The way in which commercial buildings are constructed has changed dramatically in recent years. As governments across the world look to tackle the ever-increasing threat to our environment, focus has been placed upon developing more sustainable practices.
Here, we'll look at some of the main sustainability and growth techniques used within commercial buildings today.
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is one of the major sustainability techniques used within commercial buildings today. From the UK to Australia, governments are encouraging builders to focus on developments which use renewable energy sources.
The most common techniques used include wind power and solar photovoltaics. These help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, absorbing carbon dioxide. Not only is this better for the environment, but it's better for businesses too, costing less to run than non-renewable energy sources.
Low volatile organic compound materials
Shockingly, many building materials used to construct commercial buildings have long contained volatile organic compounds. These are known to be unsafe, particularly for children. However, these days sustainable construction makes use of low volatile organic compound materials.
Low volatile organic compound paint is one of the most common and affordable materials used. However, for maximum sustainability, companies can use low volatile organic compound carpets, solvents, sealants and wood products.
Prefabricating materials within a controlled environment
One sustainability and growth technique which has helped to improve the quality of commercial buildings is constructing as much of them in a controlled environment as possible. Enabling materials to be cut much more precisely, buildings can be constructed using wood framing, as much as five stories high.
Hotels have become one of the most common types of buildings to use prefabricated materials within a controlled environment.
Natural lighting
A key part of master planning and development of commercial buildings, is to make them more efficient. Natural lighting is helping with this, reducing the amount of artificial lighting commercial buildings usually require. There's also the additional benefit that natural lighting is better for the health. So, commercial buildings today are typically being built with larger windows and more natural lighting systems installed. This benefits both employees and customers and clients.
Other techniques being employed include adding space for the collection and storage of recyclable materials, proper site selection and rainwater collection. The latter uses rainwater to flush toilets and water the landscape surrounding the premises, minimising mains water use.
These are just some of the sustainability and growth techniques being used to construct commercial buildings today. There are a lot of different ways to improve a building's construction to make it more environmentally friendly. As an additional incentive, businesses can often receive tax breaks for owning a green building.