Selection of the Most Appropriate Sustainable Buildings Assessment Categories and Criteria for Developing Countries: Case of Ethiopia
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 149, Issue 1
Abstract
Sustainable buildings can save 36% of total energy use, 65% of electricity consumption, 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 30% of raw materials use, 30% of waste output, and 12% of potable water consumption. Several sustainable building assessment tools were used by both developed and developing countries. However, Ethiopia’s buildings were not critically assessed and evaluated from a sustainability point of view because there was no such type of study conducted so far. This paper aims to explore the most significant and widely used tools as well as the basis for other sustainable building assessment tools, such as Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE), Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool), Comprehensive Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme (CEPAS), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB), and Green Mark and Green Star. The methodology employed is the selection of the 10 most commonly and widely utilized sustainable building assessment tools (SBATs) from the 57 SBATs based on desk review and document analysis. The results of the study identified that all 10 SBATs have their own assessment categories and criteria based on many factors, such as climatic conditions and availability of resources, plus methods employing demographic dynamics and legal aspects of the sector for assessing the sustainable/green buildings. It distinguishes the most commonly and repeatedly used assessment categories and criteria and uses a consensus-based approach with experts in the building sectors, a four-quadrant model, and a circular and helical flow model, to develop a new sustainable building assessment tool suitable for Ethiopia.
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Acknowledgments
The researcher extends the gratitude to the support of the key actors who contributed their parts in the study, and the comments of the senior experts for the realization of this paper.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 149 • Issue 1 • March 2023
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 10, 2022
Accepted: Oct 18, 2022
Published online: Dec 7, 2022
Published in print: Mar 1, 2023
Discussion open until: May 7, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Building design
- Buildings
- Business management
- Case studies
- Construction engineering
- Construction methods
- Decision making
- Decision support systems
- Design (by type)
- Developing countries
- Electric power
- Energy engineering
- Engineering fundamentals
- Green buildings
- Methodology (by type)
- Practice and Profession
- Research methods (by type)
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Sustainable development
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