Which green building certification is right for you, as a building owner, developer or Architect working on a new green building project? As you start your journey towards green building certification and innovation, it becomes apparent that there are numerous paths that you can take, each offering its promises and potential challenges. This is the critical decision faced by land owners, developers, architects and there are a vast array of certifications to choose from.
From USGBC’s LEED rating system to Passive House; and from CaGBC’s Zero Carbon Building to the Living Building Challenge, it’s imperative that you select the most appropriate one, but it is a daunting task. Each certification possesses a distinct set of values, documentation requirements, timelines, advantages, and disadvantages. It’s complex, and there are huge cost differences.
The motivation for seeking a green building certification varies. Most building owners and developers are seeing more than just the plaque on the wall—they believe that with certification, they get some sort of performance level or impact.
This article aims to guide you through an informed decision-making process by examining key factors such as project objectives, levels of effort, project timelines, risk tolerance, and long-term performance expectations. With these insights and a strategic roadmap, you will adeptly navigate the certification landscape and make choices that precisely align with your project’s aspirations and requirements.
Align Your Strategy Before You Even Start
The certification that you choose will sculpt your entire project strategy.
Following a certification pathway will give you options to pursue that will ultimately dictate your design choices. The way that you measure success when it comes down to energy efficiency will determine how energy efficient the building can become. The performance metrics that you use during the certification process will shape how you perceive the project.
Setting the building performance metrics for the project using a rating system will determine the building’s:
- impact natural systems including biodiversity and natural resources
- carbon footprint due to construction, and operations
- health and productivity levels of the occupants
- impact on the green economy
- impact on the community
Choosing a green building rating system will also determine the design strategies that you consider using, use on your project and your return on investment.
The first step is to determine what your priorities are. The common priorities that we see in our work are:
- corporate social responsibility;
- energy efficiency, relating to cost of operations;
- carbon impact reduction;
- indoor environmental quality;
- quality assurance;
- reduced environmental impact.
Choose a rating system that aligns to your goals and choosing it early, safeguards against unrealistic documentation demands or unfulfilled certification expectations, allowing your project to shine. Moreover, the right alignment can boost your project’s standing among investors, and regulatory bodies, enhancing attractiveness and allowing you to tap into valuable financing and incentives.
Ready to avoid the pitfalls and focus on what truly matters? Let’s dive in, look at your options, and unlock your ideal strategy.
LEED
The newest version of LEED prioritizes: decarbonization; quality of life; and ecological conservation and restoration. For projects seeking broad sustainability alignment and international recognition, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) provides an exemplary pathway. This certification emphasizes sustainability and green building excellence, covering a wide range of sustainability aspects.
Achieving LEED certification indicates that a building conserves resources, lowers operating costs, creates a healthier environment, supports sustainable practices, and reduces carbon emissions. It evaluates sustainability through categories like energy efficiency, water conservation, materials selection, sustainable resource management, indoor environmental quality, and sustainable site development.
The newest version of the rating system LEED v5, pushes design teams to reduce building emissions and eliminate carbon-emitting sources of energy while making sure the construction team meets their waste diversion goals.
Managed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED offers a robust framework for the development of green buildings that deliver significant environmental and social benefits. This certification demonstrates leadership in sustainable practices, appealing to tenants, investors, and regulatory bodies alike, and can be crucial in unlocking incentives and funding opportunities. This certification is for you if you want a recognizable and solid green building certification.
Benefits and Downsides of LEED Certification:
- Complex certification process
- Energy performance requirements are less stringent than the performance thresholds for Passive House
- Broadly reduces impacts on the ecological systems
- Enhances quality of life
- Most recognizable
Green Globes
This certification is designed to evaluate environmental sustainability, health and wellness, and resilience, making it a flexible option for both new constructions and existing buildings.
With an initial self-reported online assessment followed by a site visit by a Green Globes Assessor, the process culminates in a one-to-four globes certification based on performance. Offering a simpler alternative to LEED, Green Globes focuses on key areas such as energy efficiency, water conservation, ecosystem impacts and indoor air quality. Widely accepted in the U.S. and Canada, this certification system accommodates different types and sizes of projects.
For those prioritizing simplicity and cost-efficiency, the Green Globes certification offered by the Green Building Initiative (GBI) might be the ideal choice.
One consideration to make is that the recertification frequency for existing buildings under Green Globes is every 18 months, but this practice ensures consistent adherence to sustainability goals and the latest best practices. This certification is for you if you want to get a comprehensive green building certification on a budget.
Benefits and Downsides of Green Globes Certification:
- Simpler and less costly than LEED
- Less comprehensive sustainability strategy
- Broadly reduces impacts on the ecological systems
- Somewhat enhances quality of life
- More frequent recertification requirements
Passive House
The International Passive House Association prioritizes passive design to enhance energy efficiency performance, eliminate drafts, eliminate thermal bridging. Passive House principles can be applied to achieve outstanding energy efficiency and comfort, either through the International Passive House Association (iPHA) or in the United States, PHIUS.
