Assessment and Adaptation of an Appropriate Green Building Rating System for Nigeria.

The practices used in rating green buildings are constantly evolving and differ from place to place; there are fundamental principles that persist from which the rating is derived e.g. siting and structure, design, energy, water and material efficiency, indoor environmental quality, enhancement, operations and maintenance optimization, and waste and toxic reduction. The essence of green building is an optimization of one or more of these principles. This paper presents a comparative analysis of seven well-known sustainable rating systems – BREEAM, CASBEE, GREEN GLOBES, GREEN STAR, HK-BEAM, IGBC Green Homes and LEED by the perceptions and opinions of stakeholders in Nigeria certified in green building rating systems in an attempt to select and adapt a green building rating system for Nigeria. Various aspects of these systems were scrutinized and analyzed in order to find out the best option for the Nigerian built environment. Based on the findings of this study the green building rating systems LEED which is the dominant system in the United States and Canada is appropriate for Nigeria because it helps costumers determine environmental performance, with strong base, large investments and proven advantages scored the highest with 80 points out of 100 points. Keywords: architecture, built environment, green building rating system, Nigeria green building council, sustainability