Sustainability Management: Concept Of Green Building

Introduction:

Sustainable facility management referred to the process of integration of the people, place and the business of any organization in certain way that is capable of optimizing the economical, social and environmental benefits of the sustainability (Starik & Kanashiro, 2013). The facility in the management of the sustainability is one of the major and vital of the overall process of the organization towards the maintenance of the sustainability of the same (Hörisch, Freeman & Schaltegger, 2014). One of the major cost and energy consuming part of the organization is the building from which all the business operations are taken care of. The construction and the business operation of the firm consume energies and produce waste in a broader way. The following report presents the overall concept of the green building and the recommended implementation of the same in the organizations. 

Concept of Green Building:

The conception of the “Green Building” is related to the impact of the organizational activities on the environment. The concept came to exist in the society after the great and deep impact of the organizational or rather the industrial activities for which the environment has been affected (Pérez?López, Moreno?Romero & Barkemeyer, 2015). The green building entails the practice of the creation of the structure and usage of the process that provides the resource efficient and environmentally responsible design, construction, maintenance, operation and renovation of the buildings (Ragheb, El-Shimy & Ragheb, 2016). In other words, the green building conceptualizes the building projects that allow the sufficient amount of natural environment around the building. The green building and promotes environmental as well as the health benefits to the society (Kibert, 2016). The green building involves preservation of the water, land, resource and energy that is used by the buildings for its daily operations or activities. Apart from the preservation of the resources and energy, the impact of the green building on the environment proposes the overall improvement and benefits of the human health and preservation of the environment. The green building has been implemented by most of the organization as one of the aspect of the effective sustainable management for the same. In fact the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) by the US Green Building Council is rating system that evaluates the environmental performance of e green buildings and encourages all the other organization towards the transformation into the sustainable design (Dobiáš & Macek, 2014). The fine and the best example of the green building is the Empire State Building (ESB) refers to the necessity and the importance of the transformation of the buildings into the sustainable design of green building in order to preserve the environment and improve the human health.

Recommended Implementation:

The retrofit project of the green buildings can be the probable and effective recommendation for other buildings that are in the way of transforming the construction and design into the sustainable one. The retrofit project refers to the reconstruction or refurbishment or transformation of the structure of the building with the replacement of the old equipments and inclusion of the new energy saving equipments. There are several retrofit projects by some of the famous buildings. These global examples of the retrofit of the green buildings can be helpful for the companies who are desired for the transformations of their buildings.

 As stated in the previous passage the ESB is the finest example of the retrofit project of the green buildings (rmi.org, 2017). The project follows some steps that include the assessing of the financial ability of the company, planning the process, budgeting, designing the process and implementing the same. The same retrofit project can be implemented for any organization’s building that has the similar construction as the ESB. The project plan involves the engagement of the stakeholders and identification of the technical potential in order to the implement the retrofit plan within the building. The estimated cost for the project is $5 million that includes the renovation of the windows, green roof for lowering the cooling demand in the building, more open areas, in build garden for each floor and others. However, the estimated cost is calculated as per the size of the building and the process. The approximated reduction in the saved energy will be 305 as per the planning of the implementation of the retrofit design.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarter is another retrofit project that can be implemented in any medium organization building. The energy bill of the organization indicates the effectiveness of the project by saving between $2 million and $2.5 million per year (www.imf.org, 2017). Therefore, this retrofit will be effective for the medium sized organization. The project include the replacement of the fire and life safety, air conditioning, lighting, building controls, boilers, domestic water pumps and other energy consuming instruments and machines. The organization having the potential and the financial status similar to the IMF can take idea from the retrofit project of the same. The budget for the retrofit project has been approximated as $30 million which include the entire planning and architecture of the retrofit project as well as the implementation of the same. The approximated saving of the energy will be 43% as per the budget and the implementation of the project.

Conclusion:

It can be concluded from the above discourse that the green building is one of the major and most needed process for the preservation of the environment, which the sustainable management team of the organizations must consider. The concept of the green buildings makes it evident that this is the most effective and successful way for the preservation of the industrial energy as well as the management of the industrial waste. Therefore, the recommendation of the “green building” has been implemented by the organizations now days. The retrofit example of the ESB and IMF building shows the effectiveness of the project for the transformation into the green design to the organizations intended to transform their building structure. The approximate budget and the percentage for the retrofit projects given in the report will be helpful for such organization.

Reference:

Dobiáš, J., & Macek, D. (2014). Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and its impact on building operational expenditures. Procedia Engineering, 85, 132-139.

Hörisch, J., Freeman, R. E., & Schaltegger, S. (2014). Applying stakeholder theory in sustainability management: Links, similarities, dissimilarities, and a conceptual framework. Organization & Environment, 27(4), 328-346.

Kibert, C. J. (2016). Sustainable construction: green building design and delivery. John Wiley & Sons.

Pérez?López, D., Moreno?Romero, A., & Barkemeyer, R. (2015). Exploring the relationship between sustainability reporting and sustainability management practices. Business Strategy and the Environment, 24(8), 720-734.

Ragheb, A., El-Shimy, H., & Ragheb, G. (2016). Green architecture: a concept of sustainability. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 216, 778-787.

rmi.org ., (2017). Retrieved 15 October 2017, from https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Buildings_Retrofit_EmpireStateBuilding_CaseStudy_2009.pdf

Starik, M., & Kanashiro, P. (2013). Toward a theory of sustainability management: Uncovering and integrating the nearly obvious. Organization & Environment, 26(1), 7-30.

www.imf.org., (2017). Retrieved 15 October 2017, from https://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/pdf/hq1ren.pdf