Green Building Certification Research Articles

Study on Certification Criteria of Building Energy and Environmental Performance in the Context of Achieving Climate Neutrality

Increased greenhouse gas emissions have led to a global warming threat. As a result, countries have tended to focus their decision-making attention on energy-saving strategies. Specifically, the concept of green building has been developed for the construction sector. It aims to create energy-efficient structural activities (new constructions, repairs, or renovated constructions) that will be carried out in line with the determined criteria. With the concept of green building and the need to establish criteria and standards to ensure energy efficiency, green building certification systems have come to the fore. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) certification systems have been developed. This article investigates the achievements of the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) category of LEED-certified projects in Türkiye and Europe. A comparison study of countries was carried out, based on the fourth version of the LEED BD+C framework that was developed for new green building projects. The study’s primary goal is to show the linear correlation between market value and IEQ. It was revealed that the gross domestic product does not affect IEQ applications. Although Türkiye was ranked first in applying for IEQ credits, its economic development level is lower than that of other European countries.

Indonesia MICE green building project with value engineering and its influential factors: an SEM-PLS approach

The MICE industry is considered one with high economic attractiveness for investors. Regulations and user requests for a new building are required to meet green building standards. The Green Building Council Indonesia issues Greenship's green building certification system. A minimum of 56 points is required for additional investment costs but will result in savings in operations to get a platinum rating. This paper aims to determine what factors are influential in optimising construction costs through the value engineering method to achieve a green building rating tool with life cycle costs using Structural Equation Modelling. The finding is that energy is the most influential factor in obtaining platinum rating certification, which requires value engineering and lifecycle cost analysis to achieve optimal investment costs with additional costs from 7,494% to 4,689%. The novelty of this research is that the selection of materials/machines and working methods of the green concept that saves energy needs to be carried out from the beginning of the design to achieve a feasible payback period for new investments, which will be the commitment of the owner to build a green MICE.

Research on the Current Situation and Prospect of Green Building Technology in China

In view of the series effects by global warming, green building has become one of the key parts to solving this problem, as green buildings are in line with the strategic goal of sustainable development and can play a significant role in reducing energy consumption. This paper first introduces the basic concept of green building, as well as the green building-related policies and the green building certificate in China. The latest environmental protection production standard for building issued by the Chinese government is also expounded. Then, the American Green building standard named Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is briefly introduced and compared with the green building standard of China. At the same time, the problems affecting the development of green building technology in China and the improvement measures are introduced. Finally, the overall trend of green building development of China in the future is analyzed.

A Study on Indoor Environmental Quality

Günümüzde insanlar zamanlarının büyük bölümünü konut, ofis, okul gibi kapalı mekânda geçirmektedir. Son yıllarda yaygın olarak görülen hasta bina sendromu, bina kaynaklı hastalıklar, okullarda öğrenim performansının ve ofis ortamlarında çalışanların verimliliklerinin azalması gibi sağlık ve verimlilik sorunları iç ortam kalitesi ile ilişkilendirilmektedir. Bu çalışmada iç ortam kalitesi ve sürdürülebilir bina kavramları ilişkilendirilerek, insan sağlığı ve verimliliği konularında iç ortam kalitesinin (iok) önemine dikkat çekmek amaçlanmaktadır. Bu çalışma kapsamında iok’ni belirleyen parametrelerden aktif olarak ölçülebilen ve kontrol edilebilen ısıl konfor, iç hava kalitesi, aydınlatma ve görsel konfor, akustik konfor ele alınmıştır. İok ile ilgili standart ve literatür taraması ile elde edilen bulgular sonucunda bu parametrelerin tanımları, kullanıcı üzerindeki etkileri, ölçülme yöntemleri ve yeşil bina sertifikasyon sistemleri ile ilişkileri ele alınmıştır. Sonuçta, iok'nin çalışmada ele alınan temel parametrelerinin, bina kullanıcılarının sağlığı ve üretkenliği ile ilişkili olduğu; dikkate alınmasında önemli sağlık ve finansal yararlar olduğu; iç ortamdaki fiziksel koşulların, uygun tasarım ve bina işletim sistemleri ile karşılanabileceği, yeşil bina sertifika sistemlerinin binalarda iok’nin gelişimine katkı sağladığı sonuçlarına ulaşılmıştır.

