Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), with its advantages and disadvantages, has dominated the green building certification market for a long time. But now alternatives - like the GBI's Green Globes, the Living Building Challenge, and Build It Green – are beginning to emerge. So how does a competitor like Green Globes shape up in comparison to LEED? And what does this developing competition mean for green rating systems in general? To learn more, keep reading after the break.
LEED was the first certification system to successfully convince businesses that building green could be economical. Yet despite its pioneering status and popularity, LEED has been plagued with criticism. It has been berated for ignoring context and performance, resulting in evaluations that are not truly representative of a building’s sustainability. More recently, LEED was found to have little to no impact on worker productivity, causing researchers to question the system’s ability to accommodate user needs.
In comparison to LEED, which is difficult and expensive to tackle on your own, Green Globes evaluation is branded as being more user-friendly and affordable. Similar to LEED, Green Globes relies on a point-based system and offers four levels of certification – One, Two, Three, and Four Globes. Green Globes charges a flat rate for its services, whereas LEED’s price is based on the project’s square footage.
