Sustainable building management: overview of certification schemes and standards

Abstract

Building sustainable management is a complex problem which needs adequate and suitable assessment tools and methods, efficient enough, to address issues of incommensurability and complexity regarding environmental policies and legislation. Within the frame of this article, assessment methods have been described, are compared with each other and evaluated in the background of the standards provided by the International Organization for Standardization. The certification schemes examined include Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Deutche Gesellschaft fur Nachhaltiges Bauen, Green Star, High Environmental Quality, Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency and GBTool assessment methods as well as the draft EU Ecolabel for office buildings. Emphasis have been placed on information referring to objectives, methodology, criteria involved in the evaluation procedure, environmental topics evaluated, life cycle analysis phases covered, costs and applications’ results within the tools’ structure for new building schemes. Finally, the impact of green certification schemes on the construction market, mainly as a tool of energy management, has also been examined in relation to the absence of mandatory international standardization in sustainable building management.