Guide to Sustainable Building Certifications
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Guide to Sustainable Building Certifications | 1 Guide to Sustainable Building Certifications Funded by Realdania and The Dreyer Foundation Foreword With this book – Guide to Sustainable Building Certifications – we hope to Collaboration Guide to Sustainable increase knowledge levels and transparency in the construction industry by Building Certifications is a providing an accessible and comparative overview of the most important collaboration between the building certifications. Danish Building Research Institute – SBi, and the innovation company of As with all the work of GXN innovation, this publication is about knowledge 3XN Architects – GXN. sharing and open source. References Today, sustainability has become the basis of the construction industry in References are marked with the C, P and W comparison with about ten years ago, when only a few first movers consisting of prefixes for Certification visionary building owners and their consultants pushed sus-tainable buildings schemes, Publications and Websites. forward. However, it has been our experience that clients and practitioners involved in the design process often lack overview of what different certification systems really certificate. All the systems we have examined vary in focus and content, and they are all being used as tools for quantifying and confirming the sustainability of buildings. Our focus has been on markets where Danish advisors experience export growth and potential. However, it is our conviction that this book can be used by actors in the construction sector as an easy-to-understand stra-tegic overview with both regional and global perspectives. A thorough analysis was conducted to support the findings and published in the supporting SBi report P1. We hope this book will give its readers insights into how we can understand the sustainability of buildings and which certification systems can be used as tools and inspiration to achieve measurable quality. Kasper Guldager Jensen and Harpa Birgisdottir Editors and Lead Auditors corp social responsibility Transport Architecture Social Responsibility 3% Enviromental im Transport 2% Architecture 5% Environmental impact 9% Resourses Health % % 3 2 Resources 27% 4 l 5 ia l c a t o S n Health 30% e m n o r i eective use area v E E c on omic 5% Biodiversity 5% Biodiversity Recycling 6% Toxicity 5% Toxicity Safety 3% Recycle Safety Toxicity corp social responsibility corp Area Use <1% Life Cycle Costing 1% Stability of Value 2% LCC life cycle cost Average Focus Active House, BREEAM, DGNB, Green Star, HQE, stability of value LBC, LEED, Miljöbyggnad, Nordic Swan and WELL Aspects of sustainability from SBi report P1 Executive summary There are currently hundreds of Environmental, economic and A decision-making guide This guide is a resource sustainability certifications for the social dimensions for strategic decision P2 built environment and the number The comparative analysis gives making in relation to the is set to rise as the focus on certifying an overview of the ten building use of sustainable building certifications. It can be buildings continues to increase. This certification systems based on used as a tool to show, book provides a global overview of their environmental, economic describe, and explain sustainable building certifications and social dimensions, which are certification systems, thus providing the basis for a and an in-depth description, analysis further sub-divided into 13 aspects. better dialogue between and comparison of ten certification The certifications generally rely parties in the construction schemes based on their focus and most heavily on the environmental industry such as clients and consultants. strategic relevance to stakeholders in dimension, largely represented by the built environment. the resources aspect. The social The contents have been dimension follows closely after third-party verified by an expert panel consisting of: Strategic comparison environmental, with a focus on the The ten certifications selected for health aspect, where indoor climate Gitte Gylling analysis and comparison are Active and comfort plays a large part. The Chief Specialist, Rambøll House, BREEAM, DGNB, Green Star, economic dimension is generally Paul Stoller Director, Atelier Ten HQE, LEED, Living Building Challenge, less represented in all certifications Stefan Holst Miljöbyggnad, Nordic Swan and WELL. except for DGNB, although it could be Managing Partner, They have been chosen due to argued that economic aspects follow Transsolar their relevance for the Danish as consequences of many of the Tiffany Broyles Yost construction industry. other aspects within the social and Associate, Arup environmental dimensions. Each of these ten certifications are presented with a description that The comparison of the certifications provides insight into the history and shows variation in focus. A primary scope of the certification as well as focus on the environmental dimension a guide to the certification process. can be seen in Active House, BREEAM, Case studies illustrate the practical Green Star, LEED, Miljöbyggnad and value of the certifications. Nordic Swan, while a primary focus on the social dimension is seen in Collectively, the case studies show HQE, Living Building Challenge and that the focus on sustainable building WELL, indeed WELL is almost entirely certification is only increasing, that focused on social aspects. DGNB the market is diversifying, and that is distinguished by focusing almost some projects therefore can benefit equally on the three sustainability from using multiple certifications dimensions: social, environmental in conjunction to strengthen their and economic. specific sustainability agenda. Table of contents Part one Context 13 Why certifications matter 15 Which certifications exist 23 What is our methodology Part two Certifications 33 Active House 43 BREEAM 53 DGNB 65 Green Star 75 HQE 85 LBC 97 LEED 107 Miljöbyggnad 117 Nordic Swan 127 WELL Part three Comparison 141 How do the certifications compare 142 How do the dimensions compare 144 How do the aspects compare 146 Applications 150 References Part one Context | 11 12 | Context Why certifications matter Certified sustainable buildings systems are launched around the Sustainability The most frequent use outperform conventional building world, the markets in which Danish of the term sustainability on environmental, economic and construction stakeholders operate originates in the social parameters P5. The economic is subject to a growing complexity. publication “Our Common Future”, written in 1987 and societal benefits of certified In Denmark, DGNB is currently the by the UN-established sustainable buildings are thus clear most popular certification system. Brundtland Commission. and, increasingly, certifications Certifications such as Nordic Swan, This report put forth the definition that sustainable are also used actively to ensure a BREEAM and LEED are also present development meets the high level of quality during design in Denmark and are increasingly needs of the present and construction phases while becoming central for Danish actors without compromising the ability of future strengthening sustainable agendas. working on international projects. generations to meet their In a world of accelerated growth and own needs P3. Today, the development, building designers, To achieve a strategic overview, United Nations maintains this definition, currently consultants and investors are this guide adopts a new approach outlined in the 17 UN constantly challenged to meet for better analysis and comparison Sustainable Development Goals for the 2030 sustainability demands by making of the ten certification systems P4 Agenda . informed decisions that have great deemed most relevant to the Danish impact on both the project’s economy construction sector. Together, these and the environment. Furthermore, certifications encompass Danish, the term sustainability is becoming Scandinavian, and global markets. increasingly broad in its meaning. As This approach will enable Danish and a result, sustainability certifications international actors to make informed now differ vastly in scopes and decisions on potential opportunities applications, but, if used correctly, when approaching new projects and this field of possibilities can provide building certification systems both comprehensive design tools for inside and outside Denmark. creators as well as valuable verification tools for investors and buyers. A new approach to comparing sustainability A Danish perspective with Certification systems offer the global reach possibility to measure and compare Sustainability has become an the sustainable performance integrated part of the Danish of buildings by applying a set construction industry; the rising of quantifiable criteria. Before demand for proven sustainability certification systems were developed means that key certification systems it was near impossible to compare are quickly becoming integral sustainable performance from one components in Danish architecture. building to another. Today, the overall certification scores make it possible As the need to certify buildings to compare buildings certified increases and additional certification under the same system, but, so far, Why certifications matter | 13 Gitte Gylling Chief Specialist Rambøll ‘Sustainable building certifications are tools we can use to measure and document sustainability as well as support integrated design and interdisciplinary collaboration’ 14 | Context not