It’s a bit of a misnomer, but Passive House certification is not just for houses—it’s a standard for all climates and buildings, including single-family homes, office buildings, schools, and even retrofitting existing structures.
When energy efficiency and airtightness are paramount, the Passive House Certification shines as a leading choice. This certification is revered for its focus on high-performance energy design, aiming to significantly reduce a building’s operational carbon footprint.
Based on scientific research harkening back to the National Research Council’s Saskatchewan Conservation House, built in 1977, in Canada, in response to the energy crisis, we discovered that airtight construction, high insulation levels, passive solar gains and controlled air management significantly reduced both heating and cooling loads. The Conservation House attracted significant attention, especially by engineers in Germany. This approach has since and been perfected by the International Passive House Association in Germany.
In order to achieve a Passive House Certification, buildings must meet very stringent energy performance requirements, including limits on annual heating and cooling demand, a very stringent air leakage rate, elimination of thermal bridging and be within the limits stated for primary energy demand (which pushes the design team to use clean energy sources and eliminate onsite combustion).
The rigor of this standard and the 100% fresh air ventilation approach ensures that buildings achieve exceptional indoor air quality and thermal comfort while maintaining energy efficiency.
However, there are many aspects around climate change, human health, biodiversity impact, community and natural resources missing in a Passive House certification.
As our buildings become more energy efficient, the embodied carbon in our buildings becomes more important, since it becomes a much higher proportion in energy efficient buildings. In fact, if we keep using building products with high levels of embodied carbon (cement, steel, aluminium and glass) in the trajectory, we will overshoot our Paris Agreement carbon budgets just by using these materials alone.
Water needs to be used very carefully in a world where every drop of water that we have on this planet can only be reused and recycled. While water efficiency in the home needs to be assessed to the minute detail (length of hot water pipes), water efficiency of fixtures, and water use on the site is ignored.
In order to meet the Passive House certification requirements, 100% fresh air ventilation must be supplied, with heat recovery. But there are no regulations on the restrictions on air pollution that is created outside of the building by combustion fumes, or wildfire smoke, or within the building by paints, sealants, millwork, furniture, or finishes.
The Passive House approach, known for its quality assurance, delivers optimal results that provide long-term savings and benefits. By committing to meeting Passive House performance standards, project teams commit to a high level of energy savings and a reduction in operational costs, setting a strong example in sustainable construction practices.
For homes, you can use Passive House US (PHIUS) as an excellent complement to LEED v4 Building Design and construction. Projects that earn a Passive House US (PHIUS) certificate may automatically earn 20 points in LEEDv4 Homes EA Credit Annual Energy Use.
This green building certification is for you if you want to create buildings that are the most comfortable, most durable and have the lowest operational costs.
Benefits and Downsides of Passive House Certification:
- Performance-based and requires meeting strict absolute performance thresholds.
- Not holistic and does not encourage any ecological preservation and restoration measures beyond energy conservation
- Does not enhance indoor air quality or consider toxicity of materials used
Zero Carbon Building – Design
The Zero Carbon Building – Design certification is tailored for new builds that aspire to lead in carbon efficiency from the outset. This certification sets thresholds for critical factors like embodied carbon reduction, onsite renewable energy, energy efficiency, and thermal energy demand performance. By evaluating buildings based on their potential to achieve zero carbon balance, this standard emphasizes the reduction of carbon emissions right from the design phase.
Introduced by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), it aligns with national climate commitments, encouraging the creation of carbon-neutral buildings. Achieving this certification helps prepare buildings to later pursue the Zero Carbon Building – Performance standard, ensuring long-term adherence to emission reduction goals.
This early-stage certification is designed to instill robust sustainability practices right from the blueprint, making it essential for projects with a strong carbon-savvy focus. This certification is for you and you want to minimize the carbon impact right from the start of the project.
Benefits and Downsides of Zero Carbon Building – Design Certification:
- Simple certification pathway, but must be considered early on in the design process
- Aligns to Paris Climate Accord
- Not holistic and does not encourage any ecological preservation and restoration measures beyond energy conservation
- Does not enhance indoor air quality or consider toxicity of materials used
- Works well with ZCB – Performance, BOMA BEST Sustainable 4.1, Energy Star and LEEDv5 O+M
Zero Carbon Building – Performance
For existing buildings that aim to showcase operational excellence in carbon management, the Zero Carbon Building – Performance certification is the appropriate path. This certification focuses on tracking and maintaining low operational emissions, requiring buildings to meet stringent requirements for embodied carbon, as well as energy use and greenhouse gas emissions impact assessed over a 12-month period.
