Over the course of their lifetime, green buildings with eco-friendly design and resource-efficient usage save on operating costs, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and improve the residents’ quality of life.

Buildings impact directly and indirectly on their surrounding environment, as during their construction and over the course of their lifetime they draw huge volumes of energy, water, and raw materials. Aside from these demands on finite resources, they also emit a certain amount of harmful gases into the atmosphere. The negative impact of inefficient buildings has motivated the development of green, energy- and resource-efficient buildings on a global scale.