International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12

line decor
  
line decor

 Volume 7, Issue 11 (November 2020), Pages: 133-142

----------------------------------------------

 Original Research Paper

 Title: Applicability of LEED assessment criteria for the context of GCC countries

 Author(s): Saleh H. Alyami *

 Affiliation(s):

 Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia

  Full Text - PDF          XML

 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2713-5960

 Digital Object Identifier: 

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2020.11.015

 Abstract:

Since the 1980s, the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region has experienced a period of rapid economic growth. This, in turn, has led to the acceleration of urban development that relies totally on the consumption of non-renewable resources (e.g., fossil fuel). It has been claimed that continuing on this way of growth will put our ecosystem under great pressure. However, according to many scientific research papers, the principles of sustainability development (SD) were identified as effective strategies for preserving the world's ecosystem. In the developed world, a number of different sustainability rating schemes such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has been developed, attempting to put SD into practice. In fact, it is difficult for any rating scheme to be a globally relevant scheme, as LEED has been strongly criticized as an inappropriate tool for many locations around the world. This is due to many differences, such as climatic conditions, natural resources, and the social, cultural, and economic aspects of each region. Yet, the GCC countries have adapted their own rating schemes. These schemes have also been criticized for being greatly influenced by the LEED rating scheme. Therefore, the purpose of this critical study is to determine the level of applicability of the LEED assessment criteria in the context of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and to highlight its main weaknesses and inadequacies. Key findings reveal that the objective-based and subjective-based criteria have been combined to provide a single rating expression. This paper, therefore, proposes a framework to differentiate between subjective-based and objective-based criteria in an attempt to improve the accuracy of the overall building assessment within the GCC context. 

 © 2020 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords: Sustainability development, CO2 emissions, Sustainability assessment schemes, The GCC

 Article History: Received 21 April 2020, Received in revised form 13 July 2020, Accepted 13 July 2020

 Acknowledgment:

No Acknowledgment.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

 Citation:

  Alyami SH (2020). Applicability of LEED assessment criteria for the context of GCC countries. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 7(11): 133-142

 Permanent Link to this page

 Figures

 Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 

 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7

----------------------------------------------

 References (41)

