ENV 102 Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is a concept that is growing, in part because of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which established building criteria for environmentally sustainable development. Through USGBC, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) offers certification levels for green construction. Many schools and businesses are turning to LEED for project specifications as the added costs of using recycled materials and adhering to LEED specifications is returned within only a few years of operation. The United Nations signed an agreement in 2005 to reduce the use of greenhouse gases by the year 2012, and an amendment extended that multinational effort through 2020. Many countries already have reduction efforts in place. In most instances, environmental sustainability is the reduction of carbon footprints.