Green Globes™ Continual Improvement for Existing Buildings

The Green Globes® for Continual Improvement of Existing Buildings (CIEB) tool is an easy-to-use web application that aids commercial building owners and property managers in the evaluation, documentation, and improvement of the environmental performance of commercial buildings. Using this tool enables building teams to focus on sustainability, gives them options when considering capital improvements or implementation of best practices, and allows them to benchmark and rate the benefits of various building attributes and procedures.

Green Globes-CIEB combines environmental assessment with education.  Using your entries into the CIEB survey tool, Green Globes provides an automatically generated report that can help you evaluate opportunities to benefit from energy savings, reduced environmental impacts, integrated corporate goals and practices, and lower costs for maintenance. Combine these value added features with a cost-effective third-party assessment process conducted by highly qualified individual assessors, and you have the opportunity to publicly demonstrate your commitment to the environment.

The CIEB tool is suitable for a wide range of commercial buildings from large and small offices, multi-family structures, to institutional buildings such as court houses, schools, universities and libraries.

Features	User Benefits
Online questionnaire	Data is stored in a secure, private, and accessible location for convenient completion, edit, or update at any point in the project life.  Eliminates complicated paper forms, submission packets, data files to manage.
Green Globes Assessment Protocol	Comprehensively assesses building sustainability and environmental features/performance on a 1000 point score in 7 different categories.
Environmental Category  Scores	Delivers a graphical view of summary performance in each environmental assessment category, clarifies building strengths and weaknesses.
Self-Assessed Rating	Delivers an overall performance score for the building, allows accurate best practices comparison, enables users to predict Green Globes rating prior to a third party assessment
Energy Performance Comparison	Relative energy performance can be benchmarked with Energy Star target finder.
Building Report	Provides a structured and detailed summary of environmental/sustainable features.
Improvement Suggestions	Customized improvement recommendations in each of the assessment categories are provided to provide a clear path toward improving overall environmental performance.

Sample Reports  
Tables & Graphical Output of Survey Results
Achievement Summaries for Good Project Practices
Improvement suggestions

To obtain a Green Globes rating, you must complete first complete the online questionnaire for Green Globes-CIEB.  The process for new users is as follows:

Step 1:  Purchase a subscription to Green Globes - CIEB
Step 2:  Login to Green Globes using your user ID (email address) and unique password
Step 3: Select the Green Globes – CIEB tool, click add a building, and enter basic building information
Step 4: Complete the online building assessment
Step 5: See projected rating, get feedback using automatic reports, and implement improvements
Step 6: Order and complete a third-party assessment (only if Green Globes - CIEB indicates a predicted rating of at least 35% of 1000 points)
Step 7: Get your Green Globes rating/certification

All building data is retained in our system, and can be accessed, edited, or updated while you your free trial or paid subscription is valid.  Existing user account holders can purchase a subscription or purchase additional buildings/projects after logging in to their account.

The Green Globes®-CIEB tool covers six different environmental assessment areas, with each area having an assigned number of points that are used to quantify overall building performance and use of best practices.

Assessment Category	Points	Description
Energy	350	Performance, efficiency, management, CO2, transportation
Indoor Environment	185	Air quality, lighting, noise
Emissions & Effluents	175	Boilers, water effluents, hazmat
Resources	110	Waste reduction, recycling
Environmental Management	100	EMS documentation, purchasing, environmental awareness
Water	80	Performance, conservation, management
Total	1000

The scoring for these six categories is based on approximately 150 questions. Although more time may be required to research and gather the necessary information to complete the survey, in general each building survey takes about 2-3 hours to input all the necessary data.  

Green Globes offers opportunities for recognition and certification in the design, construction, and/or operation of commercial buildings. Third-party assessment is required for a Green Globes rating and certification, which then provides a recognized means to address the increasingly important environmental concerns of owners, investors, customers, and residents/occupants.

Building projects that have completed the CIEB questionnaires and scored a minimum threshold of 35% of the 1,000 available points are then eligible to schedule a thorough third-party review of documentation and an on-site walk through that will then lead to a formal Green Globes rating/certification. Buildings that successfully complete a third-party assessment are assigned a Green Globes™ rating of one to four Green Globes.  Plaques and public relations materials help to enhance public recognition of this important achievement.

Green Globes® rated/certified buildings are intended to:

• Use less energy
• Conserve water resources
• Emit fewer pollutants (such as greenhouse gases, airborne pollutants, liquid effluents, and/or solid waste)

By investing in Green Globes rating/certification, companies can publicly demonstrate their commitment to environmental sensitivity, reducing adverse environmental impacts, and incorporating the best "green" practices for building design, construction, and/or ongoing operations.  Operational savings through lower energy bills and maintenance costs as well as reduced occupant complaints add to the desired benefits to create compelling reasons to continually benchmark and rate/certify buildings.