The term ‘going green’ is a phrase that appears to be on everyone’s lips at the moment, especially in the world of construction. But what exactly is eco-friendly construction and why is it so important?
In this day and age it is so important to take the environment and health into consideration when it comes to constructing homes, and there are countless benefits from doing so.
Unfortunately, the deterioration of fossil fuel is something that is inevitable. But with the help of eco-friendly construction, we can help to reduce our energy consumption and therefore slow down the effects of climate change and pollution. Over recent years, the progress in modern technology has surpassed all expectations and being environmentally friendly, when it comes to construction, is something that is much easier to accomplish as different materials and technology are more widely available.
Goals of Eco-Friendly Construction
Did you know that approximately 80% of electricity worldwide is produced by non-renewable sources? Fossil fuel is the most common source of energy production and is one of the main causes of emitting greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. As a result of this, the primary goal of eco-friendly construction is to reduce and control the ecological impact that buildings have on the environment.
Eco-friendly construction strives to decrease the degradation of our environment by using other renewable energy sources. In addition to conserving our environment, another goal of eco-friendly construction is to protect our health. In fact, it is thought that we spend, on average, around 90% of our day-to-day time inside, which could be detrimental to our health as it has been suggested that the quality of the air indoors is between two and five times worse than the air outside.
Benefits of Eco-Friendly Construction
In addition to an abundance of environmental advantages, eco-friendly construction is also beneficial both economically and socially too. Through the conservation of the world’s non-renewable sources, eco-friendly construction can drastically improve air and water quality, which ultimately will help to protect the biodiversity of the world and its ecosystems.
Regarding social benefits, eco-friendly construction can considerably increase the health and wellbeing of occupants by improving the quality of the air and water inside buildings. These social benefits also go hand in hand with the economic benefits that eco-friendly construction could bring; if the quality of life was improved for occupants, overall productivity would be improved, whether that be at work or everyday jobs at home. Also, an influx of eco-friendly construction will help make a market for services and products in the ‘green’ industry.
Cost of Eco-Friendly Construction
In the beginning it may appear as though eco-friendly construction is more on the expensive side, but it is much more resourceful in the long run as it conserves energy and saving energy saves money. By implementing greener choices when it comes to property construction, we can reap environmental, economic and social benefits and can be one step closer into making the world a greener place.
Eco-Friendly Construction at Galliard Homes
Here at Galliard Homes we pride ourselves on making sure that we are as eco-friendly as possible when it comes to constructing new developments. We use many energy-efficient materials and practise green policies to the best of our ability, ensuring that our buildings will reap all of the social, economic and environmental benefits that green building can provide.
The Galliard Construction team is dedicated to adopting various procedures and guidelines in order to respect air and water pollution guidelines when building our developments. The construction team will always ensure that each and every vehicle on-site is fitted with catalysts or diesel particulate filters, in order to control emissions and exhaust fumes. At Galliard, our developments also showcase a wide array of energy-efficient features, including recessed LED downlighting and thermostatically-controlled central heating, just to name a few.
We are proud to announce that our work practicing green policies is paying off; last year our Docklands development, Lincoln Plaza, saved an impressive 113,882 kilograms of carbon dioxide with the help of the combined heat and power unit in the development. The construction of another one of our luxurious Docklands developments, Harbour Central, is being constructed using a special concrete blend containing PFA (pulverised fuel ash), which helps to reduce the embodied carbon by approximately 19%.
With eco-friendly construction on the rise, we are well on the way to making the world of construction greener.
