A GUIDE TO SUSTAINABILITY : AN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR GREEN SCHOOLS

Abstract

This dissertation aims to understand how an environmental assessment system can be developed to cater for local schools. To examine the various parameters that can be considered for an environmental assessment for schools, a review of BREEAM Schools, LEED for Schools and Green Star- Education PILOT was carried out. Due to the wide range of issues covered in the three existing systems and to facilitate the ease of exploring them in a dissertation, only major credits in each issue category were assessed. The credits were then classified as relevant, not applicable, automatically achieved (have regulations/legislations in place) or require alternative criteria to suit local conditions. After reviewing major credits based on the local context such as regulations and climate conditions, it was observed that global and indoor environmental issues such as energy and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, transport, materials and resources have the most credits that are applicable. As these categories are concerned with global and indoor environmental issues, it is logical that they should not differ significantly, since universally accepted and established means to address them are already in place. As the existing systems are based on a different climatic conditions and geographical locations, credits classified as automatically achievable, not applicable and those that need local adjustments require further development to reflect different local priorities, regulations, climate conditions etc for the development of an environmental assessment system for that is specifically tailored for local schools.