Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings

ANSI/GBI 01-201X:

Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings

Public Comment Draft 1-August 31, 2015

Note that the Foreword, Appendix, Informational References and Recommended Documentation are informative only and do notcontainmandatory requirements necessary for conformance to this Standard. As such, they may contain material that has not been subjected to public review or a consensus process.

Reference documentscited within the Standard are mandatoryunlessthey are clearly identified as being Informational References. Referenced documents are only to be applied within the context for which they are cited.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

1.PURPOSE

2.SCOPE

3.ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS, MINIMUMS, NON-APPLICABLES AND THIRD PARTY ASSESSMENTS

4.ASSESSMENT OF COMPLIANCE

5.DEFINITIONS, ABBREVIATIONS, AND ACRONYMS

6. PROJECT MANAGEMENT (100 points)

7. SITE (150)

8. ENERGY (260 points)

9. WATER EFFICIENCY (190 points)

10. MATERIALS (150 points)

11. INDOOR ENVIRONMENT (150 points)

12. REFERENCES AND GUIDELINES

13. APPENICES

Appendix A: Utilizing the Science of Risk Assessment for Product Selection

FOREWORD

Note that the information contained in this Foreword is not part of this Standard. It does not contain requirements necessary for conformance to the Standard. The Foreword is not subject to public review.

The Green Building Initiative (GBI) is a not-for-profit organization that in 2005 became accredited as a standards developer by ANSI. GBI owns the U.S. license for Green Globes®—a green commercial building rating system that combines education with environmental assessments within interactive online tools for new and existing buildings. Green Globes is a unique green management tool in that it offers flexibility, ease-of-use, and affordability, while maintaining its effectiveness for assessing green building design, construction, interior fit outs, operations, and maintenance processes. GBI has made the commitment to revise its Green Globes rating system using the ANSI consensus process and ANSI approved procedures. As of this time, GBI is the only commercial green building rating system developer engaged in ongoing development of an American National Standard.

The Green Building Initiative, Green Globes & ANSI

GBI completed its first American National Standard in 2010 – ANSI/GBI 01-2010: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings. GBI 01-2010 was incorporated into the current Green Globes for New Construction online tool in 2013 along with some enhancements based on changes in the market.

The following document represents a comprehensive revision to GBI 01-2010 and, following public comment and further revision, will become the next version of the online Green Globes for New Construction rating system. The assessment protocol—or rating system—contained within BSR/GBI 01-201X (the public comment version of GBI’s revised Standard) applies to new commercial buildings and major renovations and includes criteria related to measuring performance against projections.

Stakeholder Involvement

GBI maintains a 32-member Consensus Body to oversee revisions to this Standard. The public has been encouraged to participate throughout the revision process. The process began in 2014 with a call for Consensus Body and Subcommittee applicants and a survey of applicants to indicate interest in serving as volunteer leaders. All meetings of the Consensus Body are public and interested stakeholders can also request to be included in Subcommittee deliberations as Observers. GBI accepts Consensus Body applications year-round and a queue of applicants is maintained should vacancies occur in any of the five interest categories: Government, User, Testing & Standards Organization, Producer, and General Interest. An email list of interested Stakeholders is maintained by GBI’s Secretariat and used for periodic updates on developments or opportunities to participate or comment. A Schedule for Maintenance and other forms and information are available at

GBI Encourages Participation in Public Comment Periods

The public comment process is a critical element to developing an ANSI Standard. GBI encourages robust discussion and debate. ANSI consensus processes also afford due process to each and every commenter. Commenters will receive communication from the ANSI Secretariat upon receipt of their comment and following Consensus Body action on their comment.

Flexibility and Minimum Compliance Requirements

One of the many strengths of the Green Globes approach – since its early existence and use in Canada – has been its flexibility. Flexibility is built into GBI’s Standard in many ways and allows users to consider the whole building life cycle, regional climatic issues, and local laws and ordinances while setting and working to achieve goals that make sense for each building’s unique opportunities and constraints.

A prominent example of the Green Globes tradition of flexibility is the use of “non-applicables.” Users can indicate criteria that are not applicable to a building or project. For instance, if a local code supersedes a criterion in the Standard and/or if optional features (e.g., cooling towers, etc.) are not included in the project scope, then those criteria could be marked non-applicable.

The compliance thresholds are set by this revised Standard through requirements in Section 3 on achievement levels. First, a building is only in compliance with the Standard and can only achieve Green Globes certification if it achieves at least 35% of applicable points out of 1000 possible points. Second, the revised Standard sets an additional requirement that a building must achieve at least 20% of applicable points within each of the six environmental assessment areas. Every building that achieves Green Globes certification under these proposed revisions must achieve a minimum percentage of points in each assessment area as well as a minimum percentage of points overall.

