With the price of vim consumption rising both in terms of dollars and shock on the environs , and with global population swell to record numbers , many builders are incorporatinggreen constructionmethods to meet these challenges .
In short , unripe construction uses an array of scrupulous design and construction practice to enhance the energy efficiency of a edifice while mitigating its environmental and ecologic impact . Rating systems likeLeadership in Energy and Environmental Design ( LEED ) , a certification acquire by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2000 , gauges the bionomic wiseness of material natural selection , water and energy consumption , indoor environmental quality , and other factors . TheLEEDsystem has similitude in other nation , including Canada and Brazil , and many develop and industrialized body politic have homegrown agencies to further environmentally healthy building practices .
What are the best cities for green construction ? Some are the longstanding sustainable building banner - bearers you might await , while others might seem to be unlikely candidates in emerging marketplace around the earth . But to start , let ’s go to the plate of the oldest LEED - certified building in world .
10: Washington, D.C.
Washington , D.C. , the nursing home of many of the federal agencies that oversee greenish building first step in the United States , is also home to a remarkable amount of green construction . From 2003 to 2009 , Washington , D.C. , and the surround neighborhood added 23 million solid ft ( 2,136,730 square meters ) of LEED - indorse outer space , according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments [ source : Aratani ] . In 2006 , the District of Columbia hap the Green Building Act , a law requiring , among other things , LEED certification for raw public buildings .
According to 2012 news report from the U.S. Green Building Council , Washington , D.C. , had the second largest number of LEED projection in the country with 884 [ reference : USGBC ] . There ’s also 31.5 square understructure ( 2.9 straight meters ) of LEED - certified quad per resident – more than any other land , and more than 10 time as much as runner - up Colorado [ seed : USGBC ] . The city also pose title to a green - construction superlative : The 143 - year - old Treasury Department home base is the oldest LEED - indorse edifice in the man [ seed : O’Keefe ] .
9: Songdo International Business District, South Korea
In 2009 , the South Korean government announced a plan to build a million green homes and improveenergy efficiencyin a million more , along with many other sustainable building project [ source : Watts ] . Two days afterwards , the government declare the construction of a $ 9 billion seaward wind farm [ germ : Bloomberg Businessweek ] . But perhaps the big single undertaking had been underway since 2001 .
The Songdo International Business District is a 1,500 - acre waterfront city lying 40 miles ( 64.4 kilometers ) outside of the country ’s capital of Seoul . The city is a depute liberal economical zone where businesses can operate without the tax load in existence elsewhere in the country [ root : Cortese ] . The $ 35 billion development feature several pedestrian - friendly neighborhood contain of role construction , homes and retail shops , all of which adhere toLEEDstandards . The metropolis is also part of the LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program political program , which rate the connectivity and sustainability of neighborhood intent . In 2008 , the master design for the city earned a Sustainable Cities award . ( However , while 40 percent of the metropolis is place aside for park and green quad , critic level out that the web site was built on wetlands that had been home to several species of migratory birds and other wildlife [ source : Ko . Schubert , Hester ] . ) The first phase of Songdo formally spread out in August 2009 , and construction planned for completion in 2018 at the earliest [ source : Strickland ] .
8: Los Angeles, Calif.
While the layout of the southern California metropolis has been synonymous with '' sprawl , '' recent regulations have made Los Angeles right for immature edifice .
In 2009 , the city reveal the Green Building Retrofit Ordinance , a law requiring city - owned buildings built before 1978 or big than 7,500 square feet ( 696.8 square m ) to be refurbished with environmentally favorable cloth [ source : Database for State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency ] . In 2010 , the land government adopted a unripened construction computer code requiring new home and commercial-grade and public buildings to cut urine consumption by 20 per centum over the premature computer code . Builders also had to begin using low - polluting mental synthesis fabric and discarding one-half of construction permissive waste in areas other than landfills [ reservoir : Roosevelt ] .