Green Building in Existing Development: A Review of Current Status, Challenges, and Implementation Strategy

Green building development is on the rise with more new constructions receiving green building certification locally and globally. Starting with 247 papers in the first cycle searching of greening an existing building, this paper conducts a literature review over 30 relevant publications related to the effort towards greening the existing development from various countries especially in Malaysia, since three specific case studies on implementation of greening existing building were analyzed from this country. Regarding to the review on current development status, there occur several challenges of existing building standards from the regulatory that will slow the target achievement towards a sustainable plan besides the cost implication and project feasibility that resulting in most existing buildings do not embed green building elements. Therefore, retrofitting the existing structure might contribute to a positive, sustainable impact, including cost-saving, living comfortability, and environmental preservation. However, the decision-making on retrofitting action needs detailed analysis. This is especially in identifying expenditure on current building performance, potential cost benefits through lifecycle assessment and cost-benefit analysis. This paper presents three case studies of green retrofitting project in Malaysia and highlights twenty effective strategies towards successful retrofitting for sustainable development. According to the summative analysis of the strategies, the most important element to be addressed in retrofitting action towards a green building is thoroughly assessing the current performance and needs of the development to meet the sustainability impact. It is recommended for future researchers to conduct a survey on the details of the procedure from specific stakeholders with focus on regional-based existing building conditions.

BIM-based model for sustainable built environment in Saudi Arabia

BIM has had a significant influence on the building and construction industry, contributing to efficiency, productivity, and cost-effectiveness improvements. BIM technology’s integrative nature makes it a perfect platform for adopting sustainable techniques in new construction, renovation, and retrofitting of existing structures. Saudi Arabia’s market gasoline prices fell drastically between 2018 and 2020, forcing the Kingdom to create its 2030 vision. The 2030 vision seeks to transform the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) into an ideal sustainable society by lowering its dependency on oil and constructing more sustainable buildings and infrastructures. The number of green buildings and high-performance buildings in the KSA is inadequate, and the rate of change is too slow. Due to KSA’s need to enhance its built environment, it established a new green building rating named “Mostadam.” Currently, there is no metric to measure the roadmap to achieve the aspects of the KSA’s 2030 vision, and the number of green buildings in the KSA is very low compared to other countries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to translate the KSA’s green objectives into effective regulations. To attain this goal, there must be uniformity across jurisdictions in order to make sound and well-informed decisions about adopting and enforcing sustainability. This research intends to focus on the advanced capability of using BIM and creating a BIM-Based model to help facilitate the green building certification in Saudi Arabia that supports its vision of 2030. The research proposes a new strategy based on the integration of BIM and Mostadam green building rating systems where a BIM plug-in can aid in achieving the 2030 envisioned water sustainability goal and implement sustainable design principles in Saudi Arabia. Autodesk Revit and Dynamo were used for programming and visualizing the model. The model focused on one main category of Mostadam’s Green Building Rating System: water conservation. This study used a mixed methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches. Phase I of this study focuses on the literature review and collection of available data about BIM, Green Building Rating Systems, and the KSA 2030 vision. Phase II aims at collecting data from an online survey sent to AEC professionals. Moreover, phase II of this study includes developing a BIM-Based model using Autodesk Revit and Dynamo. Phase III embraces the validation of the model using a prototype and a case study. Driven from the data collected, the new BIM-Based model assisted in achieving the KSA 2030 vision by reducing the water consumption when compared to the baseline water consumption. The model’s constraints are presented along with future phases of the study.