Introduced by the Canada Green Building Council, this certification involves a thorough assessment of energy consumption and the embodied carbon emissions from structural materials, reinforcing sustainable practices within current operations. The Zero Carbon Building Standard supports the goal of achieving carbon-neutral building operations consistent with Canada’s emission reduction targets.
Annual performance reviews are necessary to maintain certification status, ensuring that buildings remain aligned with the latest sustainability and performance goals. This certification underscores an ongoing commitment to reducing environmental impact and promoting responsible building operation practices. This certification might be for you if you are concerned about the climate impact of your development.
Benefits and Downsides of Zero Carbon Building – Performance Certification:
- Simple certification pathway
- Aligns to Paris Climate Accord
- Not comprehensive
- Works well with BOMA BEST Sustainable 4.1, Energy Star and LEEDv5 O+M
Living Building Challenge
The Living Building Challenge stands out as the most comprehensive and most respected green building rating system in the world. Create buildings that generate more energy than they use, capture and treat all water on site, and are made using healthy materials. The Living Building Challenge framework creates spaces that reconnect occupants with nature. In order to achieve this certification the building has to be generate more energy than they use, capture and treat all water on site, and are constructed using healthy materials. This is a very lofty goal in all but mild climates, and nearly impossible in harsh climates such as the far north. However, the certification does not limit itself to energy and water use. There are mandatory requirements for minimizing the environmental impact of the building, and creating positive social and community impact. This certification was started by the Cascadia Green Building Council when they decided that LEED did not take the ball far enough down the field and was not creating the future that this small team of innovators imagined for the world and they established The International Living Future Institute (Living Future).
Knowing that the full certification level is near impossible, there are Petals that can be achieved for each building, and levels of certification. This makes integrating some of the Living Building Challenge certification requirements into a sustainability strategy that is otherwise focused on a different certification program feasible. This certification is for you if you want to leave a lasting legacy.
Benefits and Downsides of Living Building Challenge Certification:
- Produces more energy than it consumes
- Treats your own waste water on site
- Most comprehensive in terms of sustainability
- Most admired green building certification in the world
Contributing Factors to Your Green Building Certification Choice
Project Goals
Understanding your project’s goals is crucial for selecting the appropriate green building certification. Goals may include reducing environmental impact, optimizing energy efficiency, managing carbon emissions, or achieving waste diversion targets.
For instance, if your focus is on airtight, high-performance energy design, Passive House might be the ideal choice. It’s essential to outline which sustainability goals you have, and how using your choice of green building certification will push the design team to achieve those goals.
Your project budget will also have to be considered, since some features are more easily achieved and are less expensive than others, and some green building certification fees are lower than others (usually assessed on a cost per square metre basis).
Risk Tolerance
Risk tolerance plays a vital role in the decision-making process for green building certifications. Are your permits or funding contingent on reaching a certain level of certification? If so, this necessity can heavily influence your certification choice.
Moreover, certifications often contribute to risk mitigation by encouraging durable and resilient construction methods, possibly qualifying for financial incentives, including grants, rebates, lower insurance rates and reduced financial risks.
“In fact, banks will soon be required to disclose the climate liabilities associated with the money they lend. They might choose not to fund a project that will have a significant carbon impact,” says Mark Hutchinson, Vice President, Green Building Programs and Innovation, Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).
Long-term operational risks can also be diminished by adopting green certification, given its enhancement of building efficiency and resource management. Furthermore, actively demonstrating a commitment to sustainability through certification can mitigate reputational risks, bolstering stakeholder relationships and community trust. By integrating sustainability into building design, projects not only manage potential compliance risks but also capture opportunities for reputational gains and financial benefits.
ESG Tracking Requirements
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations increasingly influence the selection of green building certifications. Recognized certifications, like LEED, contribute significantly to ESG evaluations, including GRESB (a rigourous measure of the ESG performance of individual assets and portfolios based on self-reported data).
Earning certification points often aligns with enhancing an ESG strategy, encompassing new trends such as urban biodiversity projects. As ESG demands grow, developers are seeking to communicate their sustainability commitment through green certifications, attracting both tenants and investors.
Green building certifications improve relationships with communities by highlighting a dedication to sustainable practices, fitting within corporate social responsibility frameworks. As such, selecting a suitable green building certification can significantly bolster a firm’s ESG standing, particularly in a market where sustainability practices continue to gain traction and importance.
Project Timeline
The timing of certification efforts is crucial in the project lifecycle. If you don’t decide which certification your project is pursuing then the chance to achieve it might pass by you.
Green Globes is simpler to achieve so you don’t get penalized for starting at some point in the design process. And certifications, like Zero Carbon Building – Performance, and BOMA BEST Sustainable 4.1 can be achieved at once construction is complete, and that offers flexibility.
