Developing a Green Building Assessment Tool for Ethiopia

Abstract

Sustainable/green building rating systems are utilized by both developed and developing countries based on their local context. This paper aims to develop an assessment tool that considers the triple bottom line sustainability of buildings. In Ethiopia, buildings of various types and purposes are constructed at an alarming rate with inadequate resources and wasteful uses, so this tool is in urgent need. Developing such a tool is highly appreciated due to the diversified and complicated ecological and socio-economic issues in the building construction sector. This research has developed new green building assessment categories and criteria depending upon consensus reached with 93 experienced experts working on the construction sectors. This research reviewed a total of 10 widely and repeatedly used tools that were critically studied, for instance, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen, Sustainable Building Tool, and so on. The Analytic Hierarchy Process technique was applied for weighting and prioritizing after selecting these assessment categories and criteria. The outcomes of the research with the relative priority values were materials and resources (18.66%), sustainable sites and ecology (16.92%), energy efficiency (16.78%), indoor environmental quality (12.60%), economic aspects (10.41%), management (10.30%), water efficiency (8.06%) and location and transportation (6.27%). Thus the proposed sustainable building assessment tool that best suits Ethiopian settings was developed.

Keywords

• Rating systems
• Green buildings
• Assessment tool
• Relative priority values