Green Technologies
There are 422 entries in this glossary.I
- Impervious Surface
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A surface that sheds the precipitation falling on it, rather than infiltrating. Impervious surfaces can lead to excessive stormwater runoff and limit the amount of stormwater that remains onsite or recharges local aquifers. Pervious or porous surfaces allow some water infiltration, thereby reducing runoff.
- Indigenous Planting
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Landscaping strategy that uses native plants. Provided the natives are placed in the proper growing conditions; such plantings can have low, or zero supplemental water needs. Indoor Adhesive, Sealant and/or Sealant Primer Product: Defined as an adhesive or sealant product applied on-site, inside of the building’s weatherproofing system.
- Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
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ASHRAE defines acceptable indoor air quality as air in which there are no known contaminants at harmful concentrations as determined by cognizant authorities and with which 80% or more people exposed do not express dissatisfaction. The nature of air inside the space that affects the health and well-being of building occupants.
- Industrial Ecology
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An approach to the design of industrial products and processes that evaluates such activities through the dual perspectives of product competitiveness and environmental interactions.
- Infiltration
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The penetration of water through the ground surface into sub-surface soil or the penetration of water from the soil into sewer or other pipes through defective joints, connections, or manhole walls.
The technique of applying large volumes of waste water to land to penetrate the surface and percolate through the underlying soil. 1 Uncontrolled inward air leakage to conditioned spaces through unintentional openings in ceilings, floors and walls from unconditioned spaces or the outdoors caused by the same pressure differences that induce exfiltrations.
- Inflow
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Entry of extraneous rain water into a sewer system from sources other than infiltration, such as basement drains, manholes, storm drains, and street washing.
- Infrared Radiation
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Radiation emitted by the Earth's surface, the atmosphere and the clouds. It is also known as terrestrial or long-wave radiation. Infrared radiation has a distinctive range of wavelengths ("spectrum") longer than the wavelength of the red color in the visible part of the spectrum. The spectrum of infrared radiation is practically distinct from that of solar or short-wave radiation because of the difference in temperature between the Sun and the Earth-atmosphere system.
- Insolation
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The amount of sunlight (direct, diffuse and reflected) reaching an area exposed to the sky.
- Installation Inspection
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The process of inspecting components of the commissioned systems to determine if they are installed properly and ready for systems performance testing.
- Insulated Concrete Form
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Expanded polystyrene forms that are left in place after the concrete is poured for a foundation or wall. The foam increases the thermal performance of the structure over non-insulated concrete.
- Integrated Design
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A holistic process that considers the many disparate parts of a building project, and examines the interaction between design, construction, and operations to optimize the energy and environmental performance of the project. The strength of this process is that all relevant issues are considered simultaneously in order to “solve for pattern” or solve many problems with one solution. The goal of integrated design is developments that have the potential to heal damages environments and become net producers of energy, healthy food, clean water and air, and healthy human and biological communities.
- Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
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A mixture of chemical and other, non-pesticide, methods to control pests. A pest control strategy that focuses on prevention and intervention to reduce pest problems, and aims to reduce, and even eliminate, the use of synthetic pesticides. IPM strategies deprive pests of entry and food sources; they include planting local plant varieties that naturally strive under local environmental conditions and instituting beneficial insects and microorganisms to control pest populations.
- Integrated Waste Management
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The complementary use of a variety of practices to handle solid waste safely and effectively. Techniques include source reduction, recycling, composting, combustion and landfilling.