According to a 2010 Environmental Protection Agency survey , Los Angeles was home to 510 Energy Star - licence buildings for a aggregate of 106.1 million straight feet ( 9,857,013 square meters ) – more than any other city in the country [ source : Catacchio ] .
7: Vancouver, Canada
In 2009 , Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson call together a Green Action Team and tasked them with adjust standards to make the city the greenest in the world by 2020 . Among its quarry , the team sought to ensure that all new construction mental synthesis would be carbon indifferent , and that all existing building would increase their efficiency by 20 percentage [ source : City of Vancouver ] . Today , the city employ a building code that requires all new municipal buildings over 500 square meters ( 5,382 square feet ) in size to meetLEEDGold standards and integrate passive intention , an approaching that takes advantage of natural movements in breeze and light source to ply DOE . During the 2010 Winter Olympics , the reality saw a preview of the metropolis ’s vision : an LEED Platinum - certified Olympic Village that housed athletes , which gain 90 per centum of electrical energy for the biz from hydroelectric magnate [ source : Murphy ] .
Vancouver ’s quest for sustainable excellence can be go through in several edifice all around town . The Net Zero Building is the first Canadian multiunit residential building that eat and creates an equivalent amount of energy . National Yards – the base for the metropolis ’s engineering crew – is the first LEED Gold - certified building in Canada [ source : City of Vancouver ] .
6: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Brazil is currently order fourth in the earth forLEEDbuilding projects , with 37 construction already certified and 336 undergo the enfranchisement physical process [ source : Green Building Council Brazil ] . And with Rio de Janeiro slated to host both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics , the coastal metropolis can ask to see a deluge of green construction over the next several yr .
In accordance of rights with the International Olympic Committee requirement that venues used for the games meet international standards for carbon emissions and energy efficiency , all 34 of the contest locus will incorporate green characteristic . Although there are no requirements for soccer stadiums work up for the World Cup game , according to Green Building Council Brasil , nine of the 12 stadium being erected throughout the commonwealth for 2014 are undergo the LEED certification physical process [ reference : Green Building Council Brazil ] .
5: Copenhagen, Denmark
Kobenhavn is already home to declamatory tracts of loose space , as well as 242.3 miles ( 390 kilometer ) of bike lanes , which one in three residents use to convert to work or school every day [ source : City of Copenhagen ] . With 60,000 residents require to join the population by 2025 and designs on becoming the humankind ’s first carbon - electroneutral city by the same class , the Danish capital , which was among the first municipality to offer incentive for environmentally friendly practice , stay on to be home to key advances ingreen construction [ source : City of Copenhagen ] .
The land ’s building regulations DoS that by 2020 , buildings ' free energy ingestion must be less than 30.7 kilowatts per satisfying meter per yr [ germ : Danish Architecture Centre ] . In 2010 , city official mandated that all new and old rooftops angled under 30 stage must be gullible – meaning that they are literally covered with vegetation to absorb rain and cool down the building , among other benefits [ source : Nusca ] . One of the most intriguing projects is anticipate to open in 2016 : a young municipal waste incinerator that will generate energy to power tens of thousands of neighboring homes and feature a ski incline run along its exterior [ reservoir : Witkin ] .
4: Chicago, Ill.
Under former Mayor Richard Daley , Chicago launched several gullible building initiatives in the other 2000s . In 2002 , the city constructed the Chicago Center for Green Technology , the first rehabilitated municipal building to meet an LEED Platinum valuation , and a resource for those curious about green construction [ source : Chicago Center for Green Technology ] . Soon after , Chicago began requiringLEED certification for all city building , and any construction projects receive financial or zoning aid from the city had to contain light-green feature film . Its Green Permit Program also awards projection that contain sure sustainable feature with a faster permitting process and repress permitting costs [ source : City of Chicago ] .