Computational LEED: computational thinking strategies and Visual Programming Languages to support environmental design and LEED credits achievement

Since environmental and energy issues and challenges continues to emerge as key global concerns, Green Building Certification Systems are becoming increasingly relevant in the construction industry.In this regard, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is considered one of the most widely recognized environmental assessment methods used globally in the construction industry today.However, due to the high level of complexity of the LEED system, the tools usually used to verify the achievement of the credits lack of “design friendliness” and hardly communicate effectively with the conventional tools used by architects and engineers (e.g. CAD, BIM). This makes difficult to fully take into account, especially at the early design stage, the many interconnected aspects that contribute to the green certification, with consequent issues often arising in the design validation and/or construction phases, resulting in time delays and cost increments.The application of innovative problem-solving methods, such as computational thinking, together with coding techniques, represents an effective way to deal with this issue. This kind of methodology, in fact, allows the requirements of a specific LEED credit to be digitally parametrised and flexibly incorporated into a “designer friendly” working environment.In particular, Visual Programming Languages (VPLs), due to their high simplicity of usage, allow architects and engineers to develop algorithms and thus implement their technical knowledge in the field of environmental design with computer programming skills, useful to improve their tools and keep them constantly updated.The aim of this paper is to illustrate a methodology through which, by merging computational thinking strategies with VPL tools, is possible to keep under control, in the same working environment, all the parameters required to verify in real time the achievement of LEED credits. To demonstrate the flexibility of the approach, dedicated tools developed for the verification of some specific credits at different scales – neighbourhood and building – are illustrated as operational examples of the proposed methodology.

Green building practitioners’ understanding of the concept of sustainability: South African perspective

The pursuit of sustainable development has resulted in a narrow focus on environmental sustainability in construction. In recent years, the concept of holistic sustainability in the construction sector has gained traction, with green-certified buildings being a major driver. However, studies have shown that green building certification does not necessarily embrace a holistic sustainability approach. Moreover, the misconceptualisation of sustainability has remained a barrier to the full adoption of sustainability principles in the industry. Under this premise, a study was carried out amongst practitioners on green-certified projects to explore their understanding of sustainability in construction. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with construction professionals, who were involved in green building certified projects. Findings reveal that although green building practitioners have a considerable understanding of the concept of sustainability, the certification process limits the operationalisation of the concept. The context of South Africa was used to generate results that are relevant to other contexts with similar settings and green certification tools. The implication of this study includes the need for further research on the operationalisation of social and economic sustainability concepts in green building certification.

Water Tower Conservation and Sriwijaya University Law Efficiency Based on Indonesian Green Building Certification

The problem of global warming is increasing due to an increase in CO2 emissionsby 33%, an increase in water consumption by 17%, energy consumption by 30% - 40% and raw materials by 40% - 50% in building operations. One of the efforts to reduce the occurrence of these problems can be done through one of the green building , namely water conservation and efficiency. According to Yudo, saving water is a very important effort to avoid water scarcity. In addition, saving water is an effort to use water efficiently. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the application of water conservation and efficiency in the Tower LawThe data collection method used in this study was based on interviews, observations and measurements. The data obtained will be analyzed for water conservation which is applied to towers legal existing Greenship building and water efficiency levels using the Excellence in Design for Greater (EDGE) system. Based on the results of the analysis carried out on tower , the results of the application of water conservation with the Greenship existing building standard only got 11 points out of a maximum total of 20 points. In addition, the application of water efficiency that has been carried out tower based on the EDGE system obtained 24.28% water efficiency measures. From the results of the analysis, it was found that tower has not met the criteria for water conservation well but has met the level of water use efficiency based on the green building .

The Analysis of the EDGE Certification System on Residential Complexes to Improve Sustainability and Affordability

In this paper, the characteristics of the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) green building certification system in terms of the scope of certification, and environmental and social strategies focused on 6024 units in the 17 EDGE-certified residential buildings in South Africa was investigated. This research analyzed the efficiency of energy, water, embodied energy in materials, and annual CO2 emissions and their contribution to solving housing issues in the given context. This research revealed that the design of EDGE-certified buildings focuses on the “efficiency first” approach and reduced energy and water demand more than on-site energy production. In energy-saving strategies, energy-saving solutions are three times (69.2%) higher than energy-generating solutions (23.1%). The results on resource savings showed that, on average, embodied energy in materials (54%) is the most reduced resource, followed by water (31%) and energy (29.7%). The statistical analysis indicated that there is no statistically significant correlation between energy, water, embodied energy in materials, and CO2 savings with floor areas of the buildings. In addition, this research highlighted how EDGE certification has positively contributed to solving South Africa’s resource shortage and affordable housing scarcity problems.

