Sustainable Rating Systems in Buildings: An Overview and Gap Analysis

Abstract

Nowadays environmental issues are of the main role and concern in businesses worldwide. In order to concentrate on environmental and sustainability matters in the building industry, sustainable rating systems are developed globally and buildings are assessed and certificated due to different parameters. In this paper, three widely-used rating systems from three continents; America, Europe and Australia are introduced and a comparison on their assessment categories is presented. By developing a criteria-map, 11 categories are identified and a gap analysis is performed. Results show that no single rating system covers every 11 category. Finally, recommendations are presented to lead to a comprehensive solution and the implications of the acceptance of the solution are discussed. About 40% of the energy is consumed in the building industry (3) and in United States in 2005, buildings were responsible for 38.9% of the total U.S. energy consumption and residential buildings were responsible for about 54% of