  1. AbdelAzim AI, Ibrahim AM, and Aboul-Zahab EM (2017). Development of an energy efficiency rating system for existing buildings using analytic hierarchy process: The case of Egypt. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 71: 414-425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.071   [Google Scholar]
  2. Al Khalifa FA (2019). Adaptation of international sustainability rating tools to Bahrain. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 13(1): 169-193. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARCH-12-2018-0022   [Google Scholar]
  3. Alalouch C, Saleh MSE, and Al-Saadi S (2016). Energy-efficient house in the GCC region. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 216: 736-743. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.12.071   [Google Scholar]
  4. Alobaidi KA, Rahim ABA, Mohammed A, and Baqutayan S (2015). Sustainability achievement and estidama green building regulations in Abu Dhabi vision 2030. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6: 509-518. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p509   [Google Scholar]
  5. Alyami SH (2019). Critical analysis of energy efficiency assessment by international green building rating tools and its effects on local adaptation. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 44(10): 8599-8613. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-019-03972-x   [Google Scholar]
  6. Alyami SH and Rezgui Y (2012). Sustainable building assessment tool development approach. Sustainable Cities and Society, 5: 52-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2012.05.004   [Google Scholar]
  7. Alyami SH, Rezgui Y, and Kwan A (2013). Developing sustainable building assessment scheme for Saudi Arabia: Delphi consultation approach. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 27: 43-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.06.011   [Google Scholar]
  8. Alyami SH, Rezgui Y, and Kwan A (2015). The development of sustainable assessment method for Saudi Arabia built environment: Weighting system. Sustainability Science, 10(1): 167-178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-014-0252-x   [Google Scholar]
  9. Asif M (2016). Growth and sustainability trends in the buildings sector in the GCC region with particular reference to the KSA and UAE. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 55: 1267-1273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.05.042   [Google Scholar]
  10. Awadh O (2017). Sustainability and green building rating systems: LEED, BREEAM, GSAS and Estidama critical analysis. Journal of Building Engineering, 11: 25-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.03.010   [Google Scholar]
  11. Beyaz C and Asilsoy B (2019). Knowledge of green buildings and environmental worldview among interior design students. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 6(1): 29-36. https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2019.01.004   [Google Scholar]
  12. BREEAM (2019). What is BREEAM? Available Online at: https://bit.ly/2EoMhR4
  13. CASBEE (2020). Home Page of CASBEE. Available Online at: https://bit.ly/2YkYzBg
  14. Cole RJ (1998). Emerging trends in building environmental assessment methods. Building Research and Information, 26(1): 3-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/096132198370065   [Google Scholar]
  15. Cole RJ and Valdebenito MJ (2013). The importation of building environmental certification systems: International usages of BREEAM and LEED. Building Research and Information, 41(6): 662-676. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2013.802115   [Google Scholar]
  16. Crawley D and Aho I (1999). Building environmental assessment methods: Applications and development trends. Building Research and Information, 27(4-5): 300-308. https://doi.org/10.1080/096132199369417   [Google Scholar]
  17. Ding GK (2008). Sustainable construction—The role of environmental assessment tools. Journal of Environmental Management, 86(3): 451-464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2006.12.025   [Google Scholar] PMid:17289255
  18. Doan DT, Ghaffarianhoseini A, Naismith N, Zhang T, Ghaffarianhoseini A, and Tookey J (2017). A critical comparison of green building rating systems. Building and Environment, 123: 243-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.07.007   [Google Scholar]
  19. EIU (2009). The GCC in 2020: Outlook for the gulf and the global economy. Economist Intelligence Unit, Qatar Financial Centre Authority, Doha, Qatar.   [Google Scholar]
  20. ESTIDAMA (2020). Official website of ESTIDAMA. Available Online at: https://bit.ly/3aI7P7z
  21. Forsberg A and Malmborg VF (2004). Tools for environmental assessment of the built environment. Building and Environment, 39(2): 223-228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2003.09.004   [Google Scholar]
  22. GBCA (2020). The what and why of certification. Green Building Council Australia, Sydney, Australia. 
  23. GBIG (2020). The Green Building Information Gateway: Explore Green Buildings. Available Online at: https://bit.ly/3iYIkBM
  24. GORD (2020). Global sustainability assessment system (GSAS) overview. Gulf Organisation for Research and Development, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar. 
  25. He Y, Kvan T, Liu M, and Li B (2018). How green building rating systems affect designing green. Building and Environment, 133: 19-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.02.007   [Google Scholar]
  26. LEED (2020). LEED rating system. Available Online at: https://bit.ly/3kYWIvL
  27. Mao X, Lu H, and Li Q (2009). A comparison study of mainstream sustainable/green building rating tools in the world. In the International Conference on Management and Service Science, IEEE, Wuhan, China: 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMSS.2009.5303546   [Google Scholar] PMCid:PMC2881660
  28. Mezher T, Dawelbait G, and Tsaia N (2016). Building eco-cities of the future: the example of Masdar city. International Journal of Thermal and Environmental Engineering, 12(1): 1-8.   [Google Scholar]
  29. MOSTADAM (2020). MOSTADAM home page. Available Online at: https://bit.ly/2EdX8h1
  30. Moussa RA and Farag AA (2017). The applicability of LEED of new construction (LEED-NC) in the Middle East. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 37: 572-583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2017.03.044   [Google Scholar]
  31. Reed R, Bilos A, Wilkinson S, and Schulte KW (2009). International comparison of sustainable rating tools. Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, 1(1): 1-22.   [Google Scholar]
  32. Sabie KK, Pitts A, and Nicholls R (2014). Sustainability assessment methods for the gulf region. In the 30th Passive and Low Energy Architecture Conference, Ahmedabad, India: 1-8.   [Google Scholar]
  33. Suzer O (2015). A comparative review of environmental concern prioritization: LEED vs other major certification systems. Journal of Environmental Management, 154: 266-283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.02.029   [Google Scholar] PMid:25745844
  34. Suzer O (2019). Analyzing the compliance and correlation of LEED and BREEAM by conducting a criteria-based comparative analysis and evaluating dual-certified projects. Building and Environment, 147: 158-170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.09.001   [Google Scholar]
  35. Thilakaratne R and Lew V (2011). Is LEED leading Asia? An analysis of global adaptation and trends. Procedia Engineering, 21: 1136-1144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.11.2122   [Google Scholar]
  36. USGBC (2014). LEED V4 for building design and construction. U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, USA.   [Google Scholar]
  37. WCT (2020). GCC’s construction sector to see US$140 billion worth in new contractor awards in 2019–Ventures ONSITE. World Construction Today, Hyderabad, India. 
  38. WPR (2020). GCC countries 2020. World Population Review. Available Online at: https://bit.ly/3l6JJYM
  39. Wu P, Mao C, Wang J, Song Y, and Wang X (2016). A decade review of the credits obtained by LEED v2.2 certified green building projects. Building and Environment, 102: 167-178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2016.03.026   [Google Scholar]
  40. Wu P, Song Y, Shou W, Chi H, Chong HY, and Sutrisna M (2017). A comprehensive analysis of the credits obtained by LEED 2009 certified green buildings. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 68: 370-379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.10.007   [Google Scholar]
  41. Zafar S (2017). Green building rating systems in MENA. Available Online at: https://bit.ly/31hb42x