A STEP FORWARD ENHANCING GREEN BUILDINGS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract

Sustainability is essential for maintaining certain levels of life quality for next generations. Accordingly, Egypt started to establish its own rating system to achieve sustainable development. There are several green building rating systems that are recently used such as: the LEED (Leadership in energy and environmental Design) rating system, Green Pyramid Rating System “GPRS”, and TARSHEED rating system. GPRS and LEED are almost the same since GPRS is based on LEED. Due to the significant cultural and environmental changes between Egypt and the United States, LEED rating system cannot be implemented in Egypt. On the other hand, the rating system TARSHEED includes three categories only, namely energy, water, and habitat, to determine sustainable construction performances. For example, waste management category which is one of Egypt’s challenges is ignored by TARSHEED. This research introduces a new modified rating system for new construction with new weights to suit Egypt requirements. This work presents a comprehensive study and comparative analysis between the existing green building rating systems for new construction in Egypt. Moreover, some surveys and questionnaires are conducted to take the experts opinion in the green field. A new checklist for new construction is constructed using data obtained from Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) decision making tool. This list includes new categories and subcategories with new weights, which suit the environmental challenges in Egypt.