Green Building Rating Systems
Amsterdam Animal Shelter
Authored by Sonia Diermayer
Several rating systems have been developed to enable designers, builders, and building owners to acquire third-party certification for how "green" a given building project is. Over time the rating systems have made a significant impact on the building industry by identifying and quantifying the sustainability benefits of specific building practices, creating attractive voluntary goals with recognizable marketing cachet, allowing comparisons to be made between unique projects within rating categories, and reducing the possibility for "green-washing". Rating systems have also contributed to benchmarking and quantifying energy and water use and savings. Rating systems also specifically address greenhouse gas emission reductions. The rating systems include:
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design System (LEED), by USGBC
- GreenPoint Rated (GPR), by Build It Green
- WaterSense (EPA)
- California Green Building Standards Code (Title 24, Part 11)
- Green Globes
- NAHB National Green Home Building Guidelines
- EarthCraft (Southface)
- BuiltGreen (MBA Washington State)
- One Planet, (Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park)
- SBTool 07
- Bay-Friendly Landscape Scorecard
In the absence of national or state green building standards, the evolving rating systems filled an urgent need for a standardization of practices. Many California cities were interested in mandating sustainable building, but could not afford the huge expense of drafting their own Green Building Codes. Instead many communities passed ordinances requiring that the designs for new construction and significant remodeling had to meet LEED standards (for commercial) and GreenPoint Rated minimum point thresholds (for residential) in order to get building permits.
At the end of 2009, EPA's WaterSense finalized it's criteria for the WaterSense Single-Family New Home Specification. The specification is designed to work with other voluntary green building programs such as the National Green Building Standard, ENERGY STAR, and the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
In early 2010, California came out with a Green Building Standards Code, which applies to somewhat different categories and metrics than either LEED or GreenPoint Rated (GPR). It is a Code rather than a rating system. It remains to be seen how this will affect the green building programs already in place in cities across California and how the rating organizations themselves will fare in the future in this state.
- More details on Green Globes Rating System.
- More details about NAHB National Green Home Building Guidelines.
- More details about Bay-Friendly Landscape Scorecard.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design System (LEED), developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), has become very widely recognized nationwide and internationally with its four tiers. Buildings can be awarded as
- Certified (40-49 points),
- Silver (50-59 pts.),
- Gold (60-79 pts.), or
- Platinum (80-100 pts).
GreenPoint Rated, developed by the non-profit, Build It Green, is another widely adopted third-party rating system devised specifically for California conditions. It is for residential projects only, and has separate categories for new home construction, home remodels, and multi-family buildings. Water is one of the five major criteria. A minimum of 50 points must be accumulated for successful certification, at least 9 of these points under the water conservation criteria.
EPA released its Final Specification for Single-Family New Homes (PDF) on December 10, 2009. This specification establishes the criteria for new homes labeled under the WaterSense program and is applicable to newly constructed single-family homes and townhouses of three stories or less. Builders can now become WaterSense partners and begin constructing homes to earn the WaterSense label.
The California Green Building Standards Code (Title 24, Part 11), dubbed CALGREEN for short, is being lauded as the first green building code to be enacted in any US state. Its provisions are currently voluntary for most "occupancies", but will become mandatory for all types of buildings beginning January 1, 2011. The California Building Standards Commission is the oversight agency for this code which addresses energy and water conservation, as well as construction waste, and materials for healthier indoor air.
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