Integrating the Level(s) Framework into green buildings

Integrating the Level(s) Framework into green buildings More than 2700 European building sector stakeholders have been trained to use the Level(s) Framework indicators on the sustainability of buildings. Here Benjamin Petrović from LIFE Level(s) explores how after two years of providing research and insights on how to integrate the Level(s) Framework into green building certification schemes criteria, how to develop quality product data by addressing the whole life cycle impacts and how to inspire the public procurers to insert sustainability component in their tenders, LIFE Level(s) project entered its final stage.

Concept for combining LCA and hazardous building material assessment for decision support using BIM

The construction and building sector is responsible for a large part of the world’s resource and energy consumption and is considered the largest global emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Hazardous and toxic substances in building materials affect indoor air quality as well as the environment and thus have a high impact on human health, as we spend around 90 percent of our lives in buildings. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and hazardous building material requirements of green building certification systems allow to reduce the environmental and health impacts of building products and materials. However, they are usually very complex and time-consuming to perform and require expert knowledge to use the results for decision support. Digital approaches to support the simplified application of these methods and intuitive visualization of results are becoming increasingly important. Especially Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers a high potential for this purpose, as the integration and linking of geometric and semantic information in 3D-models for LCA and hazardous building material assessment can be done much more efficiently and intuitively. Within the scope of this work, the following three objectives were pursued (1) development of a method for combining LCA and hazardous building material assessment, (2) simplification of the results by converting them into comprehensible indicators for decision support, and (3) implementation of the method in a BIM-based digital assistant for intuitive visualization and communication. The preliminary results show a concept for combined use of LCA and hazardous building material assessment in Germany with differentiation in six use cases. A prototypical implementation as BIM-integrated digital assistant was developed for one of these use cases. For the first time, this prototype provides understandable feedback in real time of LCA and hazardous building material requirements. This research project contributes to the awareness in the context of embodied impacts and low emitting materials in buildings and advances the current digitalization potentials.

Post occupancy investigation of 40 certified green buildings in Beijing: Results, lessons and policy suggestions

Green buildings have grown rapidly in the last years, and are expected to be with high performance on energy and resource saving, carbon-emission reduction, and indoor environment improvement. Although Beijing has completed the certification of 488 green buildings since 2008, the government finds out that most buildings are reluctant to apply for a green building certification in the operational phase, and the residents are still unaware of the connotation of a “green building” as well as the benefits of green buildings when compared with traditional ones. Thus, a post-occupancy investigation in 40 green buildings certified during 2008 and 2020 was conducted, covering the implementation of designed technologies and policies, actual performance and users' satisfaction which aimed to identify the achievements, problems and lessons after a decade's rapid development. A total of 138 experts, and the building owners, operation teams and occupants participated in the investigation by semi-structured interviews, field inspections and measurements, and questionnaire surveys. The results indicated that the investigated green buildings did generally have better performance in the savings of energy, water, material, and land resources, and significant improvement in IEQ and users' satisfaction when compared with traditional ones. However, numerous but non-closed-loop promotion policies, frequently changing standards, generally low professional capabilities of the operation teams, and lack of market-oriented mechanisms, together made it difficult to motivate the owners to continuously implement, maintain and improve the designed green performance of the building in the operation stage. Accelerating the legislation, establishing a whole-process supervision mechanism, improving the technical standards, innovating the financial support, and strengthening the professional skills training, etc. were suggested to be urgently needed measures to solve the above problems. The main contribution of this study is that a comprehensive city-level investigation on the 10 years' development effects, problems and possible solutions of green building was carried out, which is expected to provide a case reference for the development of green buildings in other cities of China and even the world.

