By Joel Scanlon
The LEED Green Building Programme from the US Green Building Council (USGBC) will now recognise energy credits from UK’s green rating program called BREEAM.
This was announced by the USGBC in Paris during an international Roundtable meeting held in Paris. Many international projects are now actively pursuing dual certification from LEED and BREEAM in order to expand their market reach and increase their market opportunities. However, dual certification also leads to increased costs and other burdens.
Members of LEED Roundtable got together for the meeting to discuss the various facets of dual certification. This announcement will significantly reduce the costs and procedures involved and introduce a best practice to the global building industry.
According to the Senior Vice President of LEED’s Global Strategic Innovation, USGBC, Scot Horst, the announcements demonstrate the dedication of USGBC to make the LEED programme more flexible and also succeeds in acknowledging the positive facts about the BREEAM rating system. He also added that the goal of the USGBC is to form a standardised and uniform best practice for the building industry across the world so that it motivates teams to enhance their performance. LEED has been recognised at an increasing rate in international projects. Around 40% of the total square footage that pursued LEED certification came from outside the US for the year 2011. The Roundtable meeting was attended by FEED, the GBCs of Turkey, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Romania and Finland.
Source: http://www.usgbc.org