by Brianna Crandall — April 3, 2013—A new book from sustainability expert and green building author Jerry Yudelson challenges assumptions about the value of sustainable design and environmentally friendly buildings. According to Yudelson, the hottest topic for architects and developers in the green building industry is, “How well do green buildings actually perform? How do we know that these environmentally friendly designs significantly reduce energy consumption and produce measurably better water conservation?”
In order to find out, Yudelson and co-author Professor Ulf Meyer of Berlin, Germany, compiled what they say is the most extensive research to date on the measurable performance of LEED Platinum or equivalent buildings. “With 55 case studies from 18 countries, we found out what to expect from high-performance green buildings in most of the major climate zones around the world,” said Yudelson.
The World’s Greenest Buildings: Promise vs. Performance in Sustainable Design, from U.K. publisher Routledge, looks at buildings constructed since 2003 that were willing to release a year’s worth of energy use data and, where possible, water use data. In order to be included in this green building book, buildings had to have a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum or equivalent top rating from a national green building rating program, represent a nonresidential type, and be at least 50,000 sq. ft. in size.
“We were aiming at the top-rated green buildings built in the past 10 years,” said Yudelson, “with the goal of giving guidance to future projects in terms of best-practice energy and water performance, but also to refute the claims that green buildings don’t perform. In fact, the average building we profile uses almost two-thirds less energy than the 2003 average of U.S. commercial buildings.”
The book presents 22 projects in North America, 1 in South America, 17 in Europe and 17 in the Asia Pacific region, giving for the first time in print a good look at global sustainable design practices for high-performance commercial buildings. The book also includes chapters on the business case for green building, integrated design process and sustainable urbanism.
A professional engineer, LEED Fellow of the U.S. Green Building Council, chairman of the Greenbuild show for six years, and founder of international sustainability consulting firm Yudelson Associates, Jerry Yudelson is the author of 12 previous green building books presenting design and planning options for increasing sustainability in the built environment. While he advocates for technological solutions, Yudelson also claims, “We must dramatically change our approach to design, construction and operations to meet urgent carbon reduction goals for the built environment.”
