Sustainable Construction
moore05
DiscussionWeek2.docxT H
1. Discuss why it is important to stop using coal to provide energy for our buildings and homes.
One of tenants in the Credo of my company is to "Think Outside the Box." I think when we look at something like coal, or even other fossil fuels, I think the reality is that they cannot be eliminated entirely in the short term. However, looking for a long term replacement is important since coal is both a finite resource, as well as an environmental pollutant. While coal burning plants have come up with ways to reduce their toxic emissions, there is still a long way to go to have truly "clean coal." The energy industry needs to continue to evolve by investing in new, cleaner, and sustainable technologies that can provide the necessary energy to a growing world, while reducing the environmental impact of the production of energy.
I'm also curious how my fellow classmates feel about the claim that many "clean" energy options, such as solar panels, are created in other countries who often do not abide by any environmental policies or considerations, and that solar panels looks like a great, clean energy option until you see the manufacturing plant that produces them is spewing toxic emissions into the air.
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2. The new wisdom in building design is to include building occupants in the design process. Why do you think that is important?
As a Certified Green Professional and Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist, I believe that one of the most important aspects of home design is to involve the homeowners. Asking questions about their needs, and how they use their home is critical to truly designing a "home" versus just a house. Even in commercial building projects, bringing all of the stakeholders to the table early in the design process is extremely important to a successful outcome. I previously worked at a company where the executives were not interested in stakeholder involvement. I was actually told by one of the executives, "we shouldn't ask anyone what they want or need - we'll TELL them what they need." This is an extremely shortsighted philosophy which leads to numerous change orders and very dissatisfied employees. It prompted me to write the following article on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/correlation-between-early-stakeholder-involvement-hoover-pmp-fmp/
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1. Discuss why it is important to stop using coal to provide energy for our buildings and homes.
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2. The new wisdom in building design is to include building occupants in the design process. Why you think it is that important?
The reason behind that is to have better hazard recognition and have better safety process analyzing. The new wisdom has the ability of preventing most of the occupational accidents and injuries. An example for accidents are slips and fall, not having protection gear and fall from heights. Moreover, that it has the ability of protecting and using the electrical safety and avoid using the dangerous hazardous materials.
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1. Discuss why it is important to stop using coal to provide energy for our buildings and homes.
It is important that we stop using coal to supply our buildings and homes with energy. I think there are 3 main impacts why we should stop using coal; those are effects on air quality, water quality, and global warming. When coal is burned it realizes airborne toxins such as sulfur dioxide, mercury, and lead. These being released in the air can lead to medical problems like asthma and heart problems. When coal pollutes water sources it is more caused by the left over ash from burning the coal. This ash ends up in areas like landfills that end up polluting water supplies overtime. The last main reason we should try and minimize the burning of coal is because of the affects it has on global warming. The affects coal has on global warming is caused by the burning of the coal and the release of the carbon dioxide that in turn adds to the greenhouse gasses.
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Although coal is a not the cleanest of energy sources, I do think we need to be careful when trying to substitute it for “cleaner” alternatives. Other alternatives such as windmills, solar panels, and dams all have some draw backs associated with them. I think we need to take some time and calculate all the pros and cons of them all and we have to look at both the short and long term affects they have.
2. The new wisdom in building design is to include building occupants in the design process. Why you think it is that important?
It is important that the occupants for a building are included in some way or form in the design process. If it is as small as a 15-20 minute meeting at the begging of the process to see what their goals and aspirations are for the build that is fine. This is important for the fact that it helps the design team know what different styles and atmosphere the occupants would like. If the design team just went off of personal preference and built a building that was very traditional but the occupants wanted a next generation, state of the art building then it wouldn't be good.
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