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SECTION 1:
AN INTRODUCTION TO
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
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What is Sustainable Design?
Sustainable design involves buildings that need fewer resources and materials to
build, occupy and maintain, and are more comfortable and healthy to live and work
in.
‘Sustainable design is not a new building style. Instead, it represents a revolution
in how we think about, design, construct and operate buildings. Sustainable
design aims to lessen the harm caused by poorly designed buildings by using the
best of ancient building approaches in a logical combination with the best of new
technological advances. Its ultimate goal is to go even further and build offices,
homes, even entire subdivisions, that are net producers of energy, food, clean
water and air, beauty and healthy human and biological communities.’
The Rocky Mountain Institute, USA
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Buildings have significant impacts on the environment. In most industrialised
countries, carbon-dioxide emissions from buildings account for half of total
national carbon emissions, while construction waste amounts to 35-40% of
national annual waste output. In the UK, each person uses over 6,000kg of
building materials every year.
The 1960s was the most notorious era for the construction of uneconomical and
uncomfortable buildings which, as described by the celebrated architect Lewis
Mumford, can “only be inhabited with the aid of the most expensive devices of heating
and refrigeration.” Admittedly, modern buildings are much more resource- and
energy-efficient than those built 30 years ago, but they are still far from sustainable,
and continue to be designed with little regard for climate, improved comfort, or
reduction of water, energy and waste during construction and occupation.
We all pay the costs of unsustainable buildings. Employees working in badly
ventilated and illuminated offices perform poorly and register high levels of
occupational illness. Companies and homeowners face rising bills for heating
damp, draughty buildings. Multiplier effects go even further – tropical forests are
logged to provide timber for buildings in Europe, Japan and North America, and
large rivers are being dammed to generate hydro-electricity for energy-intensive
homes, business and other sites.
Why is Sustainable Design Important in the Tourism
and Hospitality Industry?
The tourism industry, notorious for erecting buildings that ruin the beauty and
integrity of their surroundings, ironically spends around US$701 billion a year on
capital investments, which include hospitality businesses, airports, visitor centres
and offices.
With the expansion of the nature, adventure and rural tourism markets, more and
more structures are being built in remote and fragile environments where it is vital
that impacts be kept to a minimum. Tourism buildings, due to the intensity of use,
need to be regularly repaired and refurbished, which involves further impacts.
Tourists are also responding to good design. According to a 1996 study by the
Travel Industry Association of America, some 43 million Americans are willing to
pay an 8.5% premium to stay in what they perceive to be an environmentally
sensitive property.