Shifting the focus of green building rating systems: A structural engineering assessment of existing systems including building life cycle considerations

The incorporation of sustainability principles into structural engineering design of buildings has been poorly conducted. Numerous Green Building Ratings Systems (GBRS) exist to attempt to improve this. These systems have focused largely on Operational Energy (OE) efficiencies and management aspects to attain high assessment scores. Previous research has identified this focus to be inconsistent with published data in comparison with the overall Building Life Cycle (BLC) impacts. The consideration of structural elements, through which structural engineers have the greatest ability to influence outcomes, was shown to account for over 20% of BLC considerations. However these elements only account for approximately 10% of points achievable under existing GBRS. The advent of Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) will result in the gap between these values increasing, further highlighting the requirement for the improvement in the focus of existing GBRS if they are to achieve any quantifiable overall improvements to buildings environmental performance. This research builds on the outcomes of previous research and the identification of these discrepancies. The research proposes methods to improve the focus of GBRS in order to bring them into line with the current understanding of total BLC energy consumptions and environmental impacts.