Operational Life-cycle Oriented Sustainability Rating Approach for Buildings: Towards Sustainable Buildings - Softcover

Abu-Samra, Soliman; Mokahhal, Safa

9781976818318: Operational Life-cycle Oriented Sustainability Rating Approach for Buildings: Towards Sustainable Buildings

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1976818311 ISBN 13: 9781976818318

Publisher: Independently published, 2018

Environmental issues have been exponentially increasing. The building sector has been found to be responsible for a large part of the direct and indirect environmental impacts such as; greenhouse gasses’ emissions, etc... Several reports displayed that the building sector is responsible for 32% of global energy consumption, 19% of energy-related CO₂ emissions, 51% of global electricity consumption and 9% of global petroleum consumption. Furthermore, one-third of the material global resource consumption is exhausted in the building sector. The operational and maintenance phase of buildings accounts for 70% to 90% of the overall impact on environment. Thus, there is an urgent need for an inclusive operational-based life-cycle oriented building sustainability rating model that limits the harsh environmental impacts and saves energy for the next generations. Therefore, the goal of this project is to construct a comprehensive sustainability rating system that focuses on the operational life-cycle of the buildings and compares the developed system with other existing rating systems. The The project framework spins around three main phases as follows: (1) literature review to review multitude of building rating systems and categorization of the operational assessment criteria and sub-criteria and select the most inclusive building rating systems that will be considered for developing the proposed building sustainability assessment model, (2) building sustainability assessment model development, which functions through four integrated models as follows: (i) sub-factors sustainability assessment model, (ii) sub-factors credits aggregation model, (iii) factors credits aggregation model, and (iv) criteria credits aggregation model, and (3) model validation and verification, which aims at validating the verifying the developed model. In order to validate the building sustainability assessment model, the developed model was applied to a case study of Concordia EV building; where the data was collected from Concordia University facility management team. The results of the proposed BOMA criteria displayed the criteria results of the rating systems where; 49% (Certified), 54% (Certified), 60% (Good), and 53% (Un-classified) were the building sustainability assessment rating (BSAR) for the LEED, BREEAM, BOMA, and proposed BOMA respectively. For the criteria, sustainable sites, building management, and location and transportation criteria topped the system with 84%, 77%, and 74% respectively, which implies that the location of the building in terms of public transport accessibility, and proximity to amenities was perfect and the facility management is performing well with preparing and implementing proper building management plans. Then, indoor environmental quality and water efficiency + Emissions came after the sustainable sites, building management, and location and transportation with 63%, and 61% respectively, which is needs further attention in terms of indoor air quality pollutant monitoring, water conservation, and water management. At the end, energy and atmosphere and materials and resources + Emissions criteria buttoned the list with 44% and 38% respectively, which implies the poor energy performance and management as well as the absence of proper sustainable purchasing policy and solid waste management practices. The model showed to be an accurate tool for decision-makers to determine the current sustainability of buildings and highlights the weak areas that require further attention.

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