Sustainable Construction, 5th Edition

Chapter 6The Green Globes Building Assessment System

Green Globes is a building assessment system with roots in the United Kingdom and Canada that has been making inroads in the United States as an alternative to the US Green Building Councils (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. It provides a rating of one to four Green Globes for building projects, depending on the percentage of the maximum points that the project actually achieves (see Figure 6.1). The Green Building Initiative (GBI), the US proponent of Green Globes, describes the Green Globes building assessment system as a revolutionary green management tool that includes an assessment protocol, a rating system and a guide for integrating environmentally friendly design into commercial buildings. When the web-enabled assessment protocol has been completed by a project team, it also facilitates recognition of the project through third-party verification. It is designed to be an interactive, flexible, and affordable approach to environmental design and building assessment.

The Green Globes building rating system represents more than 20 years of research and refinement by a wide range of prominent international organizations and experts. The genesis of the system was the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) in the United Kingdom, which was imported into Canada in 1996. In the same year, the Canadian Standards Association published BREEAM Canada ...