The 1000 possible points are strategically allocated to direct users toward criteria considered most critical in the reduction of a building’s environmental impacts, as well as criteria that maximize a building’s opportunity to have a positive impact on a community and its occupants. In this revision, several changes were made to point distributions to reflect the relative perceived importance or “weight” of the criteria within the areas. For example, the Energy assessment area continues to hold the highest number of possible points, indicating its critical importance. The Water assessment area’s point allocation has also been raised significantly to highlight the vital importance of water efficiency and conservation in building planning efforts. The new point distribution as proposed in BSR/GBI 01-201X “weights” the assessment areas as follows:

• Project Management (100 points)
• Site (150 points)
• Energy (260 points)
• Water (190 points)
• Materials (150 points)
• Indoor Environment (150 points)

The revised Standard, as is consistent with the 2010 version, does not make specific criteria mandatory (i.e., there are no mandatory points other than the requirements noted above to achieve minimum percentages of applicable points in each assessment area and a minimum percentage of points overall). Instead, additional weighting occurs within each assessment area to encourage pursuit of criteria considered to be most important. For example, Section 9.1 on Indoor Domestic Plumbing has 32 possible points out of the Water assessment area’s total 190 points and points are allocated to encourage use of indoor plumbing fixtures more efficient than the base efficiency requirements. The Water Subcommittee gave this section the most weight to ensure that Green Globes buildings prioritize indoor water efficiency. Other sections in the Water assessment area follow also have high weightings, including Cooling Towers (31 points), Alternate Sources of Water (28 points), Metering (28 points), and Irrigation (27 points).

Through point weightings, users are encouraged to strive to earn the highest number of applicable points possible for the building type, size, and budget, while using the flexibility built into the system to keep on track with the owners’ goals and objectives, the planned functionality for the building, and the potential for eventual deconstruction or repurposing of the building. Project teams that achieve 35-54% of points on their first project—which is a One Green Globes level of certification (Level 1)—may strive to achieve higher levels of achievement and recognition in future projects through their lessons learned. The Standard is designed to encourage and recognize incremental achievements that take buildings beyond minimum compliance requirements while incentivizing teams to innovate and strive for Levels 2, 3 or 4, thereby going well beyond code and toward achievement of world class performance.

Technical Advances

Reviewers of this revised Standard will find many notable improvements that advance the art, form and definition of what constitutes a green building. Discussion and debate through the public comment process is expected and important to this process. Highlights of the revised Standard are noted below.

• Project Management – This section encourages:
• Goal setting involving the owner and critical function areas at pre-design and carrying through to measurement of results at occupancy;
• Planning to reduce impacts during construction;
• Assessing life cycle cost impacts and building service life planning at design stages;
• Moisture control analysis as a method of limiting risk of building non-performance; and
• Building commissioning and training or creation of a systems manual and training.
• Site – The Site section now incorporates transportation criteria and addresses access to public transportation, bicycle paths, car/van pools, alternative re-fueling stations, and neighborhood assets, such as grocery stores; and addresses construction impacts, tree preservation, stormwater management, landscaping and urban agriculture, and exterior light pollution.
• Energy – Three paths are provided of equal weighting (180 possible points) that allow users to choose between three options for assessing projected energy performance, including use of ASHRAE 90.1-2010 Appendix G; assessing Building Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e) Emissions; or following a Prescriptive path. Non-modeled energy impacts are assessed, and metering, monitoring, and measuring have been revamped to further incentivize sub-metering, monitoring, and verification of actual performance. Credit for use of renewable energy has been clarified and streamlined.
• Water - Indoor Domestic Plumbing has 32 possible points and is heavily weighted to encourage use of plumbing fixtures that comply with either ASHRAE SS189.1-2014, 2015 International Green Construction Code Table 702.1, or 2015 IAPMO Green Plumbing & Mechanical Code Supplement Section 402. Other sections address cooling towers; boilers and hot water systems; water-intensive applications, such as commercial food equipment, laboratories, laundry, and pools; water treatment; alternate sources of water; metering; and irrigation.
• Materials – The Materials section contains criteria on:
• Materials throughout their lifecycle and includes both whole building life cycle assessment as well as product life cycle assessment options.
• Risk assessment that takes steps to address chemical transparency concerns in today’s market by encouraging teams to specify materials that have been evaluated by product manufacturers in accordance with NSF/GCI/ANSI 355: Greener Chemicals and Processes Information Standard and that have had verification of exposure factors.
• Single attributes, such as use of pre- and post-consumer recycled materials, biobased content, and third-party forestry certification;
• Re-use of existing structures and materials;
• Construction waste, post-occupancy recycling, and supply chain waste minimization; and
• Resource conservation that addresses minimized use of raw materials and encourages designing for deconstruction.
• Indoor Environment – The Indoor Environment section incorporates the latest technology, research, and solutions. The section addresses human health and performance issues as well as aesthetically pleasing and functional spaces through sections on air ventilation and quality, source control and measurement of indoor pollutants, lighting design and systems, thermal comfort, and a significantly updated acoustic comfort section.

