The LEED rating system is well recognized globally when it comes to sustainable design and construction. Used in roughly 150 countries, the USGBC has certified more buildings around the world under its LEED rating system than any other green building rating system, but it is not the only rating system owners can use to rate the level of sustainability for their buildings.
With green building becoming increasingly popular worldwide, new rating systems are continually being created or tweaked, so much so that I stopped counting them several years ago. While there are similarities between all rating systems, they each have some characteristics that make them unique or specialized. However, the number of choices available could make it challenging to determine which tool to use, particularly for a person who has never used or, perhaps even, never heard of the many systems in the marketplace. Following is a breakdown of some of the most popular green rating systems available, outside of LEED.
BREEAM
The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology, or BREEAM, is the U.K.’s leading green building rating system. It was established in 1990-10 years before LEED-and is used in approximately 77 countries and has completed more than a half a million certifications. The green rating system’s BREEAM IN-USE, an online environmental assessment tool that allows for independent, third-party assessment and certification of a building, recently became available in the U.S. and is targeted to existing commercial buildings that are currently not LEED certified. Using a series of questions, the tool allows users to assess and improve their buildings’ performance in the categories of Management, Health and Well-Being, Energy, Transport, Water, Materials, Waste, Land Use, and Ecology and Pollution. Once their buildings are up to standards, owners can hire a licensed assessor to certify their buildings.
Energy Star
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s Energy Star program has been around eight years longer than LEED, but hasn’t been certifying buildings for much longer than LEED and hasn’t certified nearly as many buildings. Energy Star is considered a green building rating system, but this program focuses on the energy performance of the building, with the goal of promoting energy efficiency.
It does not look at the site logistics or the materials used in the building. To be eligible for certification, a building must be proven to perform better than at least 75 percent of similar buildings across the country. And, to keep the certification, a building must maintain its level of energy efficiency from year to year as the certification is verified annually. The program has certified tens of thousands of facilities nationwide.
Green Globes
The Green Building Initiative created the Green Globes (GG) rating system based on the American National Standard ANSI/GBI 01-2010. Green Globes and LEED are probably the most similar to each other, but they are still two very different rating systems.
LEED bases a building’s certification on the documentation provided to a reviewer at the end of construction, whereas GG sends an assessor to the site to review the completed project. Both LEED and GG require the project team to secure evidence of the energy savings of the building. LEED requires energy simulation models using a compliant American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standard 90.1 base building, while GG looks at the building performance compared to the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey
(CBECS) database. LEED and GG have categories for the materials used in the construction of a building, and they both also award points for recycled content of materials, the location of extraction/manufacturing of materials, the use of bio-based materials and certified wood.
However, LEED requires the wood certification from the Forestry Stewardship Council, while GG is not so specific. GG, unlike the current version of LEED, has specific credit language for project teams using Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCA) tools when selecting the materials used in the building. GG has no prerequisites or minimum program requirements, whereas the current version of LEED has both.
Living Building Challenge
The Living Building Challenge, created by the International Living Future Institute, moves beyond concept design and construction practices and considers the operation of a building before granting certification. The Living Building Challenge certification program takes into account a broader view of sustainability than might be found in the previously described rating systems. This program embraces the philosophy of a restorative future by looking at a building’s performance over time. Certification under this program is not granted until the building has been occupied and the performance of the building can be documented during a period of one year.
While these are an example of just a few of the rating systems available in the marketplace, they all have a place and purpose. Some of these systems are more specific to a geographical region, some are more specific to one aspect of the built environment, and still others take a holistic view of the impacts buildings have on the planet. Each building owner must decide at the onset of each project what is important to them and then assemble a team that possesses the best tools to create the envisioned space. If one considers the rating systems themselves to create beautiful sustainable buildings, having more choices at our fingertips should mean that everyone can find one that suits their individual needs.
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Thomas Taylor, a 30-year veteran of the construction industry and noted expert on sustainability, is a principal and co-founder of St. Louis-based Vertegy. To learn more about Vertegy or Taylor, visit www.vertegyconsultants.com.