The Green Building Initiative (GBI) has launched a new certification program specific to design of interiors of commercial and institutional buildings, according to GBI president Jerry Yudelson.
The new program, Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors, focuses exclusively on the sustainable design and construction of interior spaces in non-residential buildings and can be pursued by both building owners and individual lessees of commercial spaces. When pursuing Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors certification, tenants can focus on both designing new and/or improving their interior space to Green Globes standards without the need to certify an entire building.
“One of the aspects that makes Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors so versatile and practical is that it enables tenants to certify the specific environmental and sustainability attributes of the space they lease,” says Yudelson. “Other certifications include aspects of the entire building and surroundings, and as a result tenant improvements can be penalized for conditions they do not control.”
As with all Green Globes rating programs, Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors utilizes a third-party assessor who reviews building characteristics and documentation. However, the certification has no prerequisites, which could unfairly penalize building projects and possibly result in their inability to use a green building rating system. The program requires that interior designers and tenant project teams address only those sustainability criteria within their “domain of influence.”
The Green Globes 1,000-point scale utilizes weighted criteria-the assigned number of points for individual criteria reflects their relative impact and/or benefit to sustainability of the tenant improvements. Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors includes six environmental assessment areas: project management, energy, water, materials and resources, emissions and other impacts, and indoor environment.
In addition to assessing all elements of an interiors project, Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors emphasizes the KPIs of energy, materials, and indoor environment. The program does not deal with site characteristics-instead focusing all criteria on parameters within the scope of a typical tenant improvement, resulting in lower costs for certification.
