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