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Green building results in structures that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout their lifecycle – from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. A 2009 report by the U.S. General Services Administration evaluated 12 sustainably designed GSA buildings, and found they cost less to operate and have excellent energy performance. In addition, occupants were more satisfied with the overall building than those in typical commercial buildings. Wood products from responsible sources are a good choice for most green building projects – both new construction and renovations. Wood grows naturally using energy from the sun, is renewable, sustainable and recyclable. It is an effective insulator and uses far less energy to produce than concrete or steel.〔(WoodWorks Sustainable Design )〕 Wood can also mitigate climate change because wood products continue to store carbon absorbed by the tree during its growing cycle, and because substituting wood for fossil fuel-intensive materials such as steel and concrete result in ‘avoided’ greenhouse gas emissions. Wood’s natural beauty and warmth have been shown to generate improved productivity and performance in schools, offices and better patient outcomes in hospitals. ==Life cycle assessment== A life cycle assessment can help avoid a narrow outlook on environmental, social and economic concerns by assessing each and every impact associated with all the stages of a process from cradle-to-grave (i.e., from raw materials through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling). A comprehensive review of scientific literature from Europe, North America and Australia pertaining to life cycle assessment of wood products concluded, among other things, that: * Fossil fuel consumption, the potential contributions to the greenhouse effect and the quantities of solid waste tend to be minor for wood products compared to competing products. * Wood products that have been installed and are used in an appropriate way tend to have a favourable environmental profile compared to functionally equivalent products out of other materials. A study by the Canadian Wood Council compared the life cycle impacts of three homes designed primarily in wood, steel and concrete over the first 20 years of their lifespans. Relative to the wood design, the steel and concrete designs released more air pollution, produced more solid wastes, used more resources, required more energy, emitted more greenhouse gases and discharged more water pollution.〔(Canadian Wood Council )〕 When the complete life cycle is considered, including use and disposal, the great majority of the studies indicate that wood products have lower greenhouse gas emissions. In the few cases where wood products cause greater greenhouse gas emissions than their non-wood counterparts, the cause was inappropriate post-use disposal. Tools are available that enable architects to judge the relative environmental merits of building materials. They include the ATHENA Impact Estimator for Buildings, which is capable of modeling 95% of the building stock in North America, and the ATHENA® EcoCalculator for Assemblies〔(ATHENA Institute EcoCalculator for Assemblies )〕 provides instant life cycle assessment results for common assemblies based on detailed assessments previously conducted using the Estimator. The EcoCalculator is available free from the non-profit (Athena Sustainable Materials Institute ) in order to encourage greater use of LCA by design and building professionals. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Green building and wood」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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