As of 2012 , the U.S. Green Building Council counts 794 registered or certify LEED projects in Chicago , the third most in the nation [ source : USGBC ] . The city possesses more than 4 million straight feet ( 371,612 satisfying metre ) of green rooftop , which take in rainwater and help order building temperature [ seed : Richardson ] . The Willis Tower – the tall building in the Western Hemisphere ( formerly known as the Sears Tower ) – begin undergo a retrofitting in 2009 to foreshorten its energy consumption by 80 pct , derive power from solar panels and wind turbines , and integrate other sustainable feature [ source : Stern ] .
3: Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Positioned about 17 kilometers away from the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi , Masdar City bills itself as '' one of the most sustainable communities on the major planet ' [ source : Masdar City ] . ' The $ 19 billion city , a undertaking of the government - have Mubdala Development Company that was first conceived in 2006 , single-valued function as a testing ground for sustainable technologies and innovations .
So far , six buildings in Masdar City are functional : the campus of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology ( a relative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) , flat for its student trunk and teacher , and a smattering of commercial-grade line of work all tied to an healthy energy power system that monitor energy and body of water to avail meet strict consumption limit . Architectural designs in Masdar draw poker on passive construction excogitation to dilute energy needs , and the city absorb much of its power from a 10 - megawatt photovoltaic array on the outskirts of the city . Traditional automobile are blockade from enter the urban center , and residents travel either on foot or in a fleet of electric fomite . A 147 - foot - marvelous ( 44.6 - measure ) tower diverts winds to bring home the bacon residents with a cooling breeze , and its LED display change colour to signal whether apartment denizen are adhering to the city ’s vigour consumption standards .
The city has meet several reverse , including delay building deadlines and low effectuality from the photovoltaic organization [ source : Vidal ] . Construction is design for completion in 2025 , allow the city to house around 40,000 residents and 50,000 commuters [ source : Masdar City ] .
2: San Francisco, Calif.
It ’s no surprise that San Francisco made the list . The city ’s 2008 dark-green building computer code predates the state ’s CALGreen building laws by two year , and its requirements are even stricter [ germ : SFDBI ] . San Francisco requires all municipal building , as well as refurbishment over 5,000 square feet ( 464.5 square time ) , to receive LEED Silver documentation , provides faster license critical review for building projects intended to extend to higher levels of LEED authentication , and bans toxic twist materials and sure eccentric of wood in municipal projects [ rootage : SF Planning Department , SFEnvironment ] . As of 2012 , the city has 522 LEED task and at least 248 Energy Star - demonstrate buildings within its geographic limit point [ source : USGBC , Catacchio ] . San Francisco also ranked first out of 30 dark-green construction markets in the United States in the 2011 Green Building Opportunity Index [ source : Better Bricks ] .
1: China
In China , the potential wallop of light-green construction is not limited to a single metropolis . For the last two X , rural residents have migrated to urban centers by the million . According to BBC , China ’s cities should house roughly a billion urbanites by 2025 [ source : Campanella ] . Constructing home and facilities to accommodate these massive population is heavy business here : Each class , roughly half of the earth ’s new building are fabricated in China [ source : Larson ] . Meanwhile , despite consuming less zip per person than North American counterparts , the land ’s sheer population makes it the biggest emitter of greenhouse gaseous state on the planet [ source : Bradsher ] .
China spend more money than any other country on green energy projects [ source : Melik ] . The government has launch a few initiatives to promote green construction , including subsidies to purchase vim - efficient materials [ source : Liu ] . While the accuracy of the statistic is questionable , Chinese official say that more than 95 percent of fresh buildings constructed in urban areas abide by with the country ’s energy efficiency standards [ source : Liu ] . But the energy efficiency benefits of green edifice might be the only practicable way to deal with its burgeoning urban universe : More than a twenty-five percent of the land ’s energy consumption is linked to its edifice , a figure of speech that is expected to increase 70 percent by 2020 [ generator : Larson ] .
