Top 10 Courses: Sustainable Design

Green Design: Introduction to Sustainable Design Materials and Resources

3 Hours | Only $119.85
Help moving our system of construction toward sustainability by learning about materials with low environmental impact that contribute to the creation of healthful, energy efficient buildings! This course provides an introduction to materials and techniques that are both ecologically efficient and ecologically effective. Topics covered include: life-cycle analysis and defining characteristics of sustainable materials; environmental, economic, cultural, and aesthetic benefits; selection and analysis techniques; design for material and building reuse; construction waste management; regional and renewable resources; and certified wood. Plus, you’ll get an overview of LEED MR (materials and resources) credits.

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Green Design: Introduction to Sustainable Water Systems I

2 Hour | Only $79.90
It is often said that people need to think globally and act locally. This is especially true when dealing with water resources. Unlike any other resource, water cycles through the earth’s environments at global and continental scales, but at each step of that journey serves as a highly valued local resource. This is the first course in the sustainable approach to water in buildings, sites, and campuses series. It systematically introduces key concepts that help professionals understand the larger watershed and community water systems that local development practices impact, and discusses the cultural, social, economic, and health benefits communities derive from earth’s water systems. A brief overview of the LEED WE ratings is included.

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Green Design: Introduction to Sustainable Sites

1 Hour | Only $39.95
Experience and training may predispose architects to see buildings as isolated objects, but true green design means looking beyond the building to understand both how projects are shaped by wider concerns and how your decisions affect the broader world. As such, a reconsideration of site design is often a first step on the path to a greener mode of practice. This course gives you the conceptual foundation you need to begin practicing environmentally progressive site design. It covers various aspects of site sustainability – such as water, solar environment, natural ventilation, transportation, and civic patterns – and considers each at a variety of scales (from the individual parcel to the neighborhood) and within larger regional and global contexts. Start making ecologically informed decisions about site design while laying the foundation for further, more detailed study of various issues related to site sustainability.

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Green Design: Introduction to Sustainability and Measurement Systems

2 Hours | Only $77.90
"Achieving sustainable development is perhaps one of the most difficult and one of the most pressing goals we face. It requires on the part of all of us commitment, action, partnerships and, sometimes, sacrifices of our traditional life patterns and personal interests."  - Mostafa Tolba, Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development
And that’s why this course takes on elucidating the concept of sustainability and the need for ways to rate the sustainability of a building design. In addition, it describes three rating systems developed by the US Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the goals each strives to achieve: LEED for New Construction (NC), LEED for Existing Buildings (EB) and LEED for Commercial Interiors (CI). The course also outlines for a prospective candidate the process of becoming a LEED Accredited Professional and finally, compares other green building rating systems to the USGBC system.

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Green Design: Introduction to High Performance Building Design

4 Hours | Only $159.80
There is consensus among the majority of scientists that the climate of the earth is warming, and that some of this change is attributable to human activity. This course details the ways buildings use (and produce) energy and how they can be designed to optimize energy performance, and discusses activities and plans for improving building designs in the future. The requirements of the Energy and Atmosphere portion of the USGBC’s LEED New Construction (NC) Rating System are reviewed as well.

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Green Design: Perspectives on Innovation

1 Hours | Only $39.95
The Innovation in Design Credit (ID) is one of the more vaguely defined credits in the LEED structure. To have a better understanding of the credit (and to increase your odds of earning it), this course focuses on the process of sustainable design and the issues in our culture and industry that can be challenged in the search for ecologically innovative tactics and strategies. LEED offers many credits as isolated points for decreasing a structure’s ecological footprint, but to innovate one must combine and relate all of the potential design moves into one system in which the moves work in unison on multiple related cultural and technical levels.

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LEED Certification and Green Building: An Introduction

1 Hours | Only $26.95
As the push for green design and construction continues to grow, numerous green building agencies and accreditation organizations have evolved, with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program at the fore. This fundamental course introduces you to a number of green building and green certification programs, with an emphasis on LEED. It begins with a look at what green is, why it is popular, and what impacts it has on the environment; then moves into the way AIA standard forms provide for sustainable design issues. The course wraps up with a close look at the USGBC's LEED Certification and Accreditation process.

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Green Design: Introduction to Indoor Environmental Air Quality

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Green Design: Designing Relationships to Nature

 3 Hour | Only $119.85
This course tackles the question, "How do I design to place people into rich and significant relationships with nature?" by exploring practical design ideas; peoples’ perception of nature; portable strategies; and metaphors. Rich with design examples that have successfully integrated nature into design, you’ll learn at least five major ways of understanding the idea of nature and numerous strategies and principles for designing with nature in mind.

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Solar Electric Generation: Technologies

5 Hours | Only $134.75
Rolling blackouts in California in 2000 and 2001, low hydro generation in the Pacific Northwest in 2001, and a power plant construction boom in Texas have all drawn attention to electricity issues in the West. Solar conditions are optimal for the production of solar energy in the desert southwest – and yet solar energy remains underutilized. See how the sun’s power can be harnessed with different types of solar generating technologies, and take a look at the area’s potential for producing clean, renewable, affordable energy.

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