The overall interest in green building technology has increased tremendously in recent years. This is fueled by increased availability of applications and technologies for building operations. As the years go by, people are getting more aware of the need to carry out construction work with eco-friendly materials and designing buildings that are more in tune with the conservation of the ecosystem. There are recent trends that have affected heavily on people’s choice of eco-friendly building construction. This article is going o examine the top 10 mega trends that will have the most impact on the future of green building technology.
1. Water Conservation
General regional droughts and climate change has greatly increased the need for the conservation of water. This is why most construction works now focus on the proper conservation of water and recycling possibilities to keep sewage waste at its barest least. In the near future, more people will be made aware on the most ideal way to change buildings to effectively conserve water. Some of these water conservation methods include designing a landscape that will not need watering, making use of appliances with low water pressure rate, and installation of mechanisms which repurposes used water.
2. Energy Efficiency
This has been one of the main focal points for builders because it has a great impact on contractor’s profitability, public concern, as well as on the environment. These days, buildings are being designed in a way to consume less energy by making use of power saving mechanisms such as solar system. Investment in solar system is expected to triple in the next 2 years, and most commercial builders are now incorporating solar into their power generating grid.
3. BIM Technology
This plans more energy efficient mechanisms and work with everyone to design the most efficient model possible. With this technology, contractors will be able to anticipate and solve any problems that may be encountered, which will definitely save you from wasting time and resources.
4. Cloud Computing
Cloud computing has been around for a while now. But business owners can now take advantage of this technological trend in order to save 40%-80% of energy. Cloud computing has been employed in several commercial facilities, and its installation is already yielding dividends in terms of conservation of energy.
5. Increased level of competition for green building rating systems
Competition will be fiercer for green building rating in the near future than what is seen presently. DREAM international, Green Globes, and LEED will compete comparatively for rating systems. Already, LEED is seeing heightened competition from Green Globes in terms of new construction ratings.
6. Increased rate of Zero-net-energy buildings
This trend is increasingly taking over the building marketplace. There are more Zero energy utilization buildings today. A survey by NBI (New Building Institute) indicates that this trend is likely going to increase tremendously in the nearest future. Presently, developers of commercial buildings are trying to differentiate their brands by showcasing ZNE designs.
7. Existing buildings taking more spotlights
After the end of the global economic crises in 2010, the green building industry started switching from accessing new buildings to evaluating existing ones. It is expected that this trend is not going to slow down anytime soon.
8. Disclosure
Building performance disclosure will be demanded by the government. The main aim of this trend is to easily monitor the cut-back on carbon emissions from government and commercial owned buildings. This will definitely influence building owners to invest more on energy efficient renovations and retrofits.
9. Increased debate on healthy materials
In recent times, there have been increased discussions over the state of building products as it concerns its impact on the environment. There are some “red listed” chemicals and materials of concern that building designers have been asked to avoid during construction. This list will definitely increase and designers will need to be very selective when choosing which materials have been certified healthy.
10. Green building certification growth rate is declining
Green building will continue to gain increased popularity, but it seems certification for green building is declining. This trend is surely going to keep declining in the near future, and surely, it will have implications for both build environment sustainability as well as for certification organization.
The above are the 10 mega trends that are impacting the future of green building technology. But it’s worth mentioning that the most critical of these trends are energy efficiency (solar power), water conservation, and cloud computing. These may form the basis for building certification systems and ratings in the future.
