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Elsevier

Green Building: An Engineering Approach to Sustainable Construction

  • 1st Edition - June 5, 2025
  • Latest edition
  • Author: Christian M. Carrico
  • Language: English

**2026 Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) Most Promising New Textbook Award Winner**Green Building: An Engineering Approach to Sustainable Construction… Read more

Description

**2026 Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) Most Promising New Textbook Award Winner**

Green Building: An Engineering Approach to Sustainable Construction fills a void in green building which has good textbook options for practitioners, architects, and sustainability experts, but not an engineering focused textbook focused on green building. This new text takes an engineering approach to evaluating green building techniques, systems, and materials. The book examines the built environment from inside out, looking at minimizing environmental impacts while also considering the economics and energy use and efficiency. While not a test-prep book, it will provide the knowledge foundation that will help prepare the students to take the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accreditation exam.

As students are often unclear on the evolving employment prospects in this field, particularly for the engineer, the textbook also features six case studies showing different career pathways for engineers in this arena.

Key features

  • Takes a quantitative and analytical engineering approach to evaluating green building techniques, systems, and materials
  • Includes dedicated engineering examples and end-of-chapter problems that help develop students’ problem-solving and analytical skills
  • Combines conceptual and calculational aspects that link to both big-picture issues (e.g., how many Hiroshima blasts per year is the radiative forcing equivalent to, along with everyday considerations like climate change real-life experiences (how much do I have to insulate my chicken coop to keep them warm passively in the winter)
  • Links textbook coverage to ABET criteria for accreditation of engineering programs

Readership

Junior and senior undergraduate students studying primarily in civil, environmental and construction engineering

Table of contents

1. Introduction: How Have We Arrived Here?

2. Motivation: Why Do It Differently?

3. Energy Mechanics: Key Underlying Concepts

4. Buildings and Energy Use: Embodied and Ongoing Building Energy Use

5. Green Design: Starting the Project or Renovation Right

6. Materials: Choosing the Best Options

7. Engineered Mechanical Systems: Evaluating System Choices

8. Hydro Systems: Water is Energy

9. Onsite Renewable Energy Systems: Advancing Distributed Energy Production

10. Indoor Environmental Quality: Maintaining Healthy Buildings

11. Green Sites: Harmonizing the Built and Surrounding Natural Environments

12. Economics and Policy Options: Choosing Cost Effective Measures

13. Resiliency Engineering: Designing for Future Disruptions

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: July 25, 2025
  • Language: English

About the author

CC

Christian M. Carrico

Dr. Kip Carrico is an Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering at New Mexico Tech. Dr. Carrico’s area of specialization is air quality, aerosols, climate change and their relationship to energy. His experience includes co-authorship on over 50 technical journal articles in the peer-reviewed literature. He has taught junior-senior level classes on air quality, thermodynamics, energy and the environment, and green building among others. Prior to joining the faculty at New Mexico Tech, he served as a senior scientist and project manager at AECOM, Inc., providing consulting for industrial clients, many in the energy sector. Previous positions included research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University and postdoctoral scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology Civil and Environmental Engineering program. Dr. Carrico earned a PhD in Environmental Engineering with an air quality and climate specialization from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Affiliations and expertise
Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, New Mexico, United States

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