Comprehensive Assessment of Innovations in Green Building Certification Programs of LEED and BREEAM for Development of Similar Certification Programs in Iran

Increasing problems of the modern world and growth of population have led to a meaningful increase in the speed of constructions to meet the demands of the population. This, in one hand, has caused excessive consumption of fossil fuels, environmental pollution, losing a large amount of natural resources and on the other hand has led to marginalization of the psychological, cultural, social and local needs of the people in the constructions. Thus, sustainable construction programs have been given a high priority in the development policies of industrialized countries. The positive economic outcomes of controlling such issues and minimizing their effects resulted in establishment of sustainable certification programs, such as LEED in the United States and BREEAM in the UK. Considering Iran’s situation in excessive consumption fuels along with high speed of construction, in this paper, initially, two successful world class systems of LEED and BREEAM for issuing sustainability certifications were studied. Then, by considering the identity, culture and other factors affecting the social relations of the people, criteria’s for establishing a sustainable evaluation system for green building certification in Iran is suggested.