Green Globes - Commercial Green Program
For New & Existing Buildings:
Criteria
Green Globes Design for New Buildings and Retrofits Rating System
What is Green Globes Design?
How does it work?
What are the Green Globes stages?
What is the Green Globes Design Assessment process?
How long does the assessment take?
How does Green Globes differ from other assessments?
How does Green Globes support integrated design?
Who uses Green Globes?
How much do registration and certification cost?
How do I obtain third-party verification?
What about privacy?
What is Green Globes Design?
Green Globes Design is both a guide for integrating green design principles and an assessment protocol. Using confidential questionnaires for each stage of project delivery, the program generates comprehensive on-line assessment and guidance reports. Using Green Globes helps to design a building that will be energy and resource efficient, will achieve operational savings and be healthier to work or live in.
How does it work?
Confidential questionnaires for each project delivery stage serve to guide and evaluate how best practices for energy and environmental design are being met. Questions are typically of a YES/NO/NA type and are grouped broadly under seven areas of building environmental performance: Project management, Site, Energy, Water, Resources, Emissions and Indoor Environment. Only two of the stages are scored: the Concept (Schematic) Design Stage and the Construction Documents Stage. For projects that require a rating and certification of the design, the assessment takes place at the Construction Documents Stage. All other stages are optional, and are provided simply to guide the integrated design process. Once the questionnaire has been completed, a printable report is automatically generated that provides:
- Overall score and percentage eco-ratings at the Concept Design and Construction Documents Stages for: Project Management; Site; Energy; Water; Resources; Emissions; Effluents & Other Impacts; Indoor Environment
- Highlights of the design
- Suggestions for further improvements to the design
- Hyper-links to information on building systems and management
What are the Green Globes stages?
There are seven Green Globes questionnaires, one for each stage of the project. The following provides an outline of each of the stages:
- Project Initiation / Goal definition: The Client's vision and related key sustainable goals are articulated. Opportunities and needs are expressed in such a way that the sustainable development objectives are unambiguous, and the effectiveness criteria and performance measures are definite.
- Programming: The investment analysis becomes translated into verifiable technical criteria. The anticipated physical response to the objectives that were identified at the Goal Definition Stage is now documented. This guides the Designer or Designer-builder to develop a proposal that meets the environmental needs of the Client/User.
- Concept (schematic) design: The Client / User requirements are fine-tuned and the design is adjusted before the detailed technical development. Anticipated performance is modelled. As the design emerges, changes to the Programming may be necessary. Scoring is provided at this stage.
- Design Development: The approved concept is expressed in the preliminary technical documents and drawings. A substantive estimate and schedule should be provided and the quality plan updated.
- Construction documents: Working drawings and specifications to guide the Contractor and Sub-contractors are finalized. The drawing specifications outline the conditions to be created and maintained in the building, on-site, and in adjacent areas. Construction and procurement documents, including a substantive estimate, schedule and quality plan are prepared for tender. Green Globes scores are provided at this stage, which can lead to a Green Globes rating and 3rd party verification.
- Construction: The Project Manager administers contracts and conducts regular site meetings and inspections to verify that best environmental construction practices are being implemented. The risk assessment and quality plan must also be updated.
- Commissioning: The completed building is commissioned and its performance verified to ensure that it complies with the criteria outlined in the Programming Brief. Commissioning moves the completed project from a "static" construction state to a "dynamic" operating state and ensures orderly transfer of the built-works from the "Implementor" to the "Client/User.
What is the Green Globes Design Assessment process?
- If you are a new user, register on line. If you are an existing user, log-on using your password.
- Input a new building or select a building record to update.
- Select the design stage. Note that only the Construction Documents Stage is required for 3rd party verification. All other stages are optional and are offered as guidance for the integrated design process.
- Choose your designation (architect, engineer, landscape architect etc.), or if you wish to see all the questions in the survey, select user type "All". Note: it is important that all surveys are thoroughly reviewed upon completion using the user type "All", otherwise all questions may not be properly completed.
- Complete the survey. Each survey comprises seven sections (project management, site, energy, water, resources, emissions, and indoor environment). Each section consists of one or more pages of questions. It is not required that you complete the section in a particular order. Very important: After entering your answers to a page of questions, click the "Submit" button. You can return and continue to enter or update answers at any time.
- Review the report. You can update your report at any time as you make improvements to your design. You can print the “printer friendly” version of the report. To make edits or adjust the formatting or look and feel of the report, simply copy the “printer friendly” report to WORD.
- If certification is desired, contact us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. We will put you in touch with a qualified assessor in your area.
- You will need to send the following supporting documents for 3rd party design review:
- construction documents that include working drawings, specifications, landscape designs,
- the results of energy modelling, and
- results of Life Cycle Assessment using the Athena SMI EcoCalculator available from http://www.athenasmi.org/tools/ecoCalculator/
- It is strongly recommended to re-assess the building 12 to 18 months after occupancy, under the BOMA BESt program for Existing Buildings to evaluate its actual performance once it is up and running.
All building data is retained in our system, and can be accessed, edited, or updated while your paid subscription is valid. Existing user account holders can register additional buildings/projects after logging in to their account.
