Study Concludes That Green Globes Continues to Meet Green Building Requirements

The Green Building Initiative (GBI) applauds the conclusions reached in the General Services Administration’s (GSA) study on “High Performance Building Certification Systems Review,” which was finalized in March 2019 and made publicly available on the GSA website in late May 2019. The study was conducted by researchers from LMI, an independent non-profit firm, and third-party reviewed and verified by researchers from the Rocky Mountain Institute.

The study again demonstrates that Green Globes continues to meet federal requirements. This 2019 study updates the one that preceded it in 2012, which was the basis of a determination letter from GSA to Department of Energy (DOE) that named Green Globes as approved for use by federal agencies, only one of two green building certification programs that met federal requirements. The 2019 version of this study just released is expected to generate a similar determination sometime within the next few months.

“We are pleased to see Green Globes continue to be recognized as a comprehensive and valued rating system,” states Vicki Worden, GBI president & CEO. “Our certification programs are supported by a collaborative process and outstanding customer service that support teams in making buildings more sustainable, healthy, and resource-efficient regardless of constraints.”

According to Micah Thomas, director of program development and compliance at GBI, “The updated March 2019 study demonstrates that Green Globes for New Construction fully met federal criteria for consensus-based approaches, transparency, usability, maturity, independence, and verification. Green Globes for New Construction also fully met more of the federal energy efficiency and healthy and effective environments sub-criteria than the other two systems evaluated against federal new construction requirements. This is great validation of our mission.”

Worden concludes, “We’re proud of how our systems have developed and evolved with significant input from users and stakeholders. We are looking forward to launching updated versions of each of our major systems over the next two years with ongoing focus on energy, water, ventilation, materials, resilience, and health and wellness criteria.”