AE 4121 - Environmental Science in Building Construction

• Outline the major drivers of sustainable construction movement, including climate change, ozone depletion, degradation of soil, air, water and biological diversity, and resource depletion
• Explain the scientific concepts of sustainable construction
• Break down the economic benefits and costs of constructing high performance/green buildings
• Compile the environmental impacts of construction materials, activities and operations
• Differentiate the purpose of green building assessment tools including LEED and Green Globe and how they work
• Apply the LEED(TM) suite of standards to measure the degree of sustainability of new commercial building projects using the LEED(TM) credit and certification process applied to the following categories:
• Sustainable Sites category
• Energy and Atmosphere category
• Water Efficiency category
• Materials and Resources category
• Indoor Environmental Quality category
• Devise options to reduce the ecological impact of the construction process, including recycling of materials, erosion and sediment control measures, and protection of indoor air quality
• Compile the elements and benefits of building commissioning
• Calculate the life cycle costs of high performance/green building components
• Develop alternative technologies in area of student’s technical specialty to reduce environmental impacts (and increase LEED(TM) points) on the student’s senior design project (or other suitable project)

• None

• Drivers for sustainability (2 classes)
• Green building assessment and process (3 classes)
• Economic analysis of green buildings (2 classes)
• Sustainable sites (2 classes)
• Sustainability for the structural engineer (1 class)
• Energy and atmosphere (2 classes)
• Water quality and quantity parameters (3 classes)
• Materials and the environmental impact of materials consumption (3 classes)
• Indoor environmental quality (2 classes)
• Construction operations and building commissioning (3 classes)
• Presentations of final projects (2 classes)
• Global issues regarding sustainability (5 classes)