Green Accreditation

1. Green Accreditation Dr Ravihansa Chandratilake BSc (BE) Hons, BSc (QS)Hons, MSc (Archi), MSc (Civil Eng), AIA (SL), PhD (Civil Eng)

2. Green certification in construction Industry • Buildings • Products • Contractors • Professionals

3. Green Building Certifications • Over a twenty year period a number of green building certifications schemes or labels have been introduced around the world. • 38 different rating tools certification system worldwide (Reed et al., 2009). • National and regional ratings established. Eg: BCA Green Mark (Singapore), Green Building Index (Malaysia)

4. Green Building Certifications: A spreading industry.. • Use of certification spreading – Almost all countries • Some demonstrating cognisance of the take up and monitoring issues. World Green Building Council Membership 2010

5. Singapore BCA Green Mark Scheme • Launched in 2005 by the Building Control Authority (BCA) • Government led scheme. • The only mandatory certification in the world (Tan, 2008): - all new building works gross floor area of 2,000m2 or more; • additions or extensions to existing buildings which involve increasing the gross floor area of the existing buildings by 2,000m2 or more; and • building works which involve major retrofitting to existing buildings with gross floor area of 2,000m2 or more. • Subject to reassessment every 3 years

6. BREEAM, LEED, Green Star, BCA Green Mark

7. Reliance on Green Building Certifications • Growing number of labelling schemes is an indication of the serious intent of those procuring buildings to address sustainability issues. However, • Various certification schemes may create confusion amongst stakeholders especially property investors; who purchase buildings in different countries, • an understanding of the many differences between each market has been increasingly harder to understand (Dixon et al., 2008). • Unrecognised certification systems as well as lack of coordination or consistency in rating tools are holding back the interests of potential stakeholders (Chan, Qian, & Lam, 2009).

8. New Vs In-Use • The earlier versions of BREEAM and LEED (e.g.: LEED-New Construction, LEED-CI) were exclusively awarded at the beginning the design stage. • Certification is based on estimated points systems instead of the actual performance of the buildings. Buildings are rated before showing the construction meets design specifications. We ask how investors can know if a building can/will actually perform throughout the lifecycle and, in short, whether the certification can be trusted? • Enter certifications for existing buildings/ in-use (i.e. LEED EBOM, BREEAM In-Use)  reassessment introduced.

9. ISO 14001 • ISO was founded in 1947. More than 18,000 international standards that provide practical tools for all three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, environmental and societal (ISO, 2009a). • ISO 14000 family was introduced in 1996. The most important standards is the EMS specification standard, ISO 14001 = indicator of a company’s commitment to environmental responsibility. • By the end of December 2009, about 223,149 ISO 14001:2004 certificates had been issued in 159 countries (ISO, 2009b). • The drivers : • improved public relationships and corporate image (Litkas, 1999; Vastag, 2004) • responding effectively to market demand & different institutional pressures (Jiang & Bansal, 2003). • Certified companies performed better financially?

10. Enquiry Complete questionnaire Proposal Confirm application and schedule First Stage Assessment Document Review Certificate Assessment Non-conformity Recommendation for registration Certificate Awarded Surveillance Assessment (Every 6 months / annually) Renewal Assessment (Every 3 years) ISO 14001 process • ensures the improvement of organisation environmental performance - requires periodic evaluation of compliance with environmental regulations (Jackson, 1997). • surveillance assessment every 6 months or annually and renewal assessment.

11. ISO 14001: Monitoring and renewal • guarantees organisations uphold their commitments to maintain their Environmental Management System (EMS) and also produce the environmental benefits.” (Potoski & Prakash, 2005). • strongest impacts  behavioural. • The whole process of ISO 14001 makes managers understands that environmental improvement is a never ending, not a ‘one-off’ process. But, • greatest obstacle is the high cost of implementation and lack of available resources. • including time, money, expertise for day-to-day operation and preparing for future annual recertification audit (Potoski & Prakash, 2005)

12. Drawing from successful certifications... hard work of establishing the certification does not end after certification is being awarded! Certification: (1) validity is life-limited (2) requires continuous monitoring and renewal assessment to ensure continuous compliances to their respective standards.

13. What can we learn from other certifications? • Rationale for monitoring & renewal • Continuous compliances  Greater confidence in stakeholders • Spot checking increase robustness • Changing behaviour of owner, managers and occupiers. • Challenges • High Costs : Direct (certification ) and indirect (management etc) • Control issue: Ensuring compliances not easy as building involves several stakeholders • Data capture and management: importance of updated record, good record keeping • Requires continuous training : training for personnel focussing on their roles & responsibilities

14. Green Product Label (Eco Label) • A label which identifies overall environmental preference of a product or service based on life-cycle considerations. (UNOPS, 2009)

15. Green Label (Eco Label) Cont’d • An environmental certification awarded to specific products that are shown to have minimum detrimental impact on the environment in comparison with other products serving the same function. (Thailand Environment Institute) • In contrast to a self styled environmental symbol or claim statement developed by a manufacturer or service provider, an eco label is awarded by an impartial third party to products that meet established environmental leadership criteria (GEN, 2004)

16. Advantages of Green Labels • Allow consumers to make an environmentally friendlier choice without being environmental experts • Favour the encounter of demand and supply of green products and services • Offer a good marketing opportunity to products that stand out from the others because of their green performance • Support innovation, encouraging the diffusion of green products on the market • Reduce overall environmental impacts and supports the sustainable development

17. How do eco-products address environmental issues? • Recyclability/reusability/refillability • Long life • Degradability/ Compostability • High quality performance • Energy saving • Environmental clean-up products • Using recycled materials

18. Origins of Green Labelling • The origins of green labelling can be found in the growing global concern for environmental protection on the part of governments, businesses and the general public. • Initially, and mostly in developed countries, commercial enterprises recognised that environmental concerns could be translated into a market advantage for certain products. • As a result, a number of environmental declarations and claims emerged on and in association with certain products. • These included labels with such claims as "recyclable", "eco-friendly", "low energy", and "recycled content". • Such labelling of the products attracted consumers who were looking for ways to reduce adverse environmental impacts through their purchasing choices.

19. Origins of Green Labelling Cont’d • Without guiding standards and investigation by an independent third party, consumers could not be certain that the companies' assertions guaranteed that each labelled product was an environmentally preferable alternative. • This concern with credibility and impartiality led to the formation of private and public organisations providing third-party labelling. • In many instances, such labelling took, and continues to take the form of eco labels awarded by programs operated at national and regional (i.e. multinational) levels. • Today, there are about 50 different types of green labels around the world. • Asian countries such as China, India, Japan, Korean, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have already launched their green label schemes

20. Green Contractor Certification Constructor = construction contractor

21. Difficult Dirty Construction Its in 3D form……. Delay

22. Green Professionals

23. Course modules (Eg)

24. Final comment to think about.....! What gets measured gets managed... and What gets measured gets better...