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4 Background Research: International

4.1 Introduction

International tools has been examined in a similar way to those above. This section looks at the most widely accepted, including BREEAM and LEED, which many of the Australian and New Zealand tools have been based on. A summary of the types of tools available is provided in Table 4-1, below.

Table 4-1 Summary of International Tools Available

View summary of international tools available (large table).

4.2 Details for International Tools

4.2.1 BREEAM (UK)

Overview and Purpose

Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) was developed to assess the environmental performance of both new and existing buildings. It is now the world’s most widely used assessment tool. Since its launch in 1990, BREEAM has been increasingly accepted in the UK construction and property sectors as offering best practice in environmental design and management.

BREEAM offers a range of benefits, from environmental to financial including:

  • compliance with environmental requirements

  • environmental improvement: in support of a wider corporate strategy or as a standalone contribution

  • occupant benefits: to create a better place for people to work and live

  • marketing: as a selling point to potential tenants or customers

  • financial: to achieve higher rental incomes and increased building efficiency

  • best practice: to provide a thorough checklist or tool for comparing buildings

  • client request: responding to the requirements of users.

Application

BREEAM covers a range of building types: offices, industrial units, and, recently added retail units and schools. These can either be new or existing. Other building types, such as leisure centres and laboratories, can be assessed using a bespoke version of BREEAM.

BREEAM is the best established rating tool, having started in 1990. Since then it has gone through many iterations of the standards and adaptations to different market sectors. BREEAM has certified over 1500 projects and has been widely imitated internationally.

General Methodology

BREEAM assesses the performance of buildings in the following areas:

  • management: overall management policy, commissioning site management and procedural issues

  • energy use: operational energy and carbon dioxide (CO2) issues

  • health and well-being: indoor and external issues affecting health and well-being

  • pollution: air and water pollution issues

  • transport: transport-related CO2 and location-related factors

  • land use: greenfield and brownfield sites

  • ecology: ecological value conservation and enhancement of the site

  • materials: environmental implication of building materials, including life-cycle impacts

  • water: consumption and water efficiency.

Credits are awarded in each area according to performance. A set of environmental weightings then enables the credits to be added together to produce a single overall score. The building is then rated on a scale of pass, good, very good or excellent, and a certificate awarded that can be used for promotional purposes.

Users

Clients, planners, development agencies and developers use BREEAM to specify the sustainability performance of their buildings in a way that is quick, comprehensive and visible in the market-place. Property agents use it to promote the environmental credentials and benefits of a building to potential purchasers and tenants. Design teams use it as a tool to improve the performance of their buildings and their own experience and knowledge of environmental aspects of sustainability. Managers use it to measure the performance of buildings and develop action plans, monitor and report performance at both the local and portfolio level.

Sponsor

BREEAM is developed and implemented by the UK’s Building Research Establishment (BRE).

4.2.2 LEED (US)

Overview and Purpose

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a rapidly growing green building system developed by the US Green Building Council and released in 2000. USGBC has developed the system as a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Through this tool they aim to encourage and accelerate global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through “the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted standards, tools and performance criteria” (LEED website).

LEED was created to:

  • define “green building” by establishing a common standard of measurement

  • promote integrated, whole-building design practices

  • recognise environmental leadership in the building industry

  • stimulate green competition

  • raise consumer awareness of green building benefits

  • validate achievement through third party review

  • contribute to a growing green building knowledge base.

Application

The LEED rating system can be applied to almost any building project. Variations include:

  • LEED-NC: new commercial construction and major renovations

  • LEED-EB: existing building operations

  • LEED-CI: commercial interiors projects

  • LEED-CS: core and shell projects

  • LEED-H: homes

  • LEED-ND: neighbourhood development

  • LEED application guides: retail, multiple buildings/campuses, schools, healthcare, laboratories, and lodging.

Additional versions are also under development. The LEED system has only been implemented since March 2000, but has already achieved widespread market acceptance, having been adopted by almost 1000 projects representing 4-6 percent of commercial floor-space annually.

General Methodology

The LEED tool works on a system of prerequisites and credits. There is a prescribed methodology for achieving LEED certification from registration, which ideally takes place during the early stages of project design. The LEED project checklist is used as a scorecard to identify prerequisites and award credits, which are collated to obtain a total score for the project.

Specific aspects are assessed under the following categories:

  • sustainable sites

  • water efficiency

  • energy and atmosphere

  • materials and resources

  • indoor environmental quality

  • innovation and design process.

The applicant project must satisfy all of the prerequisites and obtain a minimum number of points to attain a LEED rating level. Developers of the project will then earn a LEED certification plaque and certificate, and qualify for a growing array of state and local government initiatives.

Users

LEED has been developed for use as a tool by all building professionals. Registration is online and applications are assessed internally by LEED accredited assessors.

Sponsor

The LEED scheme has been developed and is continually refined by United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) members, who collectively represent almost every sector of the building industry.

4.2.3 LEED Canada

The Canada Green Building Council launched LEED Canada for New Construction, the Canadian adapted version of LEED. LEED Canada for New Construction and Major Renovations Version 1.0 is an adaptation of USGBC’s LEED Rating System, tailored specifically for Canadian climates, construction practices and regulations. All new construction projects in Canada now register with the Canada Green Building Council during project design.

