Sustainable building practices: lead to healthier indoor air quality; sustainable building practices evolve to ensure that buildings are designed, constructed, and maintained in a productive and health conscious manner.(Brief Article)

Poor indoor air quality is ranked as one of our nation's greatest health risks. Current medical data indicates that over 60 million Americans suffer from debilitating asthma, allergies, respiratory disease, and general illness associated with indoor air pollution. These illnesses compromise quality of life and cost the US economy billions of dollars in lost productivity, absenteeism, and medical care every year. Indoor pollution consists of airborne levels of fine particles and volatile chemicals such as formaldehyde, which primarily result from building materials, interior furnishings, and building processes such as cleaning and equipment usage.

To address this indoor public health threat, sustainable building practices have evolved to ensure that buildings are designed, constructed, and maintained in a productive and health conscious manner. Green building principles focus on the reduction of environmental impacts associated with the construction of the building, its operational processes, and the production of raw materials used in the building. Sustainable goals have recently gone beyond the traditional principle of reducing environmental impact to include improvement and protection of occupant health and productivity, enhancement of indoor air quality, and efficient use of energy, water, and material resources. Recent green building designs programs …