Green building certification systems
[1] Buildings that have been assessed and are deemed to meet a certain level of performance and quality, receive a certificate proving this achievement.
[2] Through certification, the associated environmental impacts during the lifecycle of buildings and other infrastructures (typically design, construction, operation and maintenance) could be better understood and mitigated.
[5] With increasing cognizance of environmental impacts due to human activities, a more comprehensive assessment of buildings utilizing the principles of LCA was much sought after.
[6] USGBC was further responsible for the creation of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system in 1998.
[8] The goal of all certification rating systems is to provide tools and methods to assess the environmental and resource-efficient performance of a building.
[3] The main objectives of such tools are:[1][3][4] Furthermore, the result of such an assessment is to provide a certificate verifying the achievement of the desired performance and quality of the building.
[1] The DGNB System is based on the three main paradigms of:[10] It also takes into consideration the economic aspects and as such, also assesses the associated Life Cycle Costs and Value Creation of the building.
The auditor supports the contractor and supervises the construction process from the initial registration up to the certification and the project conclusion.
[12] The Sweden Green Building Council introduced its own certification system in 2011 with Miljöbyggnad which is based on Swedish standards and legislations.
EEWH is the abbreviation of "Ecology, Energy Saving, Waste Reduction, and Health" and is established in 1999 as the fourth green building label certification in the world.
[22] Once the development has been fully assessed, the final performance rating is determined by the sum of the weighted category scores.
[27] The different types of rating systems fall under:[27] LEED certification is voluntary and a qualified assessor evaluates the projects on the basis of various established categories.
