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Green Building Consultant
John Herbert
Director
John Herbert BEAM Professional
The future environmental impact of today’s products, services
and infrastructure is largely determined at the design stage.
Design decisions shape the project building, its material, energy required to
make them, the ways we operate them, and what happens when we
no longer need them. Design has an enormous impact on
resource efficiency, and it critical contribution in the continuing
transition towards sustainability.
We are faced with increased energy and environmental regulations, a
financial crisis, and pressure for change from customers and the
general public - building owners have found sustainable building
benefits their business.
Don't be mislead by the hype, building green does not mean sacrifice, it
means building smarter, it means lowering the TCO (Total Cost of
Ownership) whilst minimising the impact upon the climate and environment.
John Herbert is senior member of Hong Kong BEAM (Hong Kong's Building
Environmental Assessment Method) and Hong Kong Green Building
Council.
Sustainability
No matter how hard we try to ignore it, nobody can escape
the damage human activity has caused to our environment.
Everyday a new story of disaster unfolds - building
sustainable means tackling the challenges head on today!
Indeed because of the increased awareness and continuing
spread of green building, there may come a time, when
green building is the norm.
Sustainable Development, and therefore green building
relies upon three principles, Social, Economic and Environment, and planned
developments need to weigh each factor equally. Very often literature
and media will cite the need for balance, this is plainly incorrect, if we
are to succeed with social needs, economic needs cannot out weigh
environmental needs.
Like it or not, sustainability and energy are two sides
of the same coin, energy knowledge is vital to solve the
sustainability crisis.
Milestones
During the process of design critical decisions that impact
the operation of buildings for their entire lifespan are often made
very
early in design, and often long before the end user, owner
or operator are known. It is important to understand, and
appreciate this subtlety because retrofitting an existing occupied
building is challenging, so much so that upgrades are never carried
out.
Consider a conservative estimate of a building
with a 30 year lifespan, the construction cost is
only 2% of the total cost of ownership and it becomes
apparent that those initial decisions are important
milestones.
Our director John Herbert is a BEAM PRO and earn one credit
point under BEAM PLUS assessment ....call us today!