In contrast, others like Passive House and LEED demand foundational work early in the design process, while Green Globes occupies a middle ground in timing needs.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental Social and Governance (ESG)
The rise of CSR and ESG policies substantially propels the popularity of green building certifications. Certifications like BREEAM and LEED are notable for affecting property values favorably, repositioning assets for leasing advantages. Furthermore, certified buildings not only achieve a rent premium, potentially up to 6%, but also a sales premium of approximately 7.6%. LEED contributes to a higher rating in the GRESB, the global ESG benchmark for financial markets. Overall, certification systems appraise project sustainability through benchmarking against established standards, making consideration of these reporting systems an important consideration.
Project Needs
Understanding and addressing your project’s specific needs is fundamental when considering a green building certification. Are energy efficiency, resale value, or indoor environmental quality your focus? Or do you want to implement a more comprehensive approach to environmental impact reduction? Certifications are appraised based on sustainability criteria, focusing on minimizing environmental impacts and promoting resource efficiency. We are focusing on green building certifications in Canada, and if you are in a different geographical location then you will have different options. The building types in your development also determines the suitability of the green building certification. For example, the Net Zero Home Labelling Program is intended only for single family homes. Different certifications are tailored to different needs.
While certifications provide market clarity and verification, remember that a building can still embrace sustainability without formal certification. Certifications also serve as vital educational and marketing tools, propagating sustainable practices among property owners and construction teams. Opting for a rigorous certification, such as the Living Building Challenge, managed by the The International Living Future Institute (Living Future), reflects a project’s dedication not just to mitigate harm but to foster a positive environmental impact, offering powerful messaging both in branding and stakeholder engagements.
Long-Term Building Performance Expectation
Focusing on long-term building performance is crucial in green building certification. Systems like LEEDv5 incorporate climate resiliency assessments, while Zero Carbon Building Performance Standards evaluate embodied carbon and operational impacts over time, emphasizing sustainable energy management so that your building remains energy efficient. Certifications encourage prioritization of measurable outcomes, going beyond basic compliance to achieve long-term sustainability and occupant satisfaction.
Furthermore, certifications necessitate ongoing monitoring and maintenance to meet long-term sustainability targets. Platforms like the Living Building Challenge mandate a 12-month sustainability performance review, advocating for continuous improvement and adaptation. Establishing mechanisms for continuous performance reporting is instrumental in fulfilling environmental, social, and governance obligations over a certified building’s lifetime. Such dedicated monitoring ensures that your building not only meets but exceeds sustainability goals, achieving optimal environmental and operational efficiency.
Your Strategy. Your Roadmap. Your Way Forward.
Navigating the green building certification landscape can be daunting, but you don’t have to go it alone. Our free assessment tool helps you identify the best certification strategy for your project, whether you’re considering LEED, Zero Carbon, Passive House, or Green Globes, or Living Building Challenge. Following the assessment, enjoy a complimentary 25-minute consultation where we’ll explore your results and outline a custom certification roadmap tailored to your project’s specific needs.
By choosing the right certification, you align with regional regulations, unlock potential financial incentives, and increase property values. These certifications not only enhance stakeholder relations but also showcase your commitment to sustainable practices, boosting your competitiveness.
Discover Your Ideal Green Building Certification with Our FREE Quiz
We have built a quiz to help you determine which green building certification to pursue on your project. Our quiz is designed to simplify this complex process by asking targeted questions about your project’s objectives, risk tolerance, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) tracking needs, timeline, and expectations for long-term building performance. Within five minutes, the quiz evaluates your responses across various green building certification systems, including Passive House, LEED, Green Globes, Zero Carbon – Design, and Zero Carbon – Performance.
At the end of the quiz, you’ll receive a tailored snapshot highlighting which certification aligns best with your goals. This quick assessment not only identifies the most suitable certification but also reveals where your project might be missing sustainability opportunities, thereby avoiding unnecessary time and financial losses.
CTA: Take Our Quiz
Once you have decided which green building certification to pursue, the confusion doesn’t stop there. Design teams need to work together to create solutions that are incredibly tailored to the project’s specific needs. An integrated team is a depends of the relationship between people and makes them capable of designing a building as a system instead of a kit of expensive parts in order to achieve a green building certification.
We are a tech-enabled sustainable design consulting team with licensed professionals that are ready to help you on your next project. Our enabledchange™ platform offers design teams, building owners and developers step-by-step guidance, tracking, and tools to keep your project on course, from conception to certification with our premium membership. This comprehensive approach ensures your project adheres to sustainability principles, supporting your environmental, social, and governance commitments.
Transform your approach with our strategic tools, and embark on your journey to a more sustainable and competitive future. Take the quiz now to see how you can benefit from a tailored green building strategy.