A Comparative Analysis of Green Building Certification Systems for Schools

The concept of green building has become important, as sustainability issues have been acknowledged in the construction industry. Green building certification systems have emerged to measure the sustainability of buildings. While there are numerous studies on green building certification systems, studies evaluating green schools are quite limited, even though green schools not only ensure the health and comfort of students and teachers but also play a role in raising sustainability awareness, especially among growing children. First, a detailed literature review was conducted in this study that identified eight common issues, namely “project management processes”, “land selection and transportation/location”, “energy”, “indoor environmental quality”, “water”, “waste”, “materials” and “innovation”, which were extensively used to evaluate green schools. Four green building certification systems that emerged in developing countries and four systems that existed in advanced countries were compared relative to these eight issues. The weaknesses of the eight certification systems and the fundamental differences between advanced and developing countries were identified, and suggestions for improvements were presented. It was concluded that it is not enough to consider green schools only as buildings that rely on sustainable design and construction but also as important institutions that contribute to the adoption of the concept of sustainability. Consequently, it was found that it is important to create special green certification systems for schools.