Final Three-Level Sentence Outline

Green Architecture and Sustainable Design in a Deteriorating World

By
Sheena C. Tuazon
Thesis Statement: Architects- shapers of the built environment, molders of the natural environment have
the most tangible impact to the latter: it is undeniable that buildings bear negative effects, thats why
professionals came up with a solution called Green Building or Sustainable Architecture, a building
approach that minimizes the pollution caused and energy needed, therefore mitigating the impacts and
bringing various benefits to the end users but it is hard to conclude its sufficiency as an answer to todays
environmental problems.
I.

II.

III.

IV.

Introduction: Building design professionals such as architects are responsible.

A. Building design professionals have long cared for the natural environment, since the
work they do exists within the interconnected realm of an eco-system.
B. Understanding a site and what a building does to it has been a primary concern of
architects, engineers, landscape architects, and contractors, as well as many other
professionals, for decades.
Architecture has a negative impact to the environment.
A. The biggest source of emissions and energy consumption around the globe is buildings.
1. Buildings and their construction account for nearly half of all the greenhouse gas
emissions and energy consumed each year.
2. Today, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that buildings use 70 percent of
the countrys electricity supply.
B. Buildings consume water and expel sewage, and their construction claims irreplaceable
habitat, as can the mining of minerals and harvesting of timber used to manufacture
building materials.
C. Building-materials manufacturing and transport also require that vast amounts of fossil
fuels be burned.
The green building movement is one born of passion-of the desire to make a radical change in
the way we think about and design buildings.
A. A growing awareness of the huge threats posed to our natural world by our built
environment made it obvious that radical change was imperative.
B. Less obvious was how to make that change happen-we needed a way to turn our passion
into the transformation of an entire industry.
C. S. Richard Fedrizzi founded USGBC (US Green Building Council) to unite the building
industry and lead a national consensus on green building, and 12 years later the
transformation is well underway.
Sustainability means development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
A. Sustainability is about the promises of things that will lastbuildings with long and
useful lives, forms of energy that are renewable, communities that endure.

V.

VI.

B. Sustainable design creates solutions that solve the economic, social, and environmental
challenges of the project simultaneously, and these solutions are powered by sustainable
energies.
Green architecture, or green design, is an approach to building that minimizes harmful effects
on human health and the environment.
A. Green building is about turning the promises of sustainability into reality.
B. Since the 1990s, the media has often talked about green or sustainable buildings.
C. Sustainable buildings are those that have been designed deliberately to have a minimal
impact on the environment.
D. A partial list of things designers might consider when doing a sustainable building
includes decreasing resource consumption during construction and operation, the source
and composition of a buildings materials, and siting a building to minimize
environmental damage and soil erosion.
1. Its construction reduces the consumption of natural resources, like wood from old
growth forests.
2. Most of its construction waste is recycled or reused rather than sent to landfills.
3. Its operation reduces the consumption and costs of energy and water.
4. The development footprint is limited, open space is restored and enhanced, and
landscape architecture is designed to provide wildlife habitat, stormwater
management, and beauty with minimal water consumption and maintenance.
5. The site and building designs minimize or eliminate heat islands-asphalt and
other dark, non-reflective surfaces on roofs, walkways, roads and parking lots
that absorb and slowly release solar heat. Heat islands raise surrounding
temperatures by as much as 10 degrees, increasing both heating, ventilation, and
air conditioning loads and landscape irrigation needs.
6. The majority of the interior spaces have natural daylighting and outdoor views
7. Highly efficient HVAC systems and low VOC (volatile organic compound)
materials like paint, flooring, and furniture are used to improve the indoor
environmental air quality.
8. Building materials, from structural steel to carpenting and furniture, have
recycled content.
There are many goals that motivate the planning and design of green buildings.
A. There are goals that address environmental degradation.
1. Green buildings mitigate global warming through energy conservation, reduction
of GHG emissions, and carbon sequestration.
2. Green buildings minimize environmental impacts.
3. Green buildings reduce pollution of air, water, and soil.
4. Green buildings reduce light pollution that can disrupt nocturnal ecosystems.
B. There are goals providing for improved human health and comfort.
1. Green buildings improve indoor air and water quality.
2. Green buildings increase thermal comfort.
3. Green buildings improve morale.
C. There are goals that are economic in nature.
1. Green buildings reduce energy costs.

VII.

VIII.

2. Green buildings create green jobs.

D. There are goals that reflect the needs of the human spirit.
1. Green buildings express deep connection to and love of the Earth and nature.
2. Green buildings satisfy the quest for beauty.
When properly designed, sustainable buildings can produce many benefits.
A. Green buildings provide a healthier quality of life.
1. Green buildings use non-toxic building materials.
2. The well documented sick building syndrome of the late 1980s woke up the
world to the fact that our buildings can also harm our health.
3. Standard materials like paint, carpeting, linoleum, furniture, and manufactured
wood products, emit toxic fumes that have been directly linked to health
problems like asthma, weakened immune systems, and even cancer.
4. Green buildings provide abundant fresh air and natural light.
5. Occupants often report that they are more comfortable and productive in them.
6. Lack of sufficient natural daylighting has been linked to emotional health
problems like depression.
7. Green schools, for example, demonstrably improve learning.
8. A 1999 study by the Heschong Mahone Group of the Fort Collins, Colorado,
Orange County, California, and Seattle, Washington school districts found that
students in classrooms with the most daylighting progressed 20 percent faster on
math tests and 26 percent faster on reading tests than students in classrooms with
the least daylighting.
9. That healthier quality of life brings many benefits.
B. Green buildings save companies money over the long term.
1. Operating costs are lower than those of similar buildings.
2. Businesses benefit from green buildings in many ways.
3. Offices that have green buildings are observed to have greater employee
productivity.
4. Offices that have green buildings are observed to have lower turnover rates.
5. Offices that have green buildings are observed to have less absenteeism.
C. Green buildings also save companies money over the long term.
1. They reduce employee health costs.
2. They reduce insurance premiums.
3. They significantly lower energy usage, water consumption, and infrastructure
costs like stormwater management.
D. Green buildings even increase profits.
Conclusion and recommendation: Green buildings offer the promise of greater protection
from temperature extremes and the other forces of nature, with less pollution, greater
comfort, and a greater connection to the beauty of nature.
A. Skeptics and scholars continue to question the sufficiency of the practice of green
building and sustainable architecture as answers to environmental problems.
B. Meanwhile, it is undeniable that green buildings have long-term benefits.