Integrative Process and Sustainable Building Practices

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts of the Integrative Process, Location and Transportation, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality based on the lecture transcript.

Integrative Process

An interdisciplinary collaboration method that helps project teams find interrelated solutions that enhance one another to meet everyone’s needs.

Life-cycle approach

A mindset that looks at all stages of a project, product, or system rather than at a single snapshot.

Systems thinking

Understanding individual elements and their relationship to the whole.

Iterative decision-making

A process in which solutions can be examined through different perspectives, scales, and levels of detail, and then refined through feedback loops and re-evaluation.

Life-Cycle Costing

An integrative method that looks at purchase and operating costs as well as relative savings over the life of the project.

First costs

The initial investment for a strategy; life-cycle costing calculates the time it takes for these to pay for themselves during operation.

Commissioning provider

A professional who facilitates communication among the owner, designer, and contractor to ensure complex systems are installed and functioning according to owner requirements.

Social determinants of health

Non-medical factors, such as access to healthy foods, green spaces, and safe schools, that influence health outcomes and quality of life.

Fenceline communities

Groups of people who live near polluting industrial facilities or highways and are directly affected by noise and polluting emissions.

Environmental justice

Allowing all people to enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to decision-making processes.

Resilience

The capacity of a community, business, building, or natural environment to prevent, withstand, respond to, and recover from a disruption.

Hazards

Events or conditions that pose risks to people, businesses, or the built environment, such as floods, tornadoes, heat waves, or wildfires.

Hazard assessment

The process of identifying highest-priority hazards by combining climate projections with site-specific conditions.

Climate risks

The potential adverse consequences of a climate-related hazard.

Climate risk assessment

A forward-looking analysis or estimate of the specific consequences of a hazard.

Operational carbon emissions

Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the day-to-day operation of the project, including on-site combustion and grid-supplied electricity.

Embodied carbon emissions

Greenhouse gas emissions arising from the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of materials.

Development density

The total building floor area or total number of dwelling units on a unit of land relative to the total buildable area on the same unit of land.

Location efficiency

The effect of a facility’s location on travel behavior and related impacts, often achieved by seeking mixed-use areas.

Mixed-use areas

Locations with a variety of publicly available buildings and space types that serve many different needs.

Disadvantaged communities

Groups of people who have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life.

Vehicle miles traveled (VMT)

The estimated annual sum of miles traveled by people driving to and from the project site.

Transportation demand management (TDM)

A set of strategies aimed at maximizing traveler choices to encourage more sustainable transportation decisions by disincentivizing single-occupancy vehicles.

Alternative transportation

The use of modes of transportation other than a single-passenger motor vehicle, such as carpools, public transit, and bicycling.

Commuting emissions

Carbon emissions associated with driving single-occupancy vehicles to and from a building.

Active transportation

Human-powered mobility, such as biking, walking, or wheeling.

Range anxiety

Potential owners’ fear that they won’t be able to find a nearby place to charge an electric vehicle when the battery is low.

Environmentally sensitive areas

Places that need protection due to their vulnerability or importance, such as forests, farmlands, floodplains, and bodies of water.

Ecosystem

Biological communities of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Ecosystem services

The direct and indirect benefits that ecosystems provide humans.

Brownfields

A type of property whose expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants.

Remediating

The process of removing dangerous or poisonous substances or limiting their effect on people and the environment.

Sensitive receptors

Areas where occupants are more susceptible to the adverse effects of exposure to toxic chemicals, pesticides, and other pollutants.

Site assessment

An assessment that examines environmental characteristics to influence the design of a sustainable site and building.

Erosion

The removal of sediment, often accelerated by construction activities that remove vegetation and leave soil exposed.

Sedimentation

The settling of eroded soil particles, which can negatively affect water quality and aquatic habitats.

Soil compaction

The process of soil particles being pressed together, which precludes optimal root system development and causes long-term land degradation.

Urban heat island

An occurrence where a city experiences much warmer temperatures than nearby rural areas.

Solar reflectance index (SRI)

A measure of a constructed surface’s ability to stay cool in the sun.

Green/vegetated roof

A vegetative layer grown on a rooftop using native or adapted plant species.

Tree equity

How well the critical benefits of urban tree canopy reach the people and communities who need them most.

Impervious surfaces

Areas of ground like asphalt and concrete that keep precipitation from percolating through the soil and increase rainwater runoff.

Pervious surfaces

Materials like open grid pavers or pervious pavement that allow precipitation to seep through to underlying soil and decrease runoff.

Barrier-free physically accessible open space

An outdoor space with features like wheelchair ramps and tactile surfaces that make it accessible to people with disabilities.

Biophilic spaces

Spaces that integrate natural elements into a building design to foster human connection to nature.

Light pollution

The excessive or inappropriate use of outdoor artificial light affecting human health and wildlife behavior.

Adapted plants

Plants that are not native to a location but grow reliably with minimal human attention.

Biodiversity

The variety of life in all forms, levels, and combinations, including ecosystem, species, and genetic diversity.

Invasive species

A species non-native to the ecosystem whose introduction is likely to cause economic, environmental, or human health harm.

