Green Building Glossary (Part II)

Ozone Hole: A thinning break in the ozone layer. Designation of amount of such depletion as an "ozone hole" is made when the detected amount of depletion exceeds 50 percent. Seasonal ozone holes have been observed over the Antarctic and arctic regions, part of Canada, and the extreme northeastern United States.

Ozone Layer: The protective layer in the atmosphere, about 12-15 miles above sea level, that absorbs some of the sun's ultraviolet rays, thereby reducing the amount of potentially harmful radiation that reaches the earth's surface.

Ozone (O3): A naturally occurring, highly reactive, irritating gas comprising tri-atomic oxygen formed by recombination of oxygen in the presence of ultraviolet radiation. This gas builds up in the lower atmosphere as smog pollution, while in the upper atmosphere it forms a protective layer that shields the earth and its inhabitants from excessive exposure to damaging ultraviolet radiation.

Pathogens: Microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, viruses, or parasites) that can cause disease in humans, animals and plants

Particulate Pollution: Pollution made up of small liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere or water supply.

Particulate: a. Fine dust or particles (e.g., smoke). b. Of or relating to minute discrete particles. c. A particulate substance.

Passive Solar: Strategies for using the sun’s energy to heat (or cool) a space, mass, or liquid. Passive solar strategies use no pumps or controls to function. A window, oriented for solar gain and coupled with massing for thermal storage (e.g., a Trombe wall) is an example of a passive solar technique.

pH: An expression of the intensity of the basic or acid condition of a liquid; may range from 0 to 14, where 0 is the most acid and 7 is neutral. Natural waters usually have a pH between 6.5 and 8.5.

Photocell: A device that measures the amount of incident light present in a space.

Photovoltaic (PV) Cell: An electronic device consisting of layers of semiconductor materials fabricated to form a junction (adjacent layers of materials with different electronic characteristics) and electrical contacts and being capable of converting incident light directly into electricity (direct current).

Photovoltaic (PV) Module: An integrated assembly of interconnected photovoltaic cells designed to deliver a selected level of working voltage and current at its output terminals, packaged for protection against environment degradation, and suited for incorporation in photovoltaic power systems.

Phytoremediation: Low-cost option for site cleanup when the site has low levels of contamination that are widely dispersed. Phytoremediation (a subset of bioremediation) uses plants to break down or uptake contaminants.

Pollution: Generally, the presence of a substance in the environment that, because of its chemical composition or quantity, prevents the functioning of natural processes and produces undesirable environmental and health effects. Under the Clean Water Act, for example, the term has been defined as the man-made or man-induced alteration of the physical, biological, chemical and radiological integrity of water and other media.

Pollution Prevention: Techniques that eliminate waste prior to treatment, such as changing ingredients in a chemical reaction. Identifying areas, processes and activities that create excessive waste products or pollutants in order to reduce or prevent them through alteration or elimination of a process. The EPA has initiated a number of voluntary programs in which industrial or commercial "partners" join with the EPA in promoting activities that conserve energy, conserve and protect the water supply, reduce emissions or find ways of utilizing them as energy resources, and reduce the waste stream.

Porous Paving: Paving surfaces designed to allow storm water infiltration and reduce runoff.

Post-Consumer Recycling: Use of materials generated from residential and consumer waste for new or similar purposes; e.g. converting wastepaper from offices into corrugated boxes or newsprint.

Post-Consumer Recycle Content: A product composition that contains some percentage of material that has been reclaimed from the same or another end use at the end of its former, useful life.

Post-Industrial Material: Industrial manufacturing scrap or waste; also called pre-consumer material.

Post-Industrial Recycle Content: A product composition that contains some percentage of manufacturing waste material that has been reclaimed from a process generating the same or a similar product. Also called pre-consumer recycle content.

Precautionary Principle: When information about potential risks is incomplete, basing decisions about the best ways to manage or reduce risks on a preference for avoiding unnecessary health risks instead of on unnecessary economic expenditures.

