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Green Building Rating System for Sustainable Development in Nigeria

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©Journal of Applied Sciences & Environmental Sustainability 1 (2): 20-36, 2013

Research Article

Green Building Rating System for

Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Usman Aminu Umar1, Mohd Faris Khamidi2 and Umar Musa3

1
Research Engineer, Civil Engineering Department,
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia
2
Associate Professor, Department of Architectural Engineering,
Heriot-Watt University, Malaysia
Quantity Surveyor, Institute for Agricultural Research,
3
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria

ARTICLE INFO Abstract

Present environmental assessment techniques seek to measure
Article history
Received: 27/11/2012 improvements in the environmental performance of buildings relative to
Accepted: 25/7/2013 existing practices or needs. The belief is that by continuously enhancing
the environmental performance of individual buildings, the collective
Keywords: decrease in resource use and ecological loadings by the building sector
Green Building, Sustainable
Development, Rating System,
will be enough to completely address the environmental plan. The
Nigeria choice of the concept of a ‘green building assessment’ is regarded as an
effective term to imply this purpose. The development of a sustainable
future relies on the knowledge and involvement of individuals as well
as an understanding of the implications of individual conduct. The
construction sector has long been associated with the detrimental
effects to our nature. As concepts of green building took form in new
real trends and planning curriculum, green building generally continues
to have not acquired much focus with the general public. Numerous
environmental strategies and approaches for assessing the
environmental performance of buildings are being presently developed.
The survey carried out stated that even though the general public is
aware of the escalating issues on sustainability, minimal attempts have
been made to applying anything. Much more work is essentially
required to improve public awareness as to the implementation of green
building and additionally induce measures and techniques towards a
sustainable built environment.

© Journal of Applied Sciences & Environmental Sustainability. All rights reserved.

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1. Introduction

Since the 1992 earth summit sustainable development has been taken universally; its
popularity for long-term development is global. It has appeared recently that the planet
community has finally found that seeking social development and economic advancement
comes with a price, i.e, the long-term deterioration and perhaps permanent damage to the
environment. Between 2009 and 2030, the international major energy consumption is
anticipated to increase by 1.6% annually. The over-dependence on fossil fuels and over-
exploitation of the earth’s natural resources has now become hurdles for sustainable
development in many countries [1]. Nations like the United Kingdom, United States, Japan
and Singapore have pressed forward numerous best practices for sustainable development
and environmental management whilst pursuing economic and social development. Among
the numerous best practices is by going ‘green’.

At the 2005 World Green Building Council Congress, the representatives of fifty of the
world’s biggest cities signed an agreement that all new municipal buildings will be subject to
green building rating systems by 2012 [2]. This event is only the latest in an exponential
stream of actions that have offered to change the building delivery practice over the past ten
years to one that allows for sustainable design, construction and operation. The rating system
is used because it is one of the most effective ways of motivating sustainable building
development. It provides a means for building owners or tenants to ask for a green building
and to evaluate the greenness of their building choices. The rating system represents
important tools to assess and compare green buildings. The system presents systematic
frameworks for indicating performance criteria, thus enabling actors in the building sector to
be more measured and accurate about the movements toward more sustainable forms of
designing, constructing and operating buildings[3]. Indicators of sustainability are required
for determining how well buildings perform against environmental, social, socio-cultural and
economical requirements on regional, national and global scales. Building rating tools have
emerged recently as a technique to measure the performance of buildings across a broad
range of sustainable considerations beyond established single performance criteria like
energy [4].
Green building processes will be the foundation for green building assessment making it
more attainable. The establishment or customisation of the regional specific indicator
framework for green building evaluation must be started from the region(s) with more
effective green building practices. Such methods do not just give us opportunities and

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prospects to collect regional green standard data for the indicator framework but additionally
proves the level, magnitude and availability of the regional green building technology. It also
implies the core of the regional environmental issues, which are essential for establishing the
regionally specific weighting system.

To ensure sustainable development as followed by the building sector, Larsson recommended

four categories of actions which need to be taken by government and private sectors. They
are as follows:

• regulation
• enabling mechanism, i.e., education and training programme
• financial incentive programme
• measures to change market demand [5].

