With environmental consciousness becoming a way of life, interest in conservation, resource depletion prevention, construction material recycling, and building green is growing. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), current initiatives involving the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system are found in 90 cities, 29 counties, 20 towns, 30 states, 12 federal agencies or departments, 15 public school jurisdictions, and 37 institutions of higher education across the United States.

Chicago, for example, requires that all city-funded projects meet the LEED certification standard and has offered faster permitting and reduced fees for green building projects. The state of Maryland requires that all new public construction and major renovation projects of 7,500 square feet or greater achieve LEED Silver certification. Washington State requires all projects greater than 5,000 square feet that receive capital funds to be certified to the LEED Silver standard. Building solutions that previously focused on reliability, cost effectiveness, and construction efficiency now need to be environmentally sensitive, save energy, and not deplete natural resources.

The green construction movement has resulted in the birth of an entire industry based on green products and engineering solutions to help projects reach LEED or other green building goals. With project owners requesting this increasing number of green building options, more and more architects and engineers are looking for ways to increase sustainability in unlikely places.

Selection of the foundation system is seldom considered during green construction projects, but it may impact green innovations significantly. While traditional geotechnical solutions provide satisfactory foundation support on poor soil sites and may hit the mark relative to performance, many solutions tend to be environmentally insensitive. For instance, where undocumented fill or soft soil does not provide adequate bearing capacity or settlement control for shallow spread footings, typical recommendations include removal and replacement of the poor soil or deep foundations that penetrate the unsuitable soil. While both solutions carry financial implications on a project, they also have environmental price tags that must be considered.

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