Term Project Idea - Does an Intelligent Building Inherently Make the Building Sustainable

Project Description:

For our term project we have teamed up to discuss if an "Intelligent Building Inherently Makes the Building Sustainable".  Looking at this topic will be interesting because both of these building descriptions, sustainable and intelligent, are still somewhat undefined by the industry.  While there have been many strides in the sustainability world to write standards on what makes a building sustainable these standards are still a little ambiguous and vary depending on what system you use to measure the sustainability (LEED, Green Globes).  The term, Intelligent buildings, has really just broken into the market in recent years and in doing so the exact definition is still rather vague.  Our paper will focus on first defining the standards for both sustainability and intelligence and then will look more into how the two work together.  We may find that some features we call intelligent today may actually not help the sustainability of the building.  Being such a vague topic we are going to have to do a lot of research to provide specific detailed examples and their individual comparisons.

We chose this topic because of our interest in sustainability and what new trends in intelligent buildings can do for sustainability.  This unique interplay of intelligent buildings and sustainable buildings lead to the discussion of how they impact each other and we decided we wanted to look into this in greater detail.


Outline:

Does an Intelligent Building Inherently Make the Building Sustainable

1. Introduction
1. Why we chose the topic/the need to discuss the topic
2. Background (brief history of the transition of buildings incorporating technology)
2. What Makes an Intelligent Building
1. Definition
1. Industry Definition
2. Public Perception
2. What systems are currently being used in intelligent buildings
3. What Makes a Sustainable Buildings
1. Definition
1. Industry Definition
2. Public Perception
3. LEED’s Definition (Benchmarking)
2. Systems that make a building sustainable
1. Major systems (electrical, water, HVAC/energy use)
4. How Do These Buildings Relate
1. What features of Intelligent buildings enhance the building’s sustainability
2. What features of Sustainable buildings need to be addressed with Intelligent features
5. How Can Intelligent Buildings Further the Sustainability Within Buildings
1. Future Technology
2. Where the Industry is Going
6. CONCLUSION
1. Do Intelligent buildings inherently make the building sustainable

Sources: The main portion of our paper will be how these buildings relate: the definition of the buildings will keep the scope of the paper narrowed enough to compare the two aspects.  These definitions will be a combination of our personal opinions, scholarly articles, and news articles (to get a public opinion).  The future technology will be any additionally information that we come across while researching and feel strongly enough about to warrant further research, but not included in the scope of this paper.