Current events: environmental impact essay

The Environmental Impacts of Eco-friendly Construction
A considerable change which has occurred in the late 1990s around the world, is an increased number of regulations to minimize environmental damage. People, also have become more conscious of environmental protection and as a result there is increased demand for green architectural design which consists of eco-friendly construction. Eco friendly construction refers to building with a reduction of energy consumption, waste, pollution and degradation of the environment, to protecting health and efficiently using water resources (Dean 2003). However, a significant problem for environmentalists, architects and urban planners, is how to reduce the effects of climate change by eco-friendly building. This assignment will discuss how eco-friendly buildings help protect the environment, describe the types of green materials, used and why, and explain how is the quality of these kind of buildings can be improved. Finally, it will summarise the research findings and evaluate the implications of eco-friendly building for future urban development.

One type of explanation for the increased number of green buildings relates to the impacts of climate change. Lane (2003), for example, argue that today, almost the half of world-wide energy consumption is used by buildings, and as much as one fourth of global greenhouse gas emissions, in developing and developed nations. Furthermore, the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (IPCC) evaluated building-related greenhouse gas emissions to be approximately 8.6 million metric tons of CO2 in 2004.This indicates that eco-friendly buildings should be constructed in order to reduce the damages of climate change