Green Behaviors and Green Buildings: A Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Public Housing Estates in Hong Kong

A green building is believed to promote green behaviors from energy-saving to waste recycling. Green building certifications have attracted wide interest, and some were made mandatory for publicly funded developments in cities such as Hong Kong. Policymakers debate whether the city’s expanding public housing stock should be exempted from the green certification mandate for reasons of cost, while evidence of behavioral benefits in green residential buildings is thin, or non-existent for public housing estates. This paper describes a post-occupancy evaluation study on self-reported green behaviors in Hong Kong’s public housing estates. The study subjects are 400 occupants from two pairs of public rental housing estates with or without green certifications. A natural experiment was conducted, in which surveyed occupants were allocated to certified and uncertified estates via a random lottery, without significant differences in socioeconomic characteristics and propensity to green behaviors a priori. The results show that green-certified housing estates partially induced energy-saving behaviors, but not water saving or waste recycling, nor does it enhance satisfaction or green awareness. A certification alone is insufficient to induce behavioral changes, rather, efforts should be invested in conveying the green message, public education, and appropriate fiscal incentives.

Assessment of the Yalova University Engineering Faculty Building using the B.E.S.T. green building certification system

ABSTRACT Currently, there is no official green or sustainable built environment evaluation system in Turkey. When a certification is required for a building or a site, various certification systems are employed. To meet the demand, the Turkish Green Building Council released an evaluation system called B.E.S.T. in 2013. In this paper, the B.E.S.T. evaluation system is introduced as well as a sample application. The evaluation of the Yalova University Engineering Faculty Building using the B.E.S.T. evaluation system is presented. Field research was conducted and evidentiary documents were gathered in preparation. The study employed both analytical and field research methodologies in this regard. As a result of the study, Yalova University Engineering Faculty Building was assessed to be eligible for the lowest level certificate, the ‘Approved’ degree of the B.E.S.T. evaluation system. Furthermore, the results achieved with the B.E.S.T. were compared to those acquired previously with other green or sustainable building evaluation systems. HIGHLIGHTS - An exemplary set of the evaluation was performed for university campus buildings with the B.E.S.T. certification system. - The conducted case study is one of the earliest samples of B.E.S.T. evaluations. - A comparison of B.E.S.T. with LEED and BREAM is provided. - The importance of establishing a local certification system has been discussed.

The overlooked criteria in green building certification system: Embodied energy and thermal insulation on non-residential building with a case study in Malaysia

A green building certification system (GBCS) is essential for sustainable city development. However, the building's embodied energy (EE) and thermal insulation have often been overlooked in GBCSs. The correlation of thermal insulation envelopes to EE and operational energy (OE) has also yet to be extensively investigated. This study adopts life cycle energy assessment methodology to evaluate the EE and OE of non-green and green-rated non-residential buildings with hotspot analysis and analyse the trade-offs between EE production and OE saving for five types of insulation envelopes. Taking Malaysia as a reference, results show EE holds 16–19% of total energy in non-green and green-rated non-residential buildings; hence EE should not be neglected in GBCS. The material consumption phase incurs half a quarter of the total EE, indicating that major recycled and low-embodied building materials (e.g., recycled steel and green cement) should be rewarded with higher points in GBCS. Insulated building envelopes save 84–87% of cooling demand than non-insulated walls, with cellulose fibre insulators consuming the least EE. It is hoped that this study can provide evidence-based outcomes to policymakers when formulating the proportion of EE and OE, and integrating insulation envelopes in GBCS to enhance energy savings further.

Case Study Retrofitting an Existing Building for Griha Green Building Certification

Abstract: The infrastructure business in India is rapidly increasing. Infrastructure is the most major hindrance to the growth of Indian businesses in India. Existing buildings account for 45 percent of worldwide energy use in the current condition. These constructions' greenhouse gas emissions are mostly to blame for global warming, acid rain, and other environmental difficulties. We can reduce our dependency on limited natural resources like power, water, and materials which use in building while simultaneously enhancing our contribution to environmental quality by incorporating green building themes into the design, construction, and maintenance of buildings, and restoration of our houses. It is a common misconception that only new buildings can be certified as green building, however this is not true. Existing buildings may be made certified green by taking certain step. With each existing building's effort in adopting the existing green building strategies, an enormous effect in combating global warming will be anticipated in return. GRIHA provides green building certification at various levels. There are several ways for meeting these objectives with the cooperation of humans and the use of modern technology and procedures. In retrofitting existing building for GRIHA certification, aspects like site availability, energy efficiency, water efficiency, renewable energy, natural lighting are taken into account. The present paper presents the retrofitting required to transform an existing building to a certified green building with ease and cost effectiveness.