Pre-Consumer Materials/Waste: Materials generated in manufacturing and converting processes such as manufacturing scrap and trimmings and cuttings. Includes print overruns, over issue publications, and obsolete inventories.

Public Transportation: Mass transit, including bus and light rail systems. Sitting a building near public transit is considered a sustainable building strategy, as it facilitates commuting without the use of single occupancy vehicles.

Pyrolysis: Decomposition of a chemical by extreme heat.

Radiant Heat: Heat transferred in the form of light energy (including non-visible spectra). Distinct from conductive heat, occurring with the direct contact between two materials.

Radon: A colorless naturally occurring, radioactive, inert gas formed by radioactive decay of radium atoms in soil or rocks. Design strategies help reduce the amount of radon infiltration into a building and remove the gas that does infiltrate.

Rainwater Catchment/Harvest: On-site rainwater harvest and storage systems used to offset potable water needs for a building and/or landscape. Systems can take a variety of forms, but usually consist of a surface for collecting precipitation (roof or other impervious surface) and a storage system. Depending on the end use, a variety of filtration and purification systems may also be employed.

Reclamation: Restoration of materials found in the waste stream to a beneficial use that may be other than the original use.

Recycled Content: The content in a material or product derived from recycled materials versus virgin materials. Recycled content can be materials from recycling programs ("post-consumer") or waste materials from the production process or an industrial/agricultural source ("pre-consumer" or "post-industrial").

Recycling: Process by which materials that would otherwise become solid waste are collected, separated or processed and returned to the economic mainstream to be reused in the form of raw materials or finished goods.

Recycling Areas: Space dedicated to recycling activities is essential to a successful recycling program, both on the construction site and in the building after occupation. For strategies related to determining recycling area configuration and placement, see the Business and Industry Resource Venture site.

Recycling Bins: Containers to temporarily hold recyclable materials until transferred to a larger holding facility of pick-up by a recycling service. Conveniently located bins increase recycling rates by allowing occupants to recycle more easily. Designing space for recycling bins is a physical reminder of a commitment to recycling.

Re-entry: (In indoor air program) Refers to air exhausted from a building that is immediately brought back into the system through the air intake and other openings.

Refurbished: Products that have been upgraded to be returned to active use in their original form. Refurbishing is considered a form of reuse, and is preferable to recycling as it requires less processing and inputs to return a product to useful service.

Regional Manufacture: Goods produced within a certain radius of the project site. Using regionally produced goods is considered a sustainable building strategy in that it reduces the transportation impacts associated with the product, it often allows for a better understanding of the production process and increases the likelihood that the product was manufactured in accordance with environmental laws, and it supports regional economies.

Relative Humidity: Ratio of the amount of water vapor in air at a specific temperature to the maximum capacity of the air at that temperature.

Relite: Windows or translucent panels above doors or high in a partition wall intended to allow natural light to penetrate deeper into a building.

Renewable Resources: A resource that can be replenished at a rate equal to or greater than its rate of depletion; e.g., solar, wind, geothermal and biomass resources.

Renovation: Upgrade of an existing building or space that maintains the original structure of a building.

Resource Conservation: Practices that protect, preserve or renew natural resources in a manner that will ensure their highest economic or social benefits.

Respirable: Particles or aerosols capable of being inhaled into the deep lung, less than 3 microns in diameter.

Reuse: Using a product or component of municipal solid waste in its original form more than once; e.g., refilling a glass bottle that has been returned or using a coffee can to hold nuts and bolts. 1Reuse is a sustainable building strategy in that it reduces the strain on both renewable and nonrenewable resources, and when materials are reused on or near the site of salvage, they reduce transportation-related environmental impacts.

Risk: A measure of the probability of an adverse effect on a population under a well-defined exposure scenario.

Risk Assessment: Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the risk posed to human health and/or the environment by the actual or potential presence and/or use of specific pollutants.

Risk Factor Characteristics (e.g., race, sex, age, obesity) or variables (e.g., smoking, occupational exposure level) associated with increased probability of a toxic effect.

