Architects are working hard to teach us how to save the world by designing our houses to be more sustainable and more environmentally friendly. The homeowner of this type of house will ultimately be rewarded for contributing in a positive way to the environment. For this reason, architects founded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design in 1993 known as LEED Certification. LEED certification is the most desired green certification worldwide, because LEED means healthier and more productive building places. The Certificates come in silver, gold and platinum. LEED buildings are designed to maximize energy, limit water usage and minimize waste by using a high performing structural design. This means that, all the materials used for construction follows regulations to control waste and use renewable materials. According to the Selina Holmes “Construction and demolition waste constitutes about 40 percent of the total solid waste stream in the United States and about 25 percent of the total waste stream in the European Union. In aggregate, LEED projects are responsible for diverting more than 80 million tons of waste from landfills, and this volume is expected to grow to 540 million tons by 2030.”(Par 2). Also, all the materials should provide a list of life cycle assessments and environmental product declarations. This will improve the environment for the occupants of the buildings.
One day if we work together, we can help improve our quality of life by reducing the energy we use and learning how to take full advantage of cherished resources like water. Besides having a “Green” house which will, in the long run save money, we are going to acquire a modern house with a lasting and sustainable architectural design. I believe this will be very appealing to most of us. Do any of you imagine how the future is going to be? Luckily, thanks to movies and tv shows we all are being exposed to the expectations of how our future is going to be and we are not far from it. Even more importantly LEED Houses are going to be part of this future and you can be part of it too .
