The building and construction sector is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for an astonishing 37% of global emissions. For those of us who work in the industry, this is a sobering and often discouraging fact. Although it is easy to succumb to the feelings of doom and helplessness evoked by the environmental impacts of the building industry and the climate crisis at large, we can take this chance to see things from a different perspective.
Changing the way we construct our buildings and develop our communities to prioritize sustainability, resiliency, equity, and health will have a significant impact on both greenhouse gas emissions and the wellbeing of building occupants. In my day-to-day work at Verdical Group, a sustainability consulting firm working to decarbonize the built environment, this is what we focus on. Third-party certifications for buildings serve as a strong guiding force across our, and many others’, work.
History of the Green Building Industry
This vision of a more intentional, sustainable built environment is the guiding principle behind the green building movement and the idea that underlies all green building certifications. BREEAM was created as the first green building rating system in 1990. BREEAM covers both buildings and infrastructure and accounts for both operational and embodied carbon.
The emergence of BREEAM was quickly followed by the founding of the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 1993 and the subsequent introduction of their LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system in 1998. The founders of USGBC aimed to better the building industry through sustainable practices and the creation of a baseline framework that promoted green building ideals.
LEED
Today, LEED has gone through five different iterations and is the world’s most widely used green building rating system. There are over 100,000 registered and certified projects, LEED has been used in 180 countries, and over 200,000 individuals have LEED credentials. Projects exist across a variety of categories and certification is customizable based on building use, location, and type.
LEED takes a holistic approach to building sustainability and emphasizes the creation of healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving buildings. To do so, projects earn points across 10 different impact categories:
- integrative process
- location & transportation
- sustainable sites
- water efficiency
- energy
- indoor environmental quality
- materials and resources
- regional priority
- innovation
Five categories have prerequisites that every project must meet to achieve certification. For example, all Building Design and Construction (BD+C) projects must lower their indoor and outdoor water use, undergo fundamental commissioning, and assess their minimum energy performance to comply with the water and energy categories. These prerequisites are meant to serve as the foundation of a healthy, environmentally friendly building. From there, projects earn points for various credits in each category, with different point thresholds denoting whether a project is LEED Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum. Below is the scorecard Verdical Group uses to track a LEED BD+C: New Construction project’s points across the various categories.
Other Green Building Certifications
In the wake of LEED, other third-party certifications and rating systems were created to fill various niches and cover topics not incorporated into LEED at the time. Both WELL, first established in 2014, and Fitwel, introduced in 2016, focus on occupant health and wellbeing rather than building and site sustainability. The WELL building standard, delivered by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), is based on strategies backed by the latest scientific research. The aim is to create intentional spaces that foster occupant wellbeing. Similarly to LEED, WELL is divided into 10 concepts that each have required preconditions and optimizations to earn points. Many WELL optimizations go beyond building regulations and instead focus on policies that affect the lives of building occupants, such as providing mental health services or new parent support strategies.
Fitwel is also a research-backed standard committed to building health and occupant wellbeing. The system was originally developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and the U.S. General Services Administration, but is now delivered by The Center for Active Design. Fitwel stresses the importance of community and health in building design.
Green Globes, founded in 2004, has no prerequisites and 1,000 available points, allowing projects to choose the sustainable practices that best fit their building’s type, location, budget, and occupancy. The standard is delivered by the Green Building Initiative (GBI), an international nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing climate impacts by improving the built environment.
The Living Building Challenge is the most stringent and comprehensive of today’s rating systems, aiming for buildings to go beyond being sustainable and instead become regenerative, resulting in a positive environmental impact. The International Living Future Institute oversees multiple certifications, including ones focused specifically on zero carbon buildings and zero energy buildings, but the Living Building Challenge requires projects to achieve 20 different imperatives for certification. These rating systems, and many others, have aided in the growth of the green building industry and made a measurable environmental and social impact.
The existence of third-party certifications that go beyond what is required through local building code is important because they provide framework, accountability, and comparability. Each rating system (there are additional systems, including for infrastructure) is detailed and thorough, resulting in projects that dive deep into sustainable practices rather than just skimming the surface. Since projects are reviewed by third parties, they cannot cut corners and are held accountable for implementing the measures they claim to have taken. Lastly, the various systems and their tiers allow us to compare buildings—a LEED Platinum building is considered more sustainable than a LEED Certified one, and a WELL or Fitwel certified office space may be more appealing to a tenant focused on employee health than a LEED one.
We stand today at the crossroad of crisis and opportunity. The green building movement has the power to enact great change in today’s climate crisis and the ongoing quest for a healthier, happier world.
Learn More
Want to learn more about green building certifications and join us in (green) building a brighter future for all?
Verdical Group is hosting our annual Net Zero Conference September 17-18th at the Anaheim Convention Center. The conference will feature educational sessions detailing case studies of these rating systems, keynote speakers who are leading on climate action, and networking opportunities. Attendees will also have the opportunity to visit USGBC-CA at their booth for a tour of their BuildSMART trailer, to learn about their new cohort of Net Zero Accelerator companies, and to play some corn hole. Learn more and register for the Net Zero 2024 Conference here!
Verdical Group is also partnering with USGBC-CA to present a “Certification Synopsis: Building Rating System Market Overview” workshop on October 9. Register here for an opportunity to learn more about the increasing popularity of these third-party rating systems and to delve deeper into each certification’s requirements. We hope to connect with you soon!
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About Verdical Group: A sustainability consulting firm focused on decarbonizing the built environment, Verdical Group can help you determine which rating system is the best fit for your upcoming project. Their team of interdisciplinary experts also offers engineering services such as building commissioning and energy / daylight modeling, ESG/sustainability consulting, and more. Verdical Group is proud to be a 1% for the Planet Business Member and a certified B Corporation.
About the Author
Karina is an Associate Project Manager at Verdical Group. She works with their Project Management team on a variety of projects including LEED, Fitwel, CHPS, and other certifications, as well as ESG/Carbon Footprint Reporting.
Karina graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.S. in Environmental Science and a concentration in Environmental Systems and Society. At UCLA, she researched the effects of solar energy on migratory birds through DNA sequencing and analysis. For her senior project, she explored flood susceptibility on the island of Tobago using Geographic Information Systems and researched the potential implementation of flood early warning systems and nature-based solutions.
She is passionate about creating a sustainable future and protecting the environment. Outside of work, Karina enjoys traveling, practicing yoga, and designing clothing.
