‘Green building’ definition

A green building is defined as a structure that is planned and constructed with the main and guiding purpose of sustainability. This concept is meant to be relevant throughout the entire lifecycle of a building, starting with the planning phase and continuing through construction, operation, maintenance and decomposition. The key focus is on the efficient use of resources, particularly in the areas of energy, water and materials. A green building should also reduce, negative consequences on the health and environment. Last but not least, the quality of life for people who live or work in such a building has to be considered.
 
Green building certifications and the advantages
Many owners, developers and architects are seeking to achieve specific green building certifications. These not only allow you to compare assets, but they also enable you to identify improvement potentials and classify buildings in respect to standards, comfort and exclusivity levels. A green building certification increases the value, recognition and quality of a building. It also helps to establish a profitability ranking and influences investment decisions.

The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification is the most established scheme globally. It was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is an evaluation system of sustainable construction and consists of different quality steps (silver, gold, platinum). Behind these steps there is a clear structure of criteria to be followed and evaluated.

Other well-known certification schemes are BREEAM with focus on UK-oriented countries or DGNB for German-speaking countries.



Different green building sustainability assessment and certification schemes LEED, BREEAM, DGNB 1)


Green building and firestop

Can products be certified under LEED? No. LEED applies to green building projects, so only the complete building project can earn LEED credits and be certified. Individual products can contribute to points under the certification system; and these criteria are performance based. In attempting to meet these requirements, LEED practitioners identify products that have the desired attributes. However, some criteria do require specific product data as part of a successful submission.

The use of Hilti products can raise the potential for gaining possible LEED points for your building project.

Here’s a concrete example of how products can contribute in a specific LEED category, “Building reuse: maintain existing walls, floors, and roof”. The reuse of buildings or building parts reduces the environmental impact. Not only can building structures like floors and walls be reused, but so can pipes and cables. In addition, interior elements can be reused, along with pipe and cable penetrations. The question is whether these penetrations need to be rebuilt or whether they could be used again, i.e. can cables be changed or removed without changing the firestop penetrations?

Several Hilti products are designed for reuse. Some cable penetrations do not need to
be replaced and new cables can be run through. Existing cables can also be removed
and the resulting holes could be closed with minimum effort. If we take a closer look
at the Hilti Firestop Speed Sleeve, we see that no waste or dust is generated at all during reinstallation and during re-penetration, nor is there any material waste.


Easy retrofitting with the Hilti Firestop Speed Sleeve

Another example is the criterion “low-emitting materials”. This is designed to reduce the quantity of indoor air contaminants that are odorous, irritating and/or harmful to the comfort and wellbeing of installers and occupants.

Feeling good in our homes or offices isn’t just a matter of having a beautiful space. A
poorly designed indoor environment can potentially make you sick. Building green means
considering not only the environmental impact of materials and construction, but also
the physical and psychological health of the occupants.

The lowest possible levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and noise are key factors in providing maximum comfort for building occupants. Hilti offers VOC certificates for all firestop products.

Many innovative Firestop pre-engineered products pose less harm to human health than wet-applied products..

Finally, for certain firestop products, Hilti offers additional important documents, helping customers meeting their green building requirements. These include:
-       Cradle-to-cradle material health certification
-       Health product declaration
-       LCA – life cycle assessment
-       Environmental product declaration
-       HSE (health, safety, environmental) profiles


Summary

Hilti is aware of customer needs with respect to green building and proactively incorporates green building performance criteria into its most valuable products, helping you to achieve green building standards. Therefore, a wide range of Hilti products provide you with an additional integrated service, giving you useful and convenient assistance in achieving credits for LEED and other green building standards.




LEED, © 2021 U.S. Green Building Council
BREEAM, © Copyright Building Research Establishment Ltd 2021
DGNB, © 2021 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen – DGNB e.V.