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The 3 Greatest Moments in Eco-friendly web design History
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Intelligent and responsible living means we are open to new ideas and are constantly trying to improve. This is especially true as we rework our ways of doing things to become greener and more environmentally responsible.
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Most people are aware of the dangers that older buildings can hold. There are the hazards of lead paint and asbestos. Fortunately, today's building professionals are creating healthy buildings using sustainable design and construction. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) created a rating system, LEED, to help identify green and sustainable building practices. This system identifies the important components of healthy building and strives to improve the conditions in the areas most vital for sustainable living.
The benefits for incorporating LEED policies include:
o Reducing operating costs
o Improved occupants' health
o Reducing impact on the environment
Reducing Operating Costs
According to USGBC research, in the US, buildings account for 72% of electricity use and 39% of energy use. Green buildings that reduce those numbers will see a reduction in operating costs. Some actions that can be taken are designing buildings to take advantage of renewable resources such as sunlight.
Buildings can be designed to use the sun passively, as in natural room lighting and heating, and can also be used for solar water heating. The sun can be used actively in electric-mechanical equipment such as pumps and fans to increase heat in a building. Buildings can also use solar panels for energy. Solar power has not been used to its full potential, and using it can bring operating costs down.
Improved Occupants' Health
Most of have heard the term "sick buildings", but it is usually the occupants that suffer more than the building. The rise in asthma and other respiratory illnesses has been linked to buildings that have hazardous materials such as asbestos and mold. LEED buildings are built with low emitting materials that are sustainable and healthier for occupants. They are also monitored for environmental tobacco smoke control, outdoor air delivery, and increased ventilation.
In addition to air quality, green buildings have better views and more daylight, as these have been shown to increase productivity and reduce stress. And buildings are also rated for their acoustical performance and thermal control, making the buildings more comfortable and enjoyable to be in.
Reducing Impact on the Environment
While in the past buildings may have been erected without much though to their environmental impact, we now realize the importance of protecting our environment by reducing our impact. One important way this is done is by intelligently designing the building in regards to water use. Storm water runoff is a serious problem as it can keep water from returning to its natural underground basin, and it can carry manmade pollutants. Buildings and parking lots prevent water returning to the basins so sustainable designs correct this problem, reserving water and reducing pollution.
There are many steps needed to sustainably design and construct buildings, and the LEED system not only points the way but helps us learn all the benefits we can gain with greener buildings.
If you want to generate more traffic to your company website, you have to put in a lot of effort coming up with at least a good design by yourself. If you do not have natural talents in arts and designing, you could perhaps hire a website designer to do the job for you.
Basically, the importance of having a website designer for your website is that it will greatly help your website to look attractive. Additionally, you could also instruct Sustainable web design the designer to make or redesign its visual features so that the outcome would be one that not only pleases you but the site visitors as well.
A website designer doesn't need to worry about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) as their job is to come up with and design a striking website. If a website needed to be Optimised for the search engines as well as having a attractive design the SEO would be a separate job for an SEO company or individual unless the designer knew how to do SEO as well as website design.
There are actually a lot of roles that a professional website designer could have. Actually, the variety of work that he could accept can also depend on the type of employment he has, whether he is only paid per project or on a long-term basis.
For a contractual designer, his tasks will primarily consist of designing the website and making it look more attractive and appropriate for the type of business that owns it. For example, if a security gadget firm owns that particular website, he may have to incorporate visual elements that signify security like cameras, stun guns, etc.
This description is actually a generalised one. To be more specific, the designer is actually expected to come up with an eye-pleasing integration of interface, buttons, background, icon design. In fact, he is expected to make a good combination of all website variables and make it appear as a single unit.
For a long-term website designer however, job descriptions may slightly vary. The good thing is that if you are a web designer for a certain company, you are expected to do the jobs of contractual designers plus other added tasks.
Since they hired you for long-term, they must be expecting you to maintain the current integrity of their website design. Along with that, you should also be able to improve (not worsen) the current design that the website has.
In some companies, they may ask their designers to update and change the design of their site from time to time so that the website visitors get to see some variations and the search engines see some activity. Web administrators may also ask their web designers to change the design of their pages per season. Say, it is Christmas season so the designer would have to make the visitors feel as if it is really Christmas when they visit your web page.
Changing the theme of a website can sometimes be a problem for the website designer as they may not have set up the website to be updated easily and may be expensive for these changes.
That's why it's important to have an agreement on what changes will be made to the website before the website designer begins working on it.