Green and Smart Buildings
Preface
A safe, comfortable, and sustainable built environment is highly desirable as we
spent most of our time in offices, factories, or homes. With the rapid urbanization
movement throughout the world, it is predicted by the United Nations that 66 %
of the population will live in urban areas or cities by 2050. Urbanization can be seen
as a boon as well as a key threat to world sustainability. While on the one hand it
offers opportunities such as better health, greater access to social services, and
enhanced living options, it may also lead to rapid sprawl, pollution, and environmental degradation, if not planned well. It is hence essential to focus on urban
sustainability and a sustainable built environment, with green and smart buildings
as one of the most important keys to sustainable urban living.
While sustainability and sustainable development is a very broad topic, it is often
viewed as consisting of three main elements: economic development, social
development, and environmental protection. These three elements are equally
important and often intricately linked to each other. It is noted that ‘green’ is
sometimes mistakenly associated with the overzealous and inordinate support and
advocacy of the aspect of environmental protection, while completely ignoring
economic and social development aspects of sustainable development. This is not,
however, the purpose of using the word ‘green’ in the title of this book. Although
environmental protection will appear to be the primary goal of the technology
solutions discussed in this book, the economic and social aspects of development
and adoption of these technologies cannot be ignored.
The word ‘smart’ is also an overused term these days with the advent of
smartphones and other smart devices. These devices enable users to take automatic
control of their surrounding conditions in lightning speed without much human
intervention. Smart buildings of the future would incorporate business objectives,
user preferences, and sustainability goals seamlessly in building operations, while
providing an exceptional experience to the building occupants and other
stakeholders.
The specific focus of this book is on buildings. Understandably, buildings are
part of a larger ecosystem of building estates and cities. However, the focus of this
book is on the building itself and how technologies can help enhance its overall sustainability performance. Building systems cover very broad topics, and there are
in-depth publications and books on each of these topics separately. The attempt
here is to provide an overview of advanced technology options for green and smart
buildings without going into in-depth discussions in each area.
As an author of this book, I sincerely hope that this book will provide valuable
reference and motivation on adopting, developing, and further improving through
research, the effectiveness of green and smart building technologies. Along with
many of the challenges facing humanity today, climate change is an important one
and the building sector could do it’s part by adopting green and smart buildings.
With the wide range of technologies and their benefits described in this book, green
and smart buildings should become a norm without any further excuses. I definitely
wish that my children and the next generation in general should live, work, learn,
and play in buildings that are good for them, good for the economy, and good for
the environment.
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