---
title: What Is Sustainable Architecture?
description: Green building experts range from architects, designers and construction managers all collectively, they work together to further the goal of protecting, preserving and enhancing our environment while making it safer, healthier and more comfortable for people to inhabit.
---

[Emerald Blog ](https://blog.emeraldbe.com/new_blog)

# [What Is Sustainable Architecture?](https://blog.emeraldbe.com/new_blog/what_is_sustainable_architecture)

 Written by [Susann Geithner](https://blog.emeraldbe.com/new_blog/author/susann-geithner) | Mar 25, 2019 1:21:00 PM

This sums up the concept of sustainable architecture quite well; though, there are many considerations that go into such building practices. As a whole, the most critical goal of green design is energy efficiency, which is achieved through myriad techniques including, (but not limited to):

- Superior building & window insulation
- Solar panels / Solar thermal power
- Wind turbines
- Heat pumps
- Recycled materials
- Lower volatile organic compounds
- Building placement
- Deciduous tree landscaping

 

In the industry of sustainable architecture, green building experts range from [architects](https://www.emeraldbe.com/architects-and-engineers), designers and construction managers all the way down to the various staff members who provide support for green projects from an administrative standpoint. Collectively, they work together to further the goal of protecting, preserving and enhancing our environment while making it safer, healthier and more comfortable for people to inhabit.

 

### Here are some examples of sustainable architecture projects that exemplify green building ideals around the world:

**Nanjing Green Lighthouse – Nanjing, China**  
Chinese green design with net-zero energy status

**Hanover Olympic building – Los Angeles, CA**  
Built with sustainable materials, L.A.’s first net-zero residential space

**Environmental Learning Center – Amsterdam**  
A net-zero energy building that makes sustainability easily visible and accessible to visitors

**Oasia Downtown Hotel – Singapore, Asia**  
Covered with plantings, with 1100% Green Plot Ratio

**Shanghai Natural History Museum – China**  
Fed by rainwater, and has “intelligent building skin” that reduces solar gain

**Dixon Water Foundation – Decatur, Texas**  
Promotes watershed health through sustainable land management

**Vancouver Convention Centre West – Canada**  
LEED Platinum certified, with non-industrial “living roof” and natural habitat for honey bees

**The Bullitt Center – Seattle, Washington**  
The first office building to achieve the Living Building Challenge certification, 83% greater efficiency than typical office buildings

**One Central Park – Sydney, Australia**  
Visible use of the green design with vertical gardens that save approximately 140,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emission over 25 years

**Kathleen Grimm School for Leadership and Sustainability – Staten Island, New York**  
The first net-zero public school in NYC, with solar-paneled canopy roof 50% power consumption

 

As sustainable architecture becomes more prevalent in the years and decades to come, our planet and future generations of people who live on it will more readily see and enjoy the benefits of sustainable design concepts we put into practice today.

 

[View full post](https://blog.emeraldbe.com/new_blog/what_is_sustainable_architecture)

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