LEED: Leadership In Energy And Environmental Design

The goal of this literature review is to understand the application and effectiveness of LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design). It explains and discusses an overview of the LEED certification system and also looks in detail into LEED for existing Building Operation and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM). First part of essay includes various literature reviews about LEED Building rating system referred from books and sites. The criteria and assessment of LEED-EBOM are further elaborated.

As per USGBC, buildings contribute to producing more than 40% of GHG worldwide (6). Consequently, there have been many efforts given by many institutions and organizations around the world to reduce their burden on the environment as well as sustain their

UAE targets to become the country with the smallest carbon footprint in the world by 2050 and also aims in classifying half of the buildings as green in the next 10 years. In addition the Emirates also intend to have 7% of power generation from renewables by 2020 and 15% by 2030. The Roads and Transport Authority of UAE is also working on replacing the traditional abras with solar powered boats, in order to reduce the carbon footprint produced from public transport operations. (8) One way to move forward with sustaining the UAE’s resources and environment is to ensure that the resources used to operate the current developments and existing buildings are not wasted and are handled in a sustainable manner. One of the strategies that can be implemented to reduce existing buildings’ carbon emissions is to conduct an energy audit to identify the areas within a building that consume a lot of energy, and hence identifying the areas of focus when implementing energy saving strategies. Moreover, reports produced by Energy Star identified that lighting contributes to a big percentage of energy consumption in companies. To help reduce that load, companies are encouraged to switch off their lights and electrical appliances when not in use,

Existing buildings can consider these three aspects when wanting to implement various sustainable strategies, which will help in focusing their efforts and making them more efficient (12). When looking at the mechanical aspect of sustainability for instance, considerations should be given to the devices and systems (i.e. computer devices, lighting systems, chillers, etc.) used in terms of their efficiency, energy saving capabilities, maintenance plan, and other technical aspects. For instance replacing conventional light bulbs with energy efficient ones and having the BMS automatically switch off lights and air conditioning systems after working hours. The procedural aspect basically looks at how things are done and whether or not they are done well. This includes the procedures involved to carry out operations that can affect sustainability. For example, reuse collected condensate water for cleaning windows instead of using desalinized drinking water. The behavioral aspect of sustainability is usually a very difficult one because it is hard to change people’s behavior when they are used to doing a certain thing for years. That is why awareness and education are important to making them understand the purpose of the work and the need for their