Building construction, development, refitting and renovation all impact directly and indirectly on the environment. The fact that any working space demands resources such as energy, water and raw materials means that it is inevitably the source of potentially damaging emissions as a consequence of waste in occupancy, during construction and eventually in demolition. No building is ever truly environmentally neutral.

In the USA for example buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of total energy use including 60% of electricity use.  40% of CO2 emissions are attributable to buildings whilst nearly two thirds of non-industrial waste is generated by construction and demolition.

The challenge for us all, whether we are a building owner, an architect, builder, planner or just a building user is to do what we can to contribute our best efforts to minimize the negative impact of our environment on THE environment. It’s also important that buildings, as well as being Green are also useful, accessible, safe, productive and pleasant for those who have to life and work in them.

At long last the new challenges are starting to be taken extremely seriously. Gordon Brown in a recent announcement to establish a £1 billion green innovation fund intended to develop Britain’s green economy stated, ‘We are already global leaders in wind power, green cars, clean coal and carbon capture. And now we will lead again, with new designated low-carbon zones around the regions of this country. And I say to you today – we will create over a quarter of a million new green British jobs.’ A large part of that Green Future that Brown talks about will be based on building sustainability.

In certain respects the future is already here as even today though there are plenty of products on the market that can contribute extremely positively to a building’s sustainability. There are a wide range of tools available to enable the monitoring and control of energy for example absence detection or balance of brightness systems – products that maximize efficiency, minimize waste, intelligently study power usage and act accordingly. Rather than waiting for new innovations, take a look around and see what’s available on the market to help you start saving cash and emissions straight away.

Tagged: Intelligent Power, monitor support, Power Distribution, Power Leads, Power Management