Green Building 101: How Sustainable Architecture Shapes the Future

May 23

Understanding Sustainability: Beyond the Buzzwords

As green initiatives continue to grow across various sectors, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of sustainability-related terms. Words like sustainable, renewable, green building, environmentally friendly, carbon footprint, carbon emissions, and carbon neutral often get used interchangeably, even though they each have distinct meanings. While it’s understandable to confuse them when you're just starting to learn, it’s important to remember that each term serves a different purpose, has a different scope, and follows a different approach. They may share a common goal, meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs, but the pathways to that goal vary quite significantly.

From my experience working in the built environment sector, confusion around these terms often shows up in everyday discussions. Years ago, I too might have thought a building covered in plants automatically qualified as a ‘green building’. While adding greenery, like a roof garden or vertical plantings, can help reduce the urban heat island effect (which is a strategy within green building design), simply placing plants around a structure doesn’t make the building green.

The Broader Meaning of Sustainable Architecture

So, why doesn’t putting plants on a building make it ‘green’? To answer this, we need to first understand the principles of sustainable architecture. Only then can we fully grasp what defines a green building and how it differs from other design concepts, such as biophilic design or nature-themed architecture.

Sustainable design emphasizes a building’s relationship with its site and the surrounding environmental conditions. Most people stop there, but sustainability invites us to digest a broader perspective, which lets us address a wide spectrum of issues of social, environmental, and economic issues. This means sustainable architecture not only focuses on the technical solutions (that more often than not, quantitative), but also considers how people live, behave, and interact within a space. It touches on community engagement, public health, and individual wellbeing.

Therefore, technical strategies in sustainable design are just one part of a larger picture. For example, while aesthetics remain an important element in any architectural project, sustainable architecture places significant emphasis on energy conservation, not just for environmental reasons, but also because it directly influences occupant behavior and comfort.

Energy Efficiency and Material Selection

According to the World Green Building Council (WGBC), buildings account for roughly 39% of global annual carbon emissions, with 28% coming from operations (energy for heating, cooling, lighting, etc.) and 11% from construction and materials. It is very natural, then, when we talk about green building, we often centre around improving energy efficiency and materials selection.

Energy efficiency refers to using less energy to perform the same function. In buildings, this could mean reducing the energy required for lighting, cooling, or ventilation. Strategies vary across countries and frameworks, but common approaches include passive design techniques (e.g. optimal orientation and shading), use of LED lighting and lighting sensors, cross ventilation, or installation of renewable energy sources like solar panels.

When considering these options to conserve energy, my approach would be starting from the earliest phase possible. Starting ‘from scratch’ allows for better integration of passive design principles to the building, factoring in site conditions, window placement, shading, building form, and orientation. Only after optimizing these foundational elements should we turn to product and system selection.

Now, choosing materials for building with sustainability in mind has to do with our effort to re-examine the relationship between resource exploitation and user wellbeing, thus developing our conscience to the use of green resources. Therefore, choosing materials for sustainable buildings isn’t just about choosing ‘green’ labels. Instead, it involves a deeper evaluation of the life cycle of a material, from resource extraction, production, and transportation, to installation and disposal. This is referred to as embodied carbon.

A truly sustainable material has a minimal environmental impact across its entire life cycle and determining this requires careful consideration, sometimes even the involvement of professionals trained in life cycle assessment (LCA). So when someone asks me, “What’s the most sustainable material?”, my answer will always be: It depends. The answer is contextual and varies based on the building type, location, design goals, and available resources.

So, Back to the Plants: Are They Enough?

Provided the principles of sustainable architecture, that apparently green building is beyond greeneries and plants, we must ask: Why are we adding these plants? Is it to implement a biophilic design strategy aimed at improving wellbeing through nature integration? Is it to achieve aesthetic goals? Does it reduce energy use or enhance indoor environmental quality?

If the answer is solely visual appeal without functional impact, then it borders on greenwashing, a practice of making something appear more sustainable than it actually is. Greenwashing provides a false sense of progress and diverts attention from meaningful action. It’s yet another term we need to familiarize ourselves with, especially if we aim to pursue genuine sustainability.

How Do We Measure Green Building, Then?

This is where green building certifications and rating systems take place. They offer measurable frameworks to evaluate the sustainability performance of buildings and are built on robust research and provide structure, credibility, and comparability.

For instance, EDGE focuses on energy, water, and material efficiency. LEED covers broader categories including Sustainable Sites, Energy and Atmosphere, Water Efficiency, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Location & Transportation. Each rating system emphasizes different priorities based on context. That’s why selecting a rating system should align with the project’s goals, location, and feasibility.

In my work as a sustainability consultant, I follow this principle: if a measure is not achievable or affordable for a particular project, then it may not be truly ‘green.’ Take solar PV for instance. If a small house in suburban Indonesia can’t afford it, pushing the technology despite the financial strain doesn’t align with the core values of sustainability. This is also why choosing the right rating system matters, some were developed for contexts in developed countries and may not be realistic or effective in other regions.

What’s Next? Future Trends and Reflections

This brings us to an important and often-asked question: What is the future of sustainable architecture?

The answer depends on geography, policy, and socio-economic context. In developed countries, the focus might be on refining carbon-neutral standards, maximizing building performance, and deepening integration of social equity. Meanwhile in developing countries, the journey often starts with awareness, education, and accessibility, ensuring that sustainable practices are widely adopted before they become standardised.

“Every country presents unique challenges and opportunities, and this diversity makes sustainability an ever-evolving, deeply human endeavour.”

Personally, I believe this journey will be won not through perfection, but through agility, curiosity, and a clear understanding of what sustainability truly means.

So even if the outcome of our efforts may seem small in the grand scheme of things, as long as we stay mindful of the essence of sustainability, we’re moving in the right direction.

References

Bauer, M., Schwarz, M., & Mosle, P. (2010). Green building : guidebook for sustainable architecture. Springer, Cop.

Grover, R., Emmitt, S., & Copping, A. (2020). Trends in sustainable architectural design in the United Kingdom: A Delphi study. Sustainable Development. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2043

Hussein Mohammed Abualrejal. (2015, December 8). ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN GREEN BUILDING TO ACHIEVE COMPANY SUSTAINABILITY. ResearchGate; unknown. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312596195_ENERGY_EFFICIENCY_IN_GREEN_BUILDING_TO_ACHIEVE_COMPANY_SUSTAINABILITY

Mba, E. J., Okeke, F. O., Igwe, A. E., Ozigbo, C. A., Oforji, P. I., & Ozigbo, I. W. (2024). Evolving trends and challenges in sustainable architectural design; a practice perspective. Heliyon, 10(20), e39400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e39400

Sassi, P. (2006). Strategies for Sustainable Architecture. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203480106

World Green Building Council. (2022, October 28). Embodied Carbon. World Green Building Council. https://worldgbc.org/climate-action/embodied-carbon/

Mirza Annisa

Mirza Annisa is a Wellbeing and Sustainability Consultant at Sustainahaus, where she has been contributing her expertise since 2023. Holding an MSc in Health, Wellbeing, and Sustainable Buildings from UCL, she focuses on creating sustainable environments that enhance both environmental health and human wellbeing. Certified as a WELL AP, GREENSHIP Professional, and EDGE Expert, Mirza is deeply committed to fostering and advocating a healthier, greener, and more sustainable built environment and has led numerous successful projects in this field.