste is less than or equals to 2, then it is an acid and when the pH is greater than or equals to 12.5 that that is automatic a base. These types of waste have the capability of causing corrosion on the metal containers, which includes the barrels, storage tanks and the drums. To identify this, we can use the test of Corrosively towards Steel. The hazardous waste is reactive or a waste that is not stable under the normal conditions. Therefore they can lead to explosions, dangerous gases, the fumes that are toxic or vapor when compression or heating has taken place. The examples of such wastes include the explosives and lithium-sulfur batteries and explosives. The hazardous waste is toxic. This is a kind of waste that is concentrated with some dangerous substances that is more than the regulatory threshold that are considered to result into cases of illness or injury to the health a human as well as the environment. Some of the waste comes from the household and they are known as the Household Hazardous Waste.

These are the hazardous waste that comes from our residential places or houses. These kinds of wastes may include the paints, oil from the motor vehicles, insecticides, electronics, the propane cylinders and among others like the cleaning agents and the radioactive waste. Other waste comes from our companies and big industries. Such waste may include some of the dangerous and toxic chemicals. The plastic bags are also some of the waste that comes as a result of industrial waste. The waste can be recycled and transformed into new products that are safe to the environment as well as the human nature. For instance the heavy metals from the lead-acid batteries can be recovered and used in the new products. Another good example is the ash that comes from the coal-fired plants (McAllister, 2008). They come out as fly and bottom ash. The fly ash is usually removed by the pollution control devices because of its low density. As a result, the bottom ash remains at the bottom of the combustion chambers. Later the ash is used as pavement fillings after it has undergone through a proper treatment. Such action reduces the level of harmful chemicals, while recycling the safe p-products which are friendly to the environment. The cement based stabilization and solidification is frequently used for the treatment of the hazardous waste. Cement is capable of treating a range of the hazardous wastes by lowering the toxicity and as well as the contaminants transmission. By this chance, it therefore improves the physical characteristics. Some of the hazardous waste can be neutralized so that the elimination of the hazardous component of the waste can take place. The example might include the neutralization of a corrosive acid together with a basic substance so that it is not corrosive any more. The hazardous waste can be destroyed through incinerating it to a high temperature or burning the flammable waste to produce energy. We should note that the incineration treatments generate energy throughout the process of released gases besides reducing the amount of the hazardous waste. Other hazardous waste can be eliminated by using pyrolisis within the high temperature electrical arc which may be in inert conditions that avoids combustion. The type of treatment may be advantageous to the high temperature incineration within some situations like the destruction of the organic waste that are concentrated. These may include the pesticides and any other organic pollutants. Other might include the use of the active and passive solar, together with the photovoltaic techniques as well as the trees and the plants through the rain gardens and green roofs not forgetting the reduction of the rain water runoff. There are other techniques that can be used like the use of the packed gravel instead of using the conventional concrete to enhance the replacement of the ground water. On the side of the green architecture, it comprises of designing a building that is in agreement with the natural resources and features that are surrounding the site. The green building includes the tendency of reducing the use of energy.  To have the good look of the building envelope, a constructor may as well use the high efficiency window together with putting the insulations on the walls, floors and the ceilings. The designers format the windows and the walls with awnings, trees and the porches to shade the building when it comes to the summer season and maximizing the solar energy when it comes to the winter period. To add on top, the effective window placement can result to a more natural light and put the need of the electric lighting to lessen during the day time.

The energy loads is further reduced by the solar water heating. Considering the renewable energy by the hydropower, solar power, biomass or the wind power can considerably lower the environmental impact of the building, knowing in mind that the most expensive element to put in a building is the power generation. Reducing the consumption of water and protecting the quality of water are the main objectives in a sustainable building. But the main crucial issue of the consumption of water is that in some areas within a country the supplying demands aquifer goes beyond its capability to refill itself. To the maximum amount possible, the facilities must raise their dependence on the water that is collected, purified, used and reduced on-site. The conservation and the protection of the water throughout the life of the building are considered by the designing for the dual plumbing that will continue to recycle water in the toilet flushing. The waste water may be reduced through utilizing the water conserving fixtures like the ultra low flushing toilets and the low flow shower heads. The building materials that are considered to becoming green may include the rapidly plant materials that, are renewable. Such plants include the bamboo and the straw from the forest that is certified to be sustainably administered. The LEED certification was formed to offer the comfort, productivity and the well-being of the occupants. It is concerned with addressing the construction and the design guidelines mostly the quality of the indoor air, thermal and the lightening. The green architecture also needs to lower the water, materials and energy that are mostly wasted during the period of construction. For instance, the waste from the State of California comes from the commercial building.