The Evolution of Green Building Amenities: The Case of EV Charging Stations

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) by consumers has been increasing over the past years. It raises the need for charging stations in locations where EVs can be charged between uses. Office, apartment, and retail properties represent such locations. If tenants are willing to pay a premium for the ability to charge EVs between uses, a sales price premium is expected for buildings with this green building feature. This study uses commercial real estate transaction data to investigate whether the sales price premium for EV charging stations 1) varies across property types, locations, and building sizes, and 2) is distinct from the sales price premium for green building certifications (LEED or EnergyStar). Results suggest that the presence of EV charging stations adds a premium to the sales prices of 1) office, 2) suburban, and 3) medium-sized properties. The premium for EV charging stations exists independently from the premium for LEED or EnergyStar certification. However, charging stations in combination with green building certifications do not add an additional sales price premium. The findings of this study have implications for the decisionmaking of commercial real estate investors and marketing strategy of EV infrastructure service providers.

Assessing contextual factors for sustainable development: a case study of LEED-certified projects in Jordan

PurposeThe researchers analyzed factors affecting the adoption of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green-building certification system in Jordan, including financial performance of certified projects along with broader barriers that may impact developers’ interest in LEED.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first reviewed online data for all LEED registered and certified projects in Jordan, recruited LEED-certified project stakeholders, collected documents related to LEED projects and conducted LEED category credit summaries, financial cost-benefit analyses and spot-checking reported values in local markets. The authors then visited projects sites and interviewed various project stakeholders to understand better stakeholders' decision-making processes concerning LEED and relevant factors (financial, branding, cultural, political, etc.).FindingsObtaining LEED certification in Jordan was financially feasible as evinced in both the quantitative analysis and interviews. However, the authors found that there was very limited interest in LEED among Jordanian developers. Barriers included widespread cynicism toward green building concepts as well as a lack of local expertise in installing and maintaining green technologies. To overcome these barriers, the authors recommend that green building initiatives place a greater emphasis on education and public-promotion activities.Research limitations/implicationsThe research data were limited to projects that had successfully achieved LEED certification. Broader qualitative research conducted across the Jordanian building community could provide additional insights, but such an investigation is beyond the scope of the current study.Originality/valueThe complexity of adapting a Western green building standard (LEED) to a non-Western context is discussed in detail. The findings suggest that understanding regional development challenges, local markets and cultural differences is vital for successfully implementing green building certification systems.

Evaluating Energy Efficiency in a Hospital Building with Reference to GRIHA: Case of Trauma Centre at Aligarh, India

With the rise in problems mainly ecological as well as energy crises that are intensifying today, the concept of green has become essential concerning sustainable development. The hospital building consumes much more energy and generates more waste, as compared to the other types of buildings. The climate change, contamination of chemicals, and use of unsustainable resources are all making health worse day by day over the world. The health sectors are themselves causing these problems on a broad scale. So, hospitals, health sectors must be green, there must be proper management of resources, waste etc., which means that it must have a minimum negative impact on the environment. The term Green Hospital has evolved as a way of addressing environmental issues, overcoming them and meeting society’s need. In India, Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) is one of the tools that provides green building certification to hospital buildings also. This paper aims at analyzing and investigating a hospital building (Trauma centre), Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh, based on major criteria of the GRIHA variant for existing buildings. This hospital building had been provisionally-rated by GRIHA in the year 2016 as 3 stars. This paper includes the analysis of building based on various calculations and in depth study of how this 3 star rating was provisionally achieved. This paper involves two main calculations, one regarding peak heat gain and the other is EPI.