Changes coming for BOMA’s Go Green building rating system

The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) is about to announce major changes to its rating system for assessing the environmental performance of buildings. <br>
BOMA’s Go Green Plus building rating system was primarily developed for the commercial real estate industry, but the system is being broadly applied and has been used to measure the energy and environmental performance of hundreds of Canadian buildings to date. By July 2008 the BOMA system had certified 900 buildings.<br>
The new initiative to be unveiled at BOMEX in Vancouver will integrate the Go Green Plus rating system and the Go Green performance practices standards into one program. The program will still include online applications and a streamlined online assessment. And as part of the certification process BOMA will continue to use third-party verifiers to perform a site visit.<br>
There will be four levels of certification for buildings, ranging from Level 1 for basic compliance with BOMA’s best practices, to Level 4 requiring buildings to achieve over 90% on the Go Green Plus assessment. This rating would mean the building combines superior environmental management practices with low energy and water consumption. <br>
New Go Green assessment criteria are also being developed especially for shopping centres, industrial and retail strip developments and multi-unit residential properties. <br>
In the August-September 2008 issue, Canadian Consulting Engineer published an article about LEED, Go Green and other green building rating systems being adopted in Canada (page 21) See <a href=”http://www.ccemag.com/issues/ISarticle.asp?id=201917&story_id=640310151018&issue=08012008&PC”>Leed Moves On</a><br>