A Swedish environmental rating tool for buildings

In 2003, a joint effort between the Swedish government, a number of companies in the building and construction sectors, some municipalities, insurance companies and banks set a target that by 2009, all new buildings and 30% of existing Swedish buildings should be rated using a voluntary environmental rating tool. In a major research programme finished in 2008, a tool was developed to be used in this context. The tool covers three assessment areas: Energy, Indoor environment and Material & Chemicals. These areas are split into 11 aspects with one or a few indicators. Rating criteria are specified for each indicator, stipulating requirements for a rating Gold, Silver, Bronze and Rated. Indicator results can then be aggregated to aspect, area and a single rating for building level for enhanced result communication. The tool builds on previous experiences regarding environmental building rating tools and therefore includes some special characteristics which aim to tackle some of the criticism directed towards the first generation of such tools. At the time of writing, the first buildings have received official ratings and an independent stakeholder group is promoting broader implementation of the tool.

[1]  Drury B. Crawley,et al.  Building environmental assessment methods: applications and development trends , 1999 .

[2]  Philip C.H. Yu,et al.  A discussion on potentials of saving energy use for commercial buildings in Hong Kong , 2007 .

[3]  H. Radhi,et al.  Can envelope codes reduce electricity and CO2 emissions in different types of buildings in the hot climate of Bahrain , 2009 .

[4]  Tove Malmqvist.  Methodological aspects of environmental assessment of buildings , 2008 .

[5]  Raymond J. Cole,et al.  Building environmental assessment methods: redefining intentions and roles , 2005 .

[6]  Göran Finnveden,et al.  DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL RATING TOOL FOR BUILDINGS THROUGH A NEW KIND OF DIALOGUE BETWEEN STAKEHOLDERS AND RESEARCHERS , 2009 .

[7]  M. Glaumann,et al.  Evaluation of green buildings in Sweden , 1999 .

[8]  Brian Norton,et al.  Life-cycle operational and embodied energy for a generic single-storey office building in the UK , 2002 .

[9]  Charles J. Kibert,et al.  Sustainable Construction : Green Building Design and Delivery , 2005 .

[10]  Marita Wallhagen,et al.  What is a "green" building according to different assessment tools? , 2008 .

[11]  Grace K C Ding,et al.  Sustainable construction--the role of environmental assessment tools. , 2008, Journal of environmental management.

[12]  Wen-Shing Lee,et al.  Benchmarking the energy performance for cooling purposes in buildings using a novel index-total performance of energy for cooling purposes , 2010 .

[13]  Youyin Jing,et al.  Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and extenics theory for building energy conservation assessment , 2009 .

[14]  Thomas Lützkendorf,et al.  Using an integrated performance approach in building assessment tools , 2006 .

[15]  Ray Bert,et al.  Book Review: Smith, Currie & Hancock's Common Sense Construction Law, Third Edition , edited by Thomas J. Kelleher, Jr. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005 , 2005 .

[16]  T. Malmqvist.  Environmental rating methods: selecting indoor environmental quality (IEQ) aspects and indicators , 2008 .

[17]  Tove Malmqvist,et al.  Selecting problem-related environmental indicators for housing management , 2006 .

[18]  Wps Dias,et al.  Quality based energy contents and carbon coefficients for building materials: A systems approach , 2004 .

[19]  Arpad Horvath,et al.  Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) - A critical evaluation by LCA and recommendations for improvement , 2007 .

[20]  N. Lior.  Sustainable energy development: The present (2009) situation and possible paths to the future , 2010 .

[21]  J. Burnett,et al.  Analysis of embodied energy use in the residential building of Hong Kong , 2001 .