GRASS: A new building rating system for Lebanon

“GRASS” - Green Recovery and Sustainable Solutions, is a new approach that shades light on the effective practices in Building Construction Field in Lebanon. It´s a new rating system that covers the major features of Green & Sustainable Design including Architectural, Electrical and Mechanical Trades. Because climate change became a serious issue threatening next generations´ existence and survivor, the world today is more aware of its causes. Buildings are considered to be one of the main contributors to CO₂ emissions and thus to climate change. The solution is to adapt more environmentally friendly style of living, presented by “GREEN BUILDINGS”. Worldwide, new approaches have been launched since 1990 including the British BREEAM, the US LEED, and the French HQE. These rating systems set the standards with the minimum requirements to achieve sustainability along with the certificate that assures this level of greenness of assessed buildings. Because Lebanon is in an urge to go for green attitudes, the suggestion was to improve Buildings´ design and performance. Therefore, “GRASS” evaluates the major criteria and standards to be applied on both newly designed & existing Commercial and Residential Buildings. Once the minimum requirements are implemented, the scoring points are awarded to earn the final scoring level certified. The evaluation is based on four major indicators: Envelope, Green Sites, Energy System Design & Equipment, and finally Water Management & Indoor Environment. The weighting of each one of these indicators differ between Commercial and Residential Buildings. However, the final percentage of weighting achieved by the assessed building reflects its level of sustainability and greenness.