Route of Exposure: The avenue by which a chemical comes into contact with an organism, e.g., inhalation, ingestion, dermal contact, injection.

Salvage: Building materials diverted from the waste stream intended for reuse.

Sick Building Syndrome: Building whose occupants experience acute health and/or comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent therein, but where no specific illness or cause can be identified. Complaints may be localized in a particular room or zone, or may spread throughout the building.

Shower Facilities: In buildings that house workers, shower facilities are considered a green building feature in that they allow occupants that elect to travel by bicycle and other human powered modes of transportation to exercise this option.

Sisal: A durable natural fiber used as a floor covering, derived from leaves of the sisal plant.

Small: All else being equal, smaller is usually preferable in sustainable building. Larger buildings and spaces require more materials and energy to construct and use more resources to heat, cool and maintain.

Solar Collector: Any device used to capture or concentrate the sun’s energy. The leaves on a tree can be considered a solar collector, as can a window, solar panel, or dark surfaced thermal mass.

Solar Panels: General term for an assembly of photovoltaic modules. See photovoltaic. Use of solar panels is a sustainable building strategy in that it lessens a building’s reliance on nonrenewable sources of power distributed through the grid system.

Source Reduction: The design, manufacture, purchase or use of materials to reduce the amount or toxicity of waste in an effort to reduce pollution and conserve resources (i.e., reusing items, minimizing the use of products containing hazardous compounds, extending the useful life of a product and reducing unneeded packaging).

Practices that reduce the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise being released into the environment. Such practices also reduce the risk to public health and the environment associated with such releases. Term includes equipment or technology modifications, substitution of raw materials, and improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training or inventory control.

Stack Effect: Air, as in a chimney, that moves upward because it is warmer than the ambient atmosphere.

Staging: The sequencing and physical positioning of building materials on a construction site. Sustainable building pays particular attention to staging in order to minimize the impact to the construction site and protect materials from damage.

Stakeholder: Any organization, governmental entity, or individual that has a stake in or may be impacted by a given approach to environmental regulation, pollution prevention, energy conservation, etc.

Straw-Bale Construction: Alternative building method using bales of straw for wall systems. The method uses an agricultural waste product in place of diminishing dimensional lumber, and achieves high insulation values. It is a building method most appropriate for regions with relatively little precipitation.

Structural Insulated Panel (SIP): Manufactured panels consisting of a sandwich of polystyrene between two layers of engineered wood paneling. Can be used for walls, roof, or flooring, and result in a structure very resistant to air infiltration.

Subsidies: Economic incentives to engage in an activity or purchase a product. Subsidies can work for or against environmental protection. Governments and utilities will sometimes offer subsidies for technologies that decrease energy or water use.

Sulfur Dioxide (SO2): A heavy, smelly gas that can be condensed into a clear liquid; used to make sulfuric acid, bleaching agents, preservatives and refrigerants; a major source of air pollution in industrial areas.

Sunshades: Devices for blocking unwanted solar gain.

Sustainability: Practices that would ensure the continued viability of a product or practice well into the future.

Sustainable Development: An approach to progress that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Superfund: The program operated under the legislative authority of CERCLA and SARA that funds and carries out EPA solid waste emergency and long-term removal and remedial activities. These activities include establishing the National Priorities List, investigating sites for inclusion on the list, determining their priority, and conducting and/or supervising cleanup and other remedial actions.

Teratogenesis: The introduction of nonhereditary birth defects in a developing fetus by exogenous factors such as physical or chemical agents acting in the womb to interfere with normal embryonic development.

Thermal Break: Method of increasing the thermal performance of a material or assembly by reducing conductive heat loss. By inserting a less thermally conductive material in a material or assembly that bridges conditioned and unconditioned space, the conductive path is reduced or broken. An example is the thermal break featured in aluminum-framed windows.