Sponsor

The Canada Green Building Council is a broad-based inclusive coalition of representatives from different segments of the design and building industry.

4.2.4 GBTool (Canada)

Overview and Purpose

GBTool is the method used to assess the potential energy and environmental performance of the case study projects in the Green Building Challenge (GBC) process, an international effort to establish a common language for describing “green buildings”, which now includes teams from 20 countries.

A feature of GBTool that sets it apart from existing assessment systems is that the software is designed from the outset to reflect the very different priorities, technologies, building traditions and even cultural values that exist in various regions and countries.

Application

GBTool software has been developed by Natural Resources Canada on behalf of the GBC group of countries and may not be used for commercial purposes, except as per agreements that may be worked out between potential users, the relevant national team and NRCan. So although it is not intended for direct application by end users, members of national GBC teams and others are free to draw from GBTool in whole or part for use in the creation of assessment tools. The current version of the GBTool provides the opportunity for more generic description of buildings with up to four different occupancies.

GBTool is designed to be applicable across a wide range of regions and building types. It thus follows a common approach and structure with adaptations made to suit national or regional needs.

General Methodology

The version of GBTool used in GBC2002 consisted of a single Microsoft Excel workbook which was broken into six worksheets: two were intended for all users (Intro and ID), followed by assessment worksheets and design data worksheets that contain scoring fields for all the sub-criteria and criteria. Weights assigned in earlier worksheets are applied to give a final score.

Section Four contains three worksheets: report, weight and result. These summarise and show results of the previous inputs. Performance scales for those criteria that are described quantitatively are automatically generated within GBTool by the difference between a “best” performance target and the benchmark or in terms of the percentage of resource saved or used.

The resulting quantitative scales are represented by absolute values derived from scaling between the benchmark and target values. This procedure is done automatically by algorithms built into GBTool so that, while the difficulty of deciding the target value remains, the opportunity for errors is reduced.

A critical feature of GBTool is that scoring is made relative to explicitly declared benchmarks. The choice of benchmark value is therefore critical in the overall performance assessment and a feature that requires clear direction and careful selection and use.

Users

The worksheets are divided into four main sections, arranged primarily according to those responsible for their completion: Section One is completed by persons who are not linked to the design, or by people who are undertaking the assessment; and Section Two is completed by a team of people who are knowledgeable about the design, presumably the designers themselves.

Sponsor

GBC (Green Building Challenge) is an international collaborative effort to develop a building environmental assessment tool that exposes and addresses controversial aspects of building performance from which the participating countries can selectively draw ideas to either incorporate into or modify their own tools.

4.2.5 CASBEE (Japan)

Overview and Purpose

The Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE) is the Japanese assessment tool developed to promote environmental assessment of building design and encourage the implementation of sustainable building mechanisms based on new concepts such as Building Environmental Efficiency (BEE). It is intended to provide an incentive for building owners, designers and users to develop high-quality sustainable buildings.

Application

The basic CASBEE tool suite was introduced in 2002 and is applicable to a diverse range of individual applications, but there are four main variants of the tool to suit different applications: pre-design, new construction, existing building and renovation.

Pre-design: To evaluate the basic environmental impact of the project and select a suitable site.

New construction: A self-assessment check system that allows architects and engineers to raise the BEE value of a building during the design process.

Existing building: A tool to target existing building stock, based on operation records for at least one year after completion.

Renovation: There is growing demand for building renovation, especially in Japan. This tool is designed to ascertain the degree of improvement (increased BEE), relative to the level that preceded renovation.

General Methodology

Two score sheets are filled out by an assessor at each design phase. Under CASBEE there are two categories, internal and external. These two factors are coded Q and L, and are evaluated separately. These are further divided into sub-categories as Q-1 (Indoor Environment), Q-2 (Quality of Service) and Q-3 (Outdoor Environment on Site); and LR-1 (Energy), LR-2 (Resources & Materials) and LR-3 (Off-site Environment). A five-level scoring system is used, with a score of level 3 indicating an “average”. Scores for each assessment item are then multiplied by a weighting co-efficient according to importance.

  • Q (Quality): Building Environmental Quality and Performance:
    Evaluates improvement in living amenity for the building users, within the site.

  • L (Loadings): Building Environmental Loadings:
    Evaluates negative environmental impacts beyond the property boundaries.

CASBEE also ensures the following four assessment fields are covered: (1) energy efficiency; (2) resource efficiency; (3) local environment; and (4) indoor environment

Users

CASBEE is a self-assessment tool to help owners, planners, architects and engineers develop better and more sustainable building practices.

Sponsor

CASBEE has been developed by a Japanese Sustainable Building Consortium.

4.3 Concluding Comments

There are a large number of environmental rating systems internationally, but only several have gained significant market acceptance and use. The two that have achieved greatest prominence within their respective market sectors are LEED in the US (including LEED Canada) and BREEAM in the UK, though it is likely that others will become more widely accepted as they are further developed and improved.

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