Several of these actions have been used by the Nigerian government including policies,
regulations and programmes. Nevertheless, they are still insufficient to minimise the issues
mentioned above. Research has shown that a national system of a sustainable building rating
system is one of the most effective measures to shift market demand [5, 6]. In other words,
the desired end state of the building sector is to make sure that the market demands buildings
that are high performance or sustainable. The green building rating system (GBRS) is
developed as being voluntary and motivational in its application. In addition, their present
achievement can be either used as a way of measuring how positive the building industry is in
building optimistic change or its responsiveness to market demand. However, in the design
and implementation of a suitable green building rating system (GBRS), professionals,
contractors and building owners can be motivated to pursue a set goal for success and
recognition. By doing this, it fulfils national and international goals towards sustainable
development.
The GBRS has yet to be created in Nigeria so its possible success is questionable. Therefore,
the objectives of this paper are to investigate the potential achievement of implementing a
GBRS in Nigeria and also to seek an explanation as to why environmental issues still remain
in spite of many years of efforts to address the challenges by the Nigerian Federal
government. The challenges were identified through current literature. Then, a survey was
carried out on the understanding level of the general public concerning the green building
concept and what their anticipations were as to the end result as well as the impact of this
concept in the future in ensuring the success of the GBRS in Nigeria.

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2. "Related Research"

2.1 Definition

To achieve the sustainability of a building, it is generally essential to define the sustainability

of building and construction. The definition often focuses on how to deal with limited
resources, particularly energy, and how to decrease the impacts on the natural environment
[7]. Kibert’s definition for sustainable construction: “the creation and responsible
management of a healthy built environment based on resource efficient and ecological
principles” [8] can be regarded as a comprehensive definition for a sustainable goal. The
emphasis to attain sustainability of building was predominantly placed on the technical
issues, for instance, materials, building components, construction technologies and energy
related design concepts. These days, the importance of the non-technical issues, for instance,
economic, social, and cultural aspects has been stressed gradually and regarded as vital.
Kyvelou [9].

An understanding of the present state of the operation and maintenance practitioner’s

knowledge and also their perceptions about sustainable buildings is therefore vital to filling
the knowledge gap and to the realisation of a sustainable built environment. It has been
suggested that a substantial enhancement in the regulations is required if large reductions in
CO2 emissions need to be achieved in the first half of the next century. Moreover, a
considerable scope for regulation improvement exists (almost 90 per cent savings in space
heating are achievable)[10]. Lowe, suggested demonstrating compliance and suggested new
techniques that would increase consistency and enable a clear programme of improvement to
be established [11]. Improving the performance of the current building is, therefore, an
essential issue for a national environmental policy but these could possibly be challenging.
Perhaps it is better left to other a more extensively based legislation design rather than the
strict application of the building regulation. Although the sustainable building rating system
is becoming well-known to property owners, the nature of their success normally relies on the
environmental reaction of the property owner and the building manager. There needs to be a
guideline to introduce the system.

2.2 Assessment Methods

Many environmental strategies and techniques for evaluating the environmental performance
of buildings have presently been developed. On a global scale, it is worth mentioning several
such tools and techniques: the SB (Sustainable Building) Tool, previously known as the GB

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Tool (Green Building Tool) which is an international project coordinated from Canada,
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) a method developed in the USA
with a world wide application and CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for
Building Environmental Efficiency) which is a method developed in Japan. In Europe, among
the most frequently used include BREEAM (Building Research Establish Environmental
Assessment Method) which is in the United Kingdom. Moreover it is also worth mentioning
the HQE (High Environmental Quality) developed in France over the last few years and the
VERDE method developed recently in Spain[12]. In spite of participating in different
sustainable development programmes and Local Agenda 21, Nigeria has yet to employ of any
assessment approach to evaluate the sustainable environmental performance of its buildings.

Nations that have launched these schemes on a non-mandatory basis are: in the Asian level:
Singapore with Green Mark, Hong Kong with HK-Beam and in the European level: the UK
with BREEAM and the Netherlands with ECO – QUANTUM. These countries have already
recognised this need and added stakeholder value. Their penetration rate has been
substantially great as a result of a well-based platform for sustainable construction and their
approval by the construction industry. Many Building Assessment methods are presently
available all over the world but the proof in the context of the particular Nigerian assessment
system has not yet existed. At the same time, some African countries like South Africa, Egypt
and Tunisia have created their own green building tool; their goal is to encourage
environmental sustainability in buildings. This is an integral part of the effort to form a safe
and secure, high quality and people friendly built environment. Modelled after similar
schemes adopted in countries, such as the USA and Australia, the scheme is used as the
measuring stick to rate the environmental sustainability of a building. “Building
environmental systems must reflect national, regional, and local variations if they are to be
recognised and used” [13, 14].
Countries that have embarked on green building sustainable development are many. It started
in the 1990s with BREEAM (UK, 1990) and later continues with LEED (US, 1996). The list
of countries with their green/sustainable building indicators/measures are shown in Table 1.
These countries might have either fully regulated, voluntary adoption of guidelines and
standards or a combination of both for the green building sector.

