Environmental assessment methodologies for commercial buildings: a study of the behavioral foundations influencing the uptake of the LEED scheme in the United States

Abstract

The quest for more sustainable buildings that produce less waste and water as well as use energy more ciently has been going on for more than thirty years. Change towards a more sustainable construction industry is influenced by many factors, the effects of which are difficult to predict. Still, voluntary building assessment systems have become increasingly popular around the world address the issues that mandatory building codes habe not been able to tackle. This is also the case in the United States, a country in which environmental decisions are made at multiple levels, notably federal, state, county and local level. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and many more voluntary schemes such as Green Globes, BREEAM or Built it Green have pushed into the market. The efficiency of these schemes is still widely debated but they have become a de facto reality for many building professionals. One topic that has been neglected, however, in both academic and policy discussions is how professionals (architects, engineers, real estate developers etc.) perceive and react to the change from statemandated building codes to voluntary market-based schemes and what their motivations for the use of these schemes are. In this paper, building on 14 face-to-face interviews with building professionals in Massachusetts and New York State, an online survey is currently being developed to investigate these questions. The aim of the 3nal paper will be to distinguish behavioural responses between professional groups as well as LEED AP accredited and nonaccredited professionals.