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Green Certification Programs

by Pranav Gaba | 18-06-2022 23:12 recommendations 0

[JUNE THEMATIC REPORT]

As the name suggests, green certification programs are structured programs designed to incentivize private companies and MNC's to produce or manufacture eco-friendly products. However, green certification programs are not only limited to finished goods or FMCG companies. In fact, green certification programs can be more commonly heard in the real estate industry. In this report, we are going to take a look on the history and current scenario of these Green Certification Programs in context to the real estate industry.

Green certification programs/green building certification programs are a kind of mechanism or a set of tools designed to review or assess a building's performance from a sustainability and environmental perspective. Such ratings aim to improve the overall quality of buildings and promote the fulfillment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by the construction industry. Those buildings, which have been assessed and are deemed to meet a certain level of quality, receive a certificate proving this achievement. Also, through certification, the environmental impacts during the life cycle of buildings (typically design, construction, operation and maintenance) could be better understood and mitigated. Currently, more than 100 building certification systems exist around the world. The most popular and useful building certification models today are LEED (US), DGNB (Germany) and BREEAM (UK).

In the mid-1980's, environmental problems were in the news and public attention due to catastrophic international disasters like the Bhopal disaster (1984), Chernobyl Explosion (1986) and also the Exxon Valdez tanker spill (1989). Lifecycle assessments (LCAs) were beginning to gain traction from its initial stages within the Nineteen Seventies to the Eighties and it had been in 1991 that the term was 1st coined. With increasing cognizance of environmental impacts thanks to human activities, a lot of comprehensive assessments of buildings utilizing the principles of LCA were abundantly asked for. In 1990, the primary property Assessment methodology for buildings, BREEAM was released. In 1993, Rick Fedrizzi, David Gottfried and Mike Italiano shaped the world's 1st Green Building Council (GBC) with the U.S. Green Building Council. Their mission was to market sustainability-focused practices within the building industry and advance property building principles.

With the principles of green building gaining momentum, many a lot of GBCs were established across the planet. In 2002, the World Green Building Council was formally shaped to bring all the GBCs beneath one roof. GBCs from Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and USA were the founding members. As of 2018-19, there are 69 Green Building Councils under the World Green Building Council organization.

(A detailed report on each of the above three green certification models will be prepared as a free report in the coming months)

References:-
1. Wikipedia contributors. (2020, December 19). Green building certification systems. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building_certification_systems

 
Thematic Report June 2022

PranavGaba

  • India Youth Pranav Gaba
 
 
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2 Comments

  • Chelwoon Mentor says :
    Hello Pranav, this is your mentor Chelwoon.

    I think architectural field is one of the fields where green certifications are already prevalent. Efforts to build eco-friendly buildings are being made all over the world. There are various green building certification systems such as BREEAM in the UK, the first eco-friendly building certification system, LEED in the United States, DGNB in Germany, and CASBE in Japan. However, in my country, Korea, it is a shame that there are only a few buildings which are green certified due to Korean building regulations.

    Thank you for the article!

    Regards,
    Chelwoon

    Posted 26-06-2022 09:05

  • Joon Mentor says :
    Hello Pranav, this is your mentor Joon.

    There are different green certification programs around the world and what it is applied to differ by the country. There are some countries which mostly concentrate their programmes on Food, others concentrating on electronic devices, and there exists those concentrating on field of real-estate. Those applied to buildings checks whether the materials used are eco-friendly or not, and whether it shows energy efficiency.

    Well read your article, and let's keep up!

    Best,

    Joon
    Posted 25-06-2022 14:45

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