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Table 1: List of countries that have developed a GBRS

Country Measurement system Country Measurement
system
Australia Nabers / Green Star China GBAS
Brazil Brazil AQUA / LEED Finland PromisE
Hong Kong HKBEAM Japan CASBEE
Netherlands BREEAMNetherlands Germany DGNB / CEPHEUS
New Zealand Green Star NZ France HQE
Jordan EDAMA Portugal Lider A
Singapore Green Mark Spain VERDE
Republic of China Green Building Label South Africa Green Star SA
(Taiwan)
Korea KGBC United Arab Emirates Estidama
Switzerland Minergie Mexico LEED Mexico
United Kingdom BREEAM Czech Republic SBToolCZ
Malaysia GBI Malaysia
India Indian Green Building Council Italy ProtocolloItaca / Green
(IGBC) / GRIHA Building Council Italia
Pakistan Institute of Philippines BERDE / Philippine
Architecture Pakistan Green
Green Sustainable Building Council
Architecture
United States LEED / Living Building Challenge / Canada LEED Canada / Green
Green Globes / Build it Green / Globes /
NAHB GBS / International Green Built Green Canada
Construction Code (IGCC)

2.3 Potential Role of Green Building Rating Systems in the Building Industry

With the escalating rise in environmental challenges regarding development activities, the
adoption of a sustainable method in the Nigerian Building sector is rather important. The
economic, social and environmental benefits of sustainable building are numerous. The rise
in construction and the use of sustainable building is indeed a key element to maintain the
well-being of the earth. Therefore, in a developing country like Nigeria, the adoption of the
sustainable building rating system is becoming essential to motivate the building industry to
get onto the sustainable bandwagon.
Cole suggested that attaching a label of environmental performance for improved
environmental qualities raises the real market value of buildings and motivates a change in
the construction industry and market transformation [6]. It is also believed that a significant
increase in a building’s environmental performance will depend on the variations in market
demand which cannot happen until building investors and tenants have access to easy
methods that permit them to identify buildings that perform at a higher standard [5]. The
assessment and measurement of sustainability are very important elements in guaranteeing
measureable and meaningful transformations.
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The last 17 years have seen an accelerated increase in the amount of SBRS’s used globally,
such as BREEAM (UK), LEED (US) etc. These schemes rate existing and new buildings on
their environmental sustainability, quality, safety and innovation. They also, allocate cash
incentives for buildings that win the top rating [15]. In Nigeria, however, the problem of
sustainability remains a new concept for the construction sector and there is no proof of any
official building rating system that has been developed. It is essential to note that an adoption
of the existing GBRS in Nigeria is rather inappropriate. One reason for this is that most
GBRS’s are developed for local use in their countries of origin and do not allow for national
and regional variation [4, 16]. It is therefore, argued that the absence of proper systems and
mechanisms which can support the building stakeholders’ decision making to reflect the
sustainability value and principles considerably inhibits transformation from conventional to
sustainable practice in the Nigerian built environment.

2.4 Moral basis of green building

The issues of the contemporary social life remind us clearly that human beings are the
planet's biggest contradiction makers. Following the unlimited growth of cities, the massive
hidden threat was buried in the future of humankind which was actually not to enrich the
modern city but just how to manage it. This elicited a question: “How do humans treat the
world which has been creation by their hands”. Ever since the 1970s’ oil crisis, to the well-
known Club of Rome report,’ “The Limits to Growth”, then to the current "low carbon"
concept, human beings have slowly become aware they must learn to restrain themselves in
the infinite endless desire in the process of development. Otherwise they will bear a merciless
counteraction from nature. For that reason, the concept of green buildings started to sprout,
and the concept and practice of green building and sustainable city development has gained
popularity.
The commonly cited definition of sustainability was started from 1987 in the World
Commission on Environment and Development report entitled “The Future of Mankind”. The
so-called “sustainable development” is “meeting the current needs of development on the
basis of undamaging the future of human societal economic interests.” This long-term
perspective is very important and worth further consideration. For the building industry, the
green and sustainable development mostly refers to, when considering environmental, urban
and architectural issues, it should be taken into consideration what are the short-term interests
of the contemporary man and the long-term interests of the entire human race. It should
consider one region’s local interests and the interests of world as a whole, sharing the limited
earth resources with future people on this planet must be in a fairly and reasonable manner.
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The wasting of resources and the environmental pollution should also be eliminated in the
highest degree. As Lawrence stated in the “Sustainable Seattle”, “which means the
sustainability is creating happiness in life more than just to survive, therefore, if we really
want sustainable development, consumption must be cut down.” The over