Sustainable Design & Green Building Practices Flashcards

Which biophilic design element has been shown in research to most directly reduce occupant stress and improve cognitive performance?

Answer: Views of nature and access to daylight

Multiple peer-reviewed studies link views of natural landscapes and access to daylight with measurable reductions in cortisol levels and improvements in cognitive function and productivity.

A sustainable designer specifies recycled-content steel for structural framing. Which environmental product declaration (EPD) type provides the most credible third-party data for this material?

Answer: Type III: third-party verified EPD

Type III EPDs, verified by an independent third party against ISO 14025, provide transparent, lifecycle-assessment-based environmental data that is most credible for specification decisions.

What is the primary goal of an integrated design process (IDP) in sustainable construction?

Answer: Enabling all disciplines to collaborate from project inception to optimize whole-system performance

IDP brings architects, engineers, contractors, and owners together from the earliest design phases so that decisions about one system (e.g., mechanical) can be optimized in relation to all others (e.g., envelope, lighting).

Which passive cooling strategy uses the principle of radiative heat loss to the night sky to cool thermal mass?

Answer: Night sky radiant cooling

Night sky radiant cooling exposes high-mass surfaces to the clear night sky, allowing them to emit longwave radiation and cool down for use as a heat sink the following day.

Under the International Green Construction Code (IgCC), which approach is used to set energy performance requirements?

Answer: Both prescriptive and performance paths are available

The IgCC offers both a prescriptive compliance path and a performance path (typically via energy modeling), giving designers flexibility while ensuring equivalent outcomes.

A project team wants to minimize heat island effect on a commercial parking structure. Which combination of strategies is MOST effective?

Answer: High-albedo (cool) paving and shading from tree canopy or PV canopy

Combining high-reflectance paving with overhead shading (trees or solar canopies) addresses both surface temperature reduction and solar interception, making it the most comprehensive approach.

In mass timber construction, what is the primary sustainability advantage of cross-laminated timber (CLT) compared to concrete structural systems?

Answer: Long-term carbon sequestration in the building structure

Wood sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide as it grows, and CLT panels lock that carbon into the building structure for the life of the building, unlike concrete which has high embodied carbon.