This is why during construction period the main theme should be to reduce the amount of the resources going landfills. This can as well be achieved through designing our buildings well. On the other hand, to reduce the impact on the water treatment plants, there are several options that exist. The waste water from the machine washing can be used for the purpose of the subsurface irrigation or for the non potable purposes if treated like flushing of the toilets. The most criticized issue regarding the construction of the buildings that are friendly to the environment is the price. Most of the green buildings cost a premium of less than 2% of the modern technologies and emits 10 times as much over the whole life cycle of the building. The stigma is just within the knowledge of the up-front and the life cycle cost.

Workers’ Productivity Gains from Technology or Economic Pressures

What may be taking place is that as the economy is weakening, the business is forced to put its employees to work smatter and more proficient. In other words, it means that the firms that are highly profitable or the economies consider more goofing off.

The entire White Collar Productivity Index is as follows and it has been expressed in hours per week and per person.

Research

The research  suggests that the buildings which are new mostly result in the sickness-inducing the environments as the pollutants comes out from the concrete, carpets, paints and are constructed without the regard to the chemical compound release. This is not common to the recently occupied buildings that are not meeting the standards of the LEED resulting in an increase the SBS, where the tenants reports higher levels of illness. The energy star-labeled do not essentially contain healthier environments, but we instead assume that they associate with healthier buildings.

Hypothesis

The Green Buildings or the LEED-certified ensures more productive and secure environments for the employees than the non-green buildings.

Methodology

I used the two measurements regarding the productivity. These were the sick days and the self-reported percentage change of the productivity immediately after shifting to the new building. I admitted that this case is the first one to be done, but the data set is much greater than the one collected from the LEED certified buildings.

Data Results

Among the 154 buildings that comprised of the 2,000 tenants that were considered green the LEED certification. Only 534 tenants responded. The 44% of the buildings were located at the central business district while the remaining 56% were found at the suburban areas. The 94% of the building comprised of the multi tenants. According to the findings, 12% said strongly that employees are more productive. The 45% agreed that employees are productive, while 45% suggested that they could not see any of the changes. If we consider only the tenants who claimed a efficiency increase we examine the economic impact based on the salaries that come close to cost of the rent using a very conventional square feet per assumption of the worker. The results on the LEED were better at 5.24% that made an increase to the productivity, but here we used the whole sample. But in future there is hope to have better results on the environmental dimensions with regards to the LEED building (Quigley, 2008).

I made a repeat on the analysis with the average sick day declines with an exclusion of the 10%that claimed the sick days increase, I got a nearly $5 PSF in an economic impact. It must be understandable that the highly rated buildings should show less sick days with better light, less contaminated air and the ventilations.

Conclusion

In the today’s society, the tenants tend to be pleased with to kinds of spaces. These include the cheap or the highly qualified space. But those who land on the middle space may be could have occupied the space for a long time or they have put a greater weight the other features and the location (Quigley, 2008). The good spaces are not necessarily new. This is because even some of the buildings are mostly unhealthy as the chemicals come out into the air from the glues, concrete, paint and the carpets. There is no option but mostly this is the case. Those buildings that increase the productivity and reduce the time sick are always healthier ones. The procedures needed to offer a healthier building are not much of a design engineering challenge. But mostly the insignificant of the organic compounds and the good ventilation provides the healthier and happier workers.

Works Cited

Quigley, John. Doing Well By Doing Good? Green Office Buildings. Working Paper, Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, UC Berkeley, April, 2008.

Sayce Ellison. “Socially Responsible Property Investment: Quantifying the Relationship between Sustainability and Investment Property Worth,” Journal of Property Research, 2007, 24, 3, 191-219.

McAllister Patrick. Pricing Sustainability: An Empirical Investigation of the Value Impacts of Green Building Certification. Working paper presented at ARES, April, 2008.

Building Design and Construction. Green Review.  November 2006 white paper.

Jerry Jackson. Increasing Commercial Real Estate Returns with Energy Risk Management. Working paper presented at ARES, April, 2008.