How to Submit Public Comments

A public comment form is provided at To submit a proposal for a substantive change to the Standard, commenters are encouraged to be specific about the change they are requesting and to provide a reason. Stakeholders can copy and paste a section of the Standard into the comment form and use strikethrough and underline to identify suggested deletions or additions to the text. During the first public comment period, comments are solicited on the entire Standard.

To learn more about the public comment process, review GBI’s ANSI-approved procedures at

User Application and Ongoing Maintenance of This Standard

GBI’s online system will break this Standard down into questionnaires to assist in evaluating the criteria. The questionnaires will provide more detailed information in the form of “Tool Tips,” hyperlinks to referenced documents, and calculation of potential points achieved. In addition to the Standard, a Technical Manual will be made available to assist users and provide assessment guidance.

Compliance criteria will be strictly maintained through GBI’s ANSI Consensus Process. Following completion of this revision to GBI 01-2010 under ANSI’s periodic maintenance requirements, GBI will apply to maintain the Standard through ANSI’s continuous maintenance procedures. This will allow for annual or bi-annual updates to the Standard to help ensure that the Standard and the online tool can both be maintained and updated simultaneously to reflect changes in referenced standards, lessons learned and advances in building technology.

Obtaining Third-Party Assessment and Certification of Compliance

GBI’s tools are educational and instructive, and GBI is a provider of third-party certification. The third-party assessment process is hassle-free and provides a value-add for design teams through direct interaction with a highly qualified Green Globes Assessor. To achieve Green Globes certification, the designated building representative must complete the appropriate Green Globes online questionnaire, provide sufficient documentation to justify the responses, and pass a two-stage third-party review process conducted by a third-party assessor. The assessment includes a thorough review of design documentation (stage I) and a walk through of the completed building with relevant personnel (stage II). Completion of the third-party assessment process and achievement of the minimum requirements as outlined in this revision will be required to be recognized by GBI for a Green Globes rating/certification. GBI recognizes the achievement by awarding one, two, three or four Green Globes, which correspond with Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 outlined in the Standard.

Green Globes Personnel Certifications

Individuals interested in becoming Green Globes Assessors™ (GGAs) or Green Globes Professionals™ (GGPs) should visit GBI’s website at to complete and submit the relevant application. Please review the requirements for each opportunity and determine where your skills and experience could best be applied.

Who Should Use This Standard

Owners, design teams, developers, contractors, lenders, institutions, various levels of government, tenants, and occupants, as well as facility managers and maintenance personnel can apply this Standard to a broad range of commercial building types—such as office, multi-family, health care, schools, universities, labs, industrial, and retail. The Standard does not apply to single-family homes, two-family homes and townhouses that are three stories or less in height, as such structures are covered in the ANSI/ICC 700 Standard developed by the National Association of Home Builders ( and the International Code Council.

BSR/GBI 01-201X includes prescribed levels of achievement that government agencies or other entities wishing to establish specific criteria may consider when adopting this Standard. GBI also develops customized tools for governments to comply with government-specific requirements or other codes and standards. An example is GBI’s unique Guiding Principles Compliance and Certification program, which is customized for use by federal agencies for compliance with Executive Orders and “Greening the Government” mandates.

To learn more about current Green Globes tools, visit To learn about participation in GBI’s Standard development and ANSI consensus processes, visit or contact GBI’s Secretariat Maria Woodbury at or 207-807-8666.

1.PURPOSE

This Standard provides a method for assessing commercial buildings relative to the tenets of integrated design and contemporary best practices for sustainable buildings. This assessment method addresses the design and construction of buildings with respect toreducing life cycle resource consumption, waste,andglobal/regional/local environmental impacts;contributing to human and ecological system health; and providing performance feedback to owners and communities on indicators such as energy and water performance.

2.SCOPE

This Standard applies to a broad range of commercial building types, including offices, multi-family, health care, schools, universities, labs, industrial, retail, etc., as well as to major renovations as defined in Section 5 Definitions, Abbreviations, and Acronyms of the Standard. The Standard does not apply to single-family homes, two-family homes, and townhouses that are three stories or less in height.

The Standard includes a point-based assessment or rating system that allows users to identify solutions that earn points for actions likely to achieve levels of performance commonly valued as having desirable environmental and related efficiency outcomes. The assessment criteria and rating system within the Standard apply to new commercial buildings and major renovations, including criteria related to planning for subsequent operations and maintenance.

The six areas of assessment within the Standard include Project Management, Site, Energy, Water Efficiency, Materials, and Indoor Environment.

This Standard shall not be used to circumvent any code, health, safety, security, or environmental requirements. It is the sole responsibility of the user of this Standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices, to comply with required building codes, and to assess the applicability of criteria based on other possible regulatory limitations prior to use.

3.ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS, MINIMUMS, NON-APPLICABLES AND THIRD PARTY ASSESSMENTS

3.1 Achievement Levels

Levels of Achievement 1, 2, 3, and 4 are specified in Table 1 below.