Serving Health As Well As Economic Benefits, Green Buildings Are The Future of Living Spaces
Sourced from News 18
The biggest transformation in human evolution took place when the human being started a settled life from a nomadic life. The time since the human being started permanent dwelling, he has always sought a place that may save him from the vagaries of extreme weathers; give him physical security and a comfortable and healthy place where he can grow his family. For this, he has started using more or less a permanent structure with roof and walls which is generically called a ‘building’ and is various names like home, house, workplace, residence, and so on. It is here that he lives most of his life.
As per one study, an individual spends 76% of the time of their life in their residential building (home)! So, it is all the more important that the space where one spends most of their time should be having a positive impact on their health, comfort and the planet which is the home of all human beings. A building is not merely a material-physical structure, but it is an ‘environment’ for the inhabitants residing in it. Any building has three components- a structure, an infrastructure, and ‘an environment’. Both the structure and environment shape each other and its dwellers.
A Green Building is an environmentally-conscious and environmentally sustainable structure throughout its life cycle. When we make any concrete building, the space used by that building is permanently lost from the natural environment. Green Building is reclaiming the lost environment by use of environmentally positive steps. It minimizes environmental costs both at the local level and in absolute terms. As per ancient Indian wisdom, everything in the universe, be it a living or non-living thing, is made up of five basic elements in different proportions. These five elements are water, fire, space, earth and air. Even in making a building, we have to have all these five components in different proportions. The excess use of these components is a threat to the ecology and to the environment. Balanced and proper use of these 5 components is very helpful in making a particular building a green building.