How long does the assessment take?
The program is questionnaire-based. At the Construction Documents stage, there are approximately 150 questions that take approximately 2 hours to answer.
How does Green Globes differ from other assessments?
There is much commonality between the major current green design assessment methodologies such as Green Globes BREEAM, LEED, the GBC, and the Minnesota Design Guidelines with regards what constitutes best energy and environmental practices. The following are some areas which differentiate Green Globes:
- Simplicity: The questionnaires and reports provide a self-assessment, reporting tool and design guide all-in-one. The questionnaire and pop-up explanations reduce the need for third party involvement, making it possible to develop and assess sustainable designs at a fraction of the time and cost of other assessment methodologies.
- Involvement of all team members in the integrated design process: Tasks are identified for each team member throughout all the project delivery stages using tailored questionnaires. This streamlines the process and helps to ensure each member's input.
- Process oriented: Green Globes addresses the different stages of project delivery from Initiation to Commissioning. The Green Globes questionnaire is an excellent tool to guide the discussion at design charrettes. For projects that require certification, only the Construction Documents Stage is required. Other stages are provided for the sole purpose of guiding the integrated design and project delivery process.
- Simple and affordable submittals process: Unlike other systems which require extensive supporting documentation, Green Globes submittals include the final self-assessment report and copies (or PDFs) of the working drawings and specifications as well as results of energy modeling and life cycle assessment results.
How does Green Globes support integrated design?
The Green Globes questionnaires provide an excellent basis with which to conduct integrated design charrettes. Since ninety percent of design decisions are typically made during the first ten percent of the design process, using an integrated approach can help ensure that sustainability goals are established before design decisions have been made and that these are monitored throughout each stage of the project. This helps to avoid unclear goals, disjointed efforts and miscommunications between team members. Many design teams often jump on the "green" bandwagon late in the design process after the majority of envelope, systems and site development choices have already been made. Making meaningful changes this late in the process is costly and in some cases impossible. Experience has shown that using integrated design produces cost economies and achieves a greater degree of sustainability compared to the conventional design process.
Who uses Green Globes?
Green Globes is used by government agencies, project owners and investors to set project goals and specific environmental briefs; by project managers to monitor design development and by designers and consultants to scope and develop design strategies. Because it speaks to all of these stakeholders, Green Globes supports an integrated design approach to project delivery.
How much do registration and certification cost?
The cost of registration is $500.00 per project.
The cost of a third party verification and Green Globes rating/certification is:
| Under 100,000 sq. ft. |
$3,500 |
| 100,000 - 250,000 sq. ft. |
$5,000 |
| 250,000 - 500,000 sq. ft. |
$6,500 |
Above verification costs do not include applicable taxes.
How do I obtain third-party verification?
Once you have completed the Construction Documents Stage input and generated a report to your satisfaction, contact us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. We will put you in touch with a qualified assessor in your area. You will need to send the following supporting documents for 3rd party design review:
- construction documents that include working drawings, specifications, landscape designs,
- the results of energy modelling, and
- results of Life Cycle Assessment using the Athena SMI EcoCalculator available from http://www.athenasmi.org/tools/ecoCalculator/
It is strongly recommended to re-assess the building 12 to 18 months after occupancy, under the BOMA BESt program for Existing Buildings to evaluate its actual performance once it is up and running.
What about privacy?
Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.
The tool is divided into two areas. The first, which you are currently viewing, provides general information about Green Globes and is accessible to everyone. ECD Energy and Environment Canada recognizes that you have a right to privacy while visiting this site and pledges the following: ECD Energy and Environment Canada will not share personal information gathered on this web site with any third party. ECD Energy and Environment Canada will not send any type of software that could be used to monitor your computer while you are away from the Green Globes web site. Only the following information is collected as you browse through the Green Globes web site:
- the domain name and browser you use to access the Internet;
- the date and time of your visit;
- the pages you visited and resources accessed; and
- the address of the web site you visited immediately prior to visiting the Green Globes site;
- the pages you visit and the result of the request, such as an image or query;
- Other status codes and values resulting from the web server responding to the request received: HTTP status code, Windows NT code, number of bytes sent, number of bytes received, duration (in seconds) to fulfill the request, server port number addressed, and protocol version.
ECD Energy and Environment Canada collects this information for statistical purposes and for evaluating the Green Globes web site to make it more useful to visitors. Computer software programs are used to create summary statistics, which are used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas. No personal information is collected or used for this analysis.
The second area of Green Globes is private and accessible only to those users who wish to actually benchmark the performance of their buildings and calculate potential savings. Users wishing to do this must register to use the system and agree to abide by its conditions before being allowed access to the system. Within this private area, users are asked to provide details about their buildings, including current resource consumption and costs. For example, to benchmark current energy consumption and calculate cost savings, the tool will require you to provide details of total energy consumption in your building and associated costs over the last full calendar year.
Data that you provide in this section of the tool are confidential. No other users will have access to your consumption figures or to your benchmark results. They will be accessible to you and you alone. Verified data will be used for statistical and benchmarking purposes, but no information, which could be used to identify your company or building, will be collected or used for this analysis.
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