What is the role of building certification systems such as LEED in helping us fight global pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic?
In this blog post, we briefly discuss the history of the building certification systems, point out some disadvantages of the current certification systems for buildings, and give a big picture of how an alternative building certification system may look like in the future. This alternative solution can help us stay safe during global disasters efficiently and practically.
What is a building certification system?
Building certification systems are tools that measure buildings’ performance in different aspects by applying some quantifiable criteria. A wide variety of features are measured in each certification system within environmental, social, technological, and economic dimensions. The key aspects of building performance include resource consumption, the life cycle of costing, building connectivity, health, social responsibility, safety, and recycling.
Buildings are evaluated based on the performance measurements by a pass/fail, a level-based, or a score-based certification that represents how well the building has satisfied the criteria of that particular certification system. Tenants can compare the qualities of different buildings judging by the building certificates, which allows them to learn whether a building meets their expectations and standards.
Building certification timeline
The first building standard certification system, BREEAM, was introduced in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. Since then, other organizations across several countries began creating building certification systems and defining building assessment metrics to reduce the negative effects of buildings on the environment, bring water and energy efficiency to buildings, improve life quality, and more. Table 1 shows a list of building certification systems with details about certification levels and assessment criteria in chronological order.
Building Rating or Certification System
Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM)
Organization, Country of Origin, and Year of Establishment
BRE Global
United Kingdom
1990
Rating System or Certification Levels
Six levels:
- Outstanding
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Pass
- Unclassified
Areas of Focus
Governance
- Social and economic wellbeing
- Resource and energy
- Land use and ecology
- Transport and movement
Building Rating or Certification System
Organization, Country of Origin, and Year of Establishment
U.S. EPA and DOE
United States
1992
Rating System or Certification Levels
ENERGY STAR score ranging from 1 to 100
Areas of Focus
- Design
- Energy efficiency
- Water usage
- Environmental quality
- Materials
Building Rating or Certification System
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Organization, Country of Origin, and Year of Establishment
U.S. Green Building Council
United States
1993
Rating System or Certification Levels
Four levels:
- Platinum
- Gold
- Silver
- Certified
Areas of Focus
- Location and transportation
- Sustainable sites
- Water efficiency
- Energy and atmosphere
- Materials and resources
- Indoor environmental quality
- Innovation
- Regional priority
Building Rating or Certification System
High Quality Environmental standard (HQE)
Organization, Country of Origin, and Year of Establishment
Association pour la Haute Qualité Environnementale (ASSOHQE)
France
1996
Rating System or Certification Levels
Five levels:
- Exceptional
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Pass
Areas of Focus
- Minimizing energy use
- Minimizing waste in operations
- Minimizing building maintenance
- Acoustic control measures
- Visual attractiveness
- Air quality
- Water quality
Building Rating or Certification System
Organization, Country of Origin, and Year of Establishment
Broadband Proliferation Partners, LLC
United States
2013
Rating System or Certification Levels
Five levels:
- Platinum
- Gold
- Silver
- Certified
- Non-certified
Areas of Focus
- Telecom room design
- Riser planning
- Electrical resiliency
- Mobile coverage
- Access to multiple ISPs
- Ability to support new telecom technologies
- High infrastructure redundancy and security
Disadvantages of the current building certifications
There are more than 600 certification systems for buildings being used in the world today. However, these systems suffer from a few disadvantages that magnify the need for an alternative solution:
- Traditional certification systems are passive.
While some characteristics of a building are not likely to change, such as land use and building materials, most of the building properties are subject to change in time. For example, water consumption for building maintenance in a commercial building will increase every time a new section starts working. A building certificate that has been issued two years ago and is still valid for another year doesn’t say much about the increase in water consumption; therefore, it is passive. Current certification systems fail to represent changes in real-time. - User engagement is limited in conventional certification systems.
Say you live in a certified building with an overall score of S. How can you, as an occupier, play a role in improving this score? Well, in most cases, you can’t. This is because most of the factors that determine the building score are related to the building itself rather than the building user. Therefore, the building users cannot improve the rating of the building they live in. This lack of engagement limits the user-building interactions and leaves the user feeling non-influential. - Building certificates do not influence the user’s decision-making behavior.
Although the building certificates can give the user information about different aspects of the building, they fail to provide the user with the ability to make decisions according to the certificate level. For example, the user should be able to decide whether they should enter a building or not judging by the certification level. This becomes vital when the user wants to assess the risk of entering a building at a time of crisis.
An alternative solution that works even at a time of crisis
During the global COVID-19 pandemic, we all felt the need to have new standards in life. Almost everything has been reshaped, from daily life activities to global economic matters. While practicing social distancing is the most effective way to protect ourselves and the community during this pandemic, there are no standards for buildings that could help us make the right decisions about the places we want to go. A practical building certification system should have the ability to evaluate buildings by several dimensions in order to help us protect our loved ones, most importantly, during global disasters.
An ideal building certification system should have the following features:
- It should be able to evaluate the characteristics of the buildings in near real-time.
In the United States, the first cases of the COVID-19 were reported in January 2020, and social distancing measures were not imposed earlier than March 2020. In early 2019, there was no need to know the least crowded time to stay safe when you wanted to go to a supermarket. But everything changed within months. As described earlier, a passive system cannot respond to such changes and is, therefore, ineffective in the time of need. However, an active system can help us identify the improvement opportunities in near real-time. - It should allow the user to be an effective role player.
Users should be able to directly influence the building they live in to improve living standards. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, occupants can directly improve the building score by controlling the building capacity, placing hand sanitizer dispensers in different places of the building, limiting the number of persons allowed in the elevators, and more. When the building occupier sees an improvement in the building score that is caused by his or her own work, they will feel even more responsible about their environment. - It should help the users make the right decisions.
At times of crisis, our health depends on each other. Every single person’s actions can help or harm others in the community. That’s why it is crucial to make the right decisions in emergencies. Alternative building certification systems are expected to give the users insights about the buildings to help them come to the right choices. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, an effective certification system could inform the users about the risks of entering a building. If someone wants to go to a post office and there are several post offices near him or her within almost the same proximity, they can choose the one validated by the highest score certification. This score measures the safety of entering the post office in terms of being exposed to infectious viruses, such as the coronavirus. Such a certification system helps users make the right decisions.
Some new certification systems for buildings such as Fitwel have been successful in filling some gaps. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement. There are plenty of opportunities for certification systems that are specially designed to protect our health and well-being in disasters. Together, we can find a solution to prepare for pandemics and global disasters that are even more dangerous than COVID-19.
