Green Globes Tools

Green Globes™ is a revolutionary green building guidance and assessment program that integrates a comprehensive environmental assessment protocol, software tools, qualified assessors with green building expertise, and a rating/certification system. Together, this combination of tools and services integrate to offer an effective, practical and affordable way to advance the overall environmental performance and sustainability of buildings.

The Green Globes software tools and ratings/certification system are based on the recognized and proven Green Globes assessment protocol, thus environmental impact is comprehensively assessed on a 1,000 point scale in multiple categories: Energy, Indoor Environment, Site Impact, Water, Resources, Emissions, and Project/Environmental Management.

New building projects are enhanced by the use of Green Globes New Construction software tool and the Green Globes LCA Credit Calculator. Existing building environmental management and operations can be enhanced through the use of the Green Globes Continual Improvement for Existing Building software tool. Qualified third party assessors (with expertise in green building design, construction and management) conveniently interface with project teams and building owners during the assessment process to review progress, make enhancement suggestions, and validate environmental achievements for building projects. Both new and existing buildings can be benchmarked and recognized for their environmental achievements by pursuing a formal Green Globes Rating/Certification.

With opportunities to earn from one to four Green Globes, depending on the level of performance achieved, Green Globes rating/certification is suitable and practically attainable for a wide range of construction projects and existing buildings.

Green Globes™ New Construction

The Green Globes™ New Construction Tool is a web application that provides a means for architects, engineers, and construction professionals to evaluate, quantify, and improve the environmental friendliness and sustainability of new building projects and major renovations. It is easy to learn and use, and readily integrates into modern AEC workflows as part of a new design project or major renovation.

Those projects that score high on the Green Globes rating scale, and incorporate the sustainability enhancement suggestions coming from the tool should consume fewer fossil fuels, reduce green house emissions, conserve water, reduce other forms of pollution, minimize impact on the land surrounding the buildings, and offer a better environment for occupants. Green Globes helps building owners and managers identify opportunities to reduce operating expenses and find cost savings in energy, water, and waste disposal throughout the life of the building .

Green Globes™ Continual Improvement for Existing Buildings

Green Globes™ Continual Improvement for Existing Buildings delivers a comprehensive, thorough, and practical means for evaluating, rating, and improving the environmental footprint and/or sustainability of commercial buildings. As an online tool, it provides a convenient, practical, and effective means for building owners and property managers to reduce the environmental impact of the buildings they own and operate.

Green Globes Existing Buildings integrates best building management and operations practices within the tool and provides a means to facilitate awareness as well as implementation by offering improvement suggestions and web links to green building technology. If implemented, these suggestionsare intended to help owners to save energy, minimize greenhouse emissions, conserve water resources, and reduce other forms of pollution.

Green Globes™ LCA Credit Calculator

The Green Globes™ LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) Calculator is a tool that enables architectural design and engineering teams to fully understand the ecological impact of different choices in building materials for a new construction project. LCA considers materials over the course of their entire lives and takes into account a full range of environmental impact indicators—including embodied energy, solid waste, air and water pollution, and global warming potential. It provides LCA results for hundreds of common building assemblies in low- and high-rise categories-including exterior walls, roofs, intermediate floors, interior walls, windows, and columns and beams. The LCA calculator is a free, downloadable, and easy to use software tool that is based on the ATHENA® Impact Estimator for Buildings. Design teams utilizing the LCA calculator as part of their design process for new buildings receive education credits within the Green Globes New Construction assessment protocol and rating system.

Green Globes™ Rating/Certification

Green Globes™ offers opportunities for recognition and certification in the design, construction, or operation of commercial buildings via a formal Green Globes™ rating and certification system. Green Globes rating and certification provide a proven, credible, and recognized means to address the increasingly important environmental concerns of owners, investors, customers, and residents/occupants.

Building projects that have completed either the New Construction self assessment or the Continual Improvement for Existing Buildings assessment, and scored a minimum threshold of 35% of the 1,000 available points are then eligible to schedule an independent, third party review and site assessment that leads to formal Green globes Rating. Depending on the points scored after the independent third party assessment, buildings are assigned a green globes rating of one to four green globes, and are awarded a plaque for recognizing their environmental achievements.

Green Globes rated buildings are intended to use less energy, conserve water resources, and emit fewer pollutants (in the form of greenhouse gases, airborne pollutants, liquid effluents, and/or solid waste) than other buildings at large. As such, projected benefits to building owners and investors accrue in the form of reduced operating costs for energy, water, and waste disposal while at the same time making the facilities a more enjoyable and better place to visit, live or work. By investing in Green Globes rating/certification, organizations can publicly demonstrate their commitment to environmental sensitivity, to reducing adverse environmental impacts, and for incorporating the best "green" practices for building design, construction, and/or ongoing operation.