Native plants

Plants that occur naturally in a given location and ecosystem.

Potable Water

Clean water that is suitable for drinking.

Non-potable water

Water that does not meet drinking water standards, such as wastewater and collected rainwater.

Wastewater

Water that has been used for a purpose and conveyed by plumbing systems toward a point of treatment and disposal.

Graywater

Wastewater from sinks, tubs, showers, and clothes washers that has not come in contact with toilet waste.

Water submeters

Devices that report the volume of water used by individual systems and fixtures to alert managers to leaks or inefficiencies.

Water-end-use profile

A profile identifying the most significant uses of water in a project to evaluate the impact of sustainability strategies.

Xeriscaping

A landscaping strategy using drought-tolerant native or adapted plants along with rocks and mulch to reduce outdoor water use.

Flush and flow rates

Published values from manufacturers on the amount of water a plumbing fixture uses.

High-efficiency fixtures

Plumbing fixtures that conserve water, such as low-flow lavatories, or eliminate water demand entirely, such as waterless urinals.

Process water

Water used for building systems like cooling towers and boilers, or for commercial processes like industrial dishwashing.

Energy-efficient buildings

Buildings that use less energy than others to perform the same tasks because their systems perform well.

Energy model

A computer model of a building that simulates energy consumption over the course of a year.

Base case

A building model used in energy modeling that meets minimum required energy codes for its size and location.

Design case

A building model that includes specific solutions for achieving a project's energy-performance goals.

Building envelope

Components such as roofs, walls, and windows that separate a building’s interior from its exterior and provide thermal control.

Thermal bridges

Places in the building envelope where materials conduct heat, causing unwanted heat loss or gain.

R-value

The measure of a building envelope material’s resistance to conductive heat flow; higher values indicate greater insulating effectiveness.

Energy-recovery ventilation

An HVAC strategy that uses outgoing air to help condition incoming air.

Connected lighting power

The measure of how much power per unit area would be used if all lights in a building were turned on.

Parasitic loads

The power draw of plug loads when devices are turned off.

Plug loads

The electrical current drawn by all equipment connected through a wall outlet.

Process energy

Heat or electricity consumed in support of a manufacturing or commercial process rather than for conditioning spaces.

Energy demand

Also known as load, it is the amount of energy that needs to be available to operate a project.

Peak demand

The maximum amount of thermal energy or electrical power that must be available at a specific point in time.

Building automation system (BAS)

A system used to control HVAC, lighting, and other building systems automatically.

Owner’s project requirements (OPR)

A written document detailing the ideas, concepts, and criteria prioritized by the owner.

Commissioning (Cx)

The process of verifying and documenting that a project and its systems are planned, designed, installed, tested, and maintained according to requirements.

Building enclosure commissioning (BECx)

A process that ensures components of the building envelope are installed and functioning properly.

Monitoring-based commissioning

A way to maintain and improve performance over time by gathering energy information in a cycle of analysis and training.

Retro-commissioning

Commissioning provided by a third party for an existing project, including assessment and testing of building systems.

Decarbonization

The process of reducing or eliminating greenhouse gas ($GHG$) emissions from buildings.

Refrigerants

Fluids in HVAC systems that move heat by changing between liquid and gas; many have a high global warming potential ($GWP$).

Global warming potential (GWP)

A measure of how much energy one ton of a specific gas will absorb over time relative to $CO_2$.

Building electrification

The process of replacing non-electric energy sources, such as on-site combustion, with electricity.

Electrical grids

Networks of wires and cables that transport electricity from power plants to end users.

Grid interactivity

Systems that allow buildings to manage the level and timing of their electrical demand on the grid.

Demand response

A change in electricity-use patterns triggered by a grid operator signal, such as a price increase or system reliability alert.

Energy storage

The ability to store electrical or thermal energy on-site for later consumption or to return to the grid.

Renewable energy certificates (RECs)

Also known as energy attribute certificates ($EACs$), these are purchased to support renewable energy generation.

Intentional islanding

Separating a project's energy-generating system from the main electric grid to make it its own disconnected grid.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

Chemicals found in many products like paints and adhesives that can evaporate or off-gas at normal indoor temperatures.

PFAS

Also referred to as forever chemicals, these are plasticizers or flame retardants that do not degrade in the body or nature.

Material sufficiency

Measures and practices that avoid demand for energy and materials while delivering human well-being within planetary boundaries.

Material efficiency

Using less material to perform the same function; also known as material-use optimization.

Material circularity

A system where resources are continuously reused and recycled, reducing dependence on virgin resources.

Life-cycle assessment (LCA)

An evaluation of the environmental impact of a building product or project over its entire life cycle.

Overage

Extra material ordered for a construction project just in case it is needed.

Waste diversion

The practice of diverting waste from landfills and incineration through reduction, reuse, and recycling.

Indoor environmental quality (EQ)

Conditions in a space, such as lighting, sound, and air quality, that affect people’s health and well-being.

Inclusive design

Also called universal design, it is an approach focused on making the built environment accessible to people of all ages and abilities.