Sustainable design encompasses more than just environmental and social impacts. Despite often being perceived as costly upfront, it ultimately proves cost-efficient in the long run. True sustainability integrates economic feasibility, environmental mitigation, and social responsibility as its core criteria. While conventional approaches may initially appear cheaper, sustainable methods demonstrate and retain their value after occupancy begins, resulting in greater long-term savings compared to traditional methods. Therefore, how exactly does sustainable design enhance financial viability, and where do these benefits emerge?
To grasp the economic impact of sustainable design, we must look at the entire building lifecycle—from initial design and construction through its use, maintenance, and eventual transformation, demolition, or recycling. While significant investments are made early on, the majority of costs occur during the building's operational lifetime. This includes ongoing expenses for water and energy use, as well as maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. Typically, these ongoing costs make up 60% to 80% of total expenditures over the building's lifespan.
Hence, it is necessary to assess the costs of a building across all stages of the project from design and construction to operations and maintenance, and end-of-life, while analyzing design methods and systems that best align with budget considerations.
Some of these strategies include:
Energy: Optimizing energy use can reduce energy costs by 25% to 50%. This can be achieved through strategies such as designing well-insulated buildings, using high albedo roofs, implementing shading or thermal mass techniques, installing smart HVAC systems, and incorporating renewable energy systems.
Water: Reducing potable water usage can save between 20% to 40%. This can be accomplished by installing water-saving fixtures like low-flow faucets and waterless urinals and employing smart irrigation systems such as drip irrigation. Landscaping techniques like xeriscaping and choosing adaptive plants also help to reduce water demand and maintenance costs.
Materials: Depending on the project location, exploring incentives for implementing sustainable construction practices may be beneficial. Projects can benefit financially by exchanging waste materials during construction and utilizing recycled materials or reusing content, thereby cutting overall construction costs.
Real Estate: Integrating sustainability elements into a building can increase its asset value in the market by about 7 to 18%. This is due to growing interest from various industries in sustainable practices and performance.
Health: Although medical expenses are not directly tied to green building designs, the positive effects of a quality indoor environment are evidenced by reductions in respiratory illnesses, stress levels, and productivity increases.
To harness the benefits of sustainable design, creative thinking must extend beyond the building's form to encompass the systems that support its operations. Designers can conduct comprehensive analyses across all project phases, comparing the impacts and costs of alternative designs and systems against conventional approaches. This sustainable design method ensures that decisions align with the economic, environmental, and social goals of the project throughout the building's lifecycle.
Written by Josebet Luna
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