Page 203 - Solar Power in Building Design The Engineer's Complete Design Resource

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LEED—LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY

AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

Energy Use and the Environment

Ever since the creation of tools, the formation of settlements, and the advent of progres-
sive development technologies, humankind has consistently harvested the abundance of
energy that has been accessible in various forms. Up until the eighteenth-century indus-
trial revolution, energy forms used by humans were limited to river or stream water
currents, tides, solar, wind, and to a very small degree geothermal energy, none of which
had an adverse effect on the ecology.
Upon the discovery and harvesting of steam power and the development of steam-
driven engines, humankind resorted to the use of fossil fuels and commenced the
unnatural creation of air, soil, water, and atmospheric pollutants with increasing accel-
eration to a degree that fears about the sustenance of life on our planet under the pre-
vailing pollution and waste management control has come into focus.
Since global material production is made possible by the use of electric power gener-
ated from the conversion of fossil fuels, continued growth of the human population and
the inevitable demand for materials within the next couple of centuries, if not mitigated,
will tax the global resources and this planet’s capacity to sustain life as we know it.
To appreciate the extent of energy used in humanmade material production, we
must simply observe that every object used in our lives from a simple nail to a super-
computer is made using pollutant energy resources. The conversion of raw materials
to finished products usually involves a large number of energy-consuming processes,
but products made using recycled materials such as wood, plastics, water, paper, and
metals require fewer process steps and therefore less pollutant energy.
In order to mitigate energy waste and promote energy conservation, the U.S.
Department of Energy, Office of Building Technology, founded the U.S. Green
Building Council. The Council was authorized to develop design standards that pro-
vide for improved environmental and economic performance in commercial buildings

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