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The release this month of the report, "The Influence of Risk Factors on Sustainable Development," marks the first time that the 174-year-old firm has made its technical research widely available to the public. FM Global specializes in comprehensive commercial and industrial property insurance.
In addition to presenting research findings, the report includes tips on how building owners and designers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions that result from fire and natural disaster risks.
Points highlighted in the findings include:
• As the trend to build greener facilities increases, so does the potential for unintended consequences.
• Efforts to improve sustainability solely by increasing energy efficiency (without consideration of risk) have the potential to increase the relevance of risk factors by a factor of 3.
• Barring natural disasters, fire is the greatest risk to any non-manufacturing structure and in a standard office building, the risk of fire increases carbon emissions by 1 percent to 2 percent over the lifecycle of the structure.
• Fire risk factors can add as much as 14 percent to the carbon emissions of a facility exposed to extensive fire hazards over the lifetime of that structure.
• In areas exposed to natural hazards, such as strong high winds on the East and Gulf coasts in the U.S., risk from wind damage increases carbon emissions over the lifecycle of a typical industrial building by 1 percent to 2 percent.
Such risks, the report said, can be countered by installing automatic fire sprinkler systems and, in the case of wind risks, by employing "robust roof design and construction," among other measures.
"Appropriate and cost effective risk management practices can be selected to minimize risk and hence reduce the associated emissions," the report said. "The risk management practices have (the) complementary benefit of improving businss continuity and enhancing life safety that generally make them wise decisions ... "
The report is available free from FM Global at http://www.fmglobal.com/researchreports, but registration information is requested.
Image CC licensed by redjar
Solutions to Hidden Risks of Green Buildings
The great irony of building green is that the very concepts intended to enhance a building's performance over its entire lifetime are many of the same things that make a building highly susceptible to moisture and mold problems during its first few years of operation.
In our professional opinion, the solution to good-performing, regionally correct, lower-risk green buildings is at least three-fold:
1) Development of a set of Climate Design Criteria that integrates (and prioritizes) climate-specific criteria with current green building practices. Best practices for moisture control must take priority over green building practices.
2) Development of a detailed Green Building Risk Management Plan that provides guidelines for the design and construction team from concept through the 1-year warranty period. These guidelines would incorporate the best ideas of green building specialists, moisture control specialists, construction attorneys, and insurance companies.
3) Apply the lessons learned from past building successes and failures and make green building concepts subservient to these past lessons.