[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