Author : Karrar Raoof Kareem and R.K. Pandey

Sustainable construction is the need of the hour to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of the construction industry. While at the macro level initiatives like the Kyoto Protocol and EIA are being taken, at the building level the same is being propagated is Green buildings. Green buildings promote ecologically sensitive construction bringing environmental benefits, health benefits, energy and water savings to its owners, occupants and society. However, they are not looked as successful enough profit making ventures. This research looks at the cost effectiveness of Green buildings by classifying benefits into direct savings and indirect savings category. Three case studies of platinum rated Green buildings are analysed for the same with life cycle costing procedures. Finally a model building base case is created on the computer, simulated before and after applying energy conservation measures incrementally and then checked for cost effectiveness and sorted in order of profitability.

Keywords: Sustainable construction, Kyoto Protocol, Cost effectiveness

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.3,No.4(Oct- 2013)