Actual Mean of Green Building

How much energy was used by people getting to work (what it is called Transportation Energy Intensity). On comparison of it to the energy actually used by the building (the Energy Use Intensity) and it was found that the transportation energy use was greater than what the building used. Eight key factors that can reduce the energy intensity of buildings. A few important ones:

• Density: The higher it is, the greater the number of options that are on the table.
• Transit availability: This is often a function of density.
• Mixed uses: Ellen Greenberg of the CNU says, “It’s very important for people who ride transit to be able to accomplish multiple things on foot once they arrive at their destination.”
• Parking Management: Get rid of all that free parking.
• Walkability: A decade ago, walking was considered to be something that got you from your car to your destination. It was not really considered a transportation option.

So how do one turn that into a metric, into a number? It’s harder than one thought it would be. But Wilson and Melton write:

….if one could define the baseline transportation energy intensity for a building type and attach a number to that, it should be possible to modify that value by a series of adjustment factors—much as is done with energy performance ratings of buildings. These adjustment factors would be based on the measures covered in this article: distance to transit, presence of bicycle pathways, traffic calming, etc. In such adjustment factors would be implicit weightings: distance to transit might be worth more than existence of bicycle racks, but both could be applied numerically.

Matter referenced:

Lloyd Alter, 2018. https://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/why-transportation-energy-intensity-buildings-matters.html?utm_source=TreeHugger+Newsletters&utm_campaign=02529b305f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_11_16_2018_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_32de41485d-02529b305f-243601237

By: Dr. Bhawana Asnani.

Happy to see Reviews, Additions, Suggestions and Comments, further.