Thermal Bridging: Unwanted heat loss or gain due to conduction through a material. An example of thermal bridging is heat loss that occurs with structural steel framing that is insufficiently insulated between conditioned and unconditioned space.

Thermal Mass: A mass (often stone, concrete, or brick) used to store heat and reduce temperature fluctuation in a space, by releasing heat slowly over time.

Thermal Pollution: The addition of heat to a body of water that may change the ecological balance.

Tipping Fee: Charge for the unloading or dumping of waste at a recycling facility, composting facility, landfill, transfer station or waste-to-energy facility.

Total Volatile Organic Compounds: The total mass, typically in milligrams per cubic meter, of the organic compounds collected in air.

Toxic: Capable of having an adverse effect on an organism; poisonous; harmful or deadly.

Toxic Release Inventory: Database of toxic releases in the United States compiled from SARA

Title III Section 313 reports.

Transpiration: The process by which water vapor is lost to the atmosphere from living plants. The term can also be applied to the quantity of water thus dissipated.

Trombe Wall: Thermal storage system used in passive solar design. A high-mass wall that stores heat from solar gain during the day and slowly radiates the heat back into the living space at night.

Truck Tire Wash Down Area: A strategy for removing dirt and other contaminants from construction vehicles in order to prevent storm water contamination related to transport of contaminants offsite on vehicle tires. A specified area is created for wash down, with structural controls in place to prevent wash down waters from entering the storm system or the larger environment.

Urea-Formaldehyde Foam Insulation: A material once used to conserve energy by sealing crawl spaces, attics, etc.; no longer used because emissions were found to be a health hazard.

U (U-Value): A measure of the amount of heat that flows in or out of a substance under constant conditions when there is a one degree difference between the air within and outside a building. U-values are used in determining the performance of a glazing system or window assembly.

Ventilation: Process by which outside air is conveyed to an indoor space.

Ventilation Control (by Occupants): The ability of building occupants to control ventilation rates. A strategy for giving control of comfort back to occupants, this can be achieved through access to individual electronic controls or by operable windows in workspaces. Studies show that giving increased control to occupants over their environment results in greater occupant tolerance for variability in the indoor environment.

Ventilation Rate: The rate at which indoor air enters and leaves a building. Expressed as the number of changes of outdoor air per unit of time: air changes per hour (ACH), or the rate at which a volume of outdoor air enters in cubic feet per minute (CFM).

Visual DOE: See Energy Modeling

Volatile Organic Compound (VOC): Organic substances capable of entering the gas phase from either a liquid or solid form.

Walk-off Mat: Design strategy for reducing the amount of contaminants introduced into an interior space by providing grating or other material to remove contaminants from shoes. A significant portion of contaminants in a building are brought in this way, impacting indoor environmental quality.

Wastewater: The spent or used water from a home, community, farm, or industry that contains dissolved or suspended matter.

Waste Management Plan: See Construction Waste Management

Water-Source Heat Pump: Heat pump that uses wells or heat exchangers to transfer heat from water to the inside of a building. Most such units use ground water. (See ground source heat pump; heat pump.)

Waterless Urinal: Urinal with no water line. Most designs use a specialized material that allows fluid to drain one-way into the sewer system.

Watts per Square Foot: A shorthand measure of the energy use of a building, often applied to indoor lighting. Energy codes often limit the watts per square foot based on building type and function.

Wetlands: An area that is saturated by surface or ground water with vegetation adapted for life under those soil conditions, as swamps, bogs, fens, marshes, and estuaries.

Wind Turbine: Device for generating electricity from wind; windmill.

Window Shading: Any device for reducing unwanted heat gain from a window.

Worm Bin: System for on-site management of food scraps and other organic materials. Similar to a compost bin, a worm bin uses worms to digest organic wastes, in a process known as "vermicomposting".

Sources:

http://www.epa.gov/OCEPAterms/aterms.html

http://antron.dupont.com/content/resources/green_glossary/ant06_04_01.shtml

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/rea_data/gl.html

http://lightingdesignlab.com/library/glossary.htm