How to Design & Build a Green Office Building : A Complete Guide to Making Your New or Existing Building Environmentally Healthy

As energy costs rise, more and more companies are looking to create green offices buildings ones that use resources efficiently while simultaneously creating healthier working environments.

The energy use statistics are staggering: The heating, cooling, and powering of offices accounts for 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States and are responsible for more than 70 percent of the country s total electricity usage.

Office computers consume $1 billion of electricity annually.

Moreover, recent surveys demonstrate that employees are fed up with their companies energy-wasting ways: One-third of workers are more inclined to work for a company that is going green, and approximately 50 percent want their employers to be more environmentally friendly.

How can you attract workers and reduce your costs at the same time?

By going green, the tips in this book will show you how. You will learn how to protect the building occupants health, how to improve employee productivity, how to use resources more efficiently, how to reduce your impact on the environment, how to select a site for a new building, how to protect and maintain the current landscape, how to use recycled content, how to use natural lighting, how to install high-efficiency lighting systems, how to select heating and cooling systems, how to select materials, and how to use dimensional planning and material efficiency strategies.

You will also learn everything you need to know about water savings, energy efficiency, environmentally-friendly building materials, indoor environmental quality, building shape and orientation, alternative energy sources, dual plumbing, green building guidelines, grey water systems, water-conserving fixtures, the costs and financial benefits of building green, foundations, floors, and roofing.

In addition, this book provides you with thousands of low or no cost ways to make your office more environmentally friendly. Whether you are building a brand new building, remodelling an existing one, or even just looking to make small changes that will have a big impact, you need to read this book.

Employing the techniques in this book will ultimately save you money, increase your productivity, and attract more employees.