Inclusion of well-being and ecological values in green building assessment tools

Many building sustainable rating tools rate the effectiveness of a building’s contribution to a better world environment by measuring its performance in relation mostly to energy with additional emphasis in other aspects such as water, waste, indoor environment quality, transport, materials, and emissions. A simplified analysis is tabled to highlight the limited direct response of most green building rating tools to the health and well-being of building occupants. Inquiry into this deficit identifies a few salient points as a preamble to a larger discussion of use of rating tools to assess effectiveness of sustainability and the impact on ecology. Past notions of a sustainable planet resided in the making of sustainable buildings that reduced consumption of energy and other resources. The increased interest in creating healthier office environments as a sustainable action needs further analysis especially in relation to the ecological environment.