INTERVIEW
makes a difference. Through a carefully managed, independent, third-party verification system, LEED affirms the integrity of Green Building commitments by ensuring project teams are delivering on design plans and goals. Third-party validation helps guarantee that each project saves energy, water and other resources, reducing the overall environmental impact. No cutting corners. LEED certification is verified through Green Business Certification Inc (GBCI), an independent third party that holds participants accountable to meet clearly defined goals that optimise building performance. LEED guides projects to save money, conserve energy, reduce water consumption and drive innovation. Through a rigorous, documented process that relies on performance and measurement, LEED rewards and validates best-inclass building strategies and practices. Can you do all these things without actually certifying? Of course. But then, how can a buyer or a tenant know you really did what you said you were going to do? LEED certification does that for you. And more and more investors don’t want to simply take the word of the property owners, or spend the time doing the due diligence – they simply require LEED certification, most often at the
Whether you are an engineering firm, contractor, supplier, manufacturer, consumer, service provider, private or public sector...
GASO IS YOUR TRUSTED ADVISOR ...in matters related to building’s mechanical services including residential, commercial and industrial applications.
OUR ADVISORY SERVICE INCLUDES Feasibility studies Arbitration & ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Contract drafting
Engineering and design audit Conceptual design Bid documents preparation (RFP-Request For Proposal)
Unit 106, Al Bedaia Bldg., Al Barsha 1, PO Box 54163, Dubai, UAE GPS Location: N 25 06 48.93 E 55 12 16.73 T: +971 4 395 8623 • F: +971 4 379 2051 E: info@abusaa.com
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July 2016
LEED Gold level, whether it’s a new building or after an existing building has been retrofitted. There’s high confidence in the process and in the results that get delivered, and that kind of certainty is something everyone wants. The world sorely needs accurate building performance data, analytics, and for the data to be integrated in an ecosystem that allows for better control of HVAC equipment, say. Is the USGBC taking any steps to incorporate the benefits of the Internet of Things and cloud-based systems in the Green Building movement? With our first iteration of LEED, we created something unprecedented – a brand for Green Buildings that unified the industry, and a privatesector rating system that transformed the market on a scale none of us could have imagined in our wildest dreams. LEED was never meant to be static, but rather to continuously improve and adapt to new technologies, practices and advances in materials science. Since its inception, it’s grown from a single rating system for only new buildings to a suite of rating systems that are applicable to a variety of building types at every stage of their lifecycle. LEED has also undergone regular comprehensive updates, the latest of which is LEED v4, a version that is bolder, more specialised, and designed for an improved user experience. It includes a focus on materials that goes beyond how much is used to get a better understanding of what's in the materials we spec for our buildings, and the effect those components have on human health and the environment. It takes a more performance-based approach to indoor environmental quality to ensure improved occupant comfort. It brings the benefits of smart-grid thinking to the forefront with a credit that rewards projects for participating in demand response programmes. And it provides a clearer picture of water efficiency by evaluating total building water use. As LEED evolves from its roots as a design tool to become a true performance metric, we’ve also added ways to make the invisible actionable. The LEED Dynamic Plaque is an elegant public declaration of a building’s environmental efforts and performance. Located in a lobby or other common space, the plaque displays immediate measurements about a building’s resource use, reflecting the outcomes of the LEED system – from energy to waste disposal. The LEED Dynamic Plaque software platform provides a LEED Performance Score based on original LEED certification and five performance categories that collect data from buildings – energy, water, waste, transportation and human experience. When new data enters the system, the LEED Dynamic Plaque automatically generates an up-tothe minute LEED Performance Score, featured