International Conference | Bari - Lecce , Italy
Session IV
AN OVERVIEW OF BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY RATING SYSTEMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Sundus L . Shareef1 & Hasim Altan1
1Architecture and Sustainable Built Environment , Faculty of Engineering & IT , British University in Dubai , UAE , sundus _ shariff @ yahoo . com / hasim . altan @ buid . ac . ae
Abstract
The globe shares common concerns namely global warming , pollution , limited resources , carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions-GHG , all of which are major elements that affect the future of people on the planet . Buildings play a considerable role in these environmental problems , and the challenge of human wellbeing could be resolved through the unique solution ; ‘ Sustainability ’ which could be considered as a method of life . Sustainability is the way to plan and manage the present and the future generations ’ life , this work explores the definition of the widely used term ; and highlights the most used tools , rating systems , and practices that could be adopted to archive the sustainable developments . However , green building specifications and rating tools became a mandatory requirement for each city in order to provide the guidelines of the green design and performance that reduce the negative environmental impact from one side and to evaluate the buildings ’ sustainability from the other side . This study conducted a comparison between the International and the Middle East Local Green Building Rating Systems , and concluded that the implementation of regulatory framework and mandatory regulations for sustainable design will serve more in building performance towards sustainability . Furthermore , the locally designed systems would serve much better for achieving targets than employing the international ones .
Keywords
Green Building Rating Systems , LEED , BREEAM , PEARL , Environmental Sustainability .
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