Green Building Technologies and Environment

Abstract

Scientists believe that buildings construction and maintenance consume up to 50% of the total energy resources. We damage the environment by using non-renewable energy resources. Sustainable development paradigm promotes minimal usage of scarce resources based on the resource-saving technologies, i.e. getting raw materials as a result of recycling processes. Green building makes it possible to preserve natural resources for the next generations by reducing pollution and increasing ecosystem self-recovery. However, green building is not widely spread in Russia because it has low economic efficiency for business. Construction companies strive to profit from their investments and ignore the building’s operating costs. Developer companies note that the up-front cost usually makes up about 20% of the life cycle cost. Green building suggests the recycled usage of the construction materials thus increasing energy efficiency of real estate property. Russian government doesn’t provide any incentives for green building. Government can take care of the environment by supporting green building technologies, particularly in municipal and state buildings construction. Nowadays the only tender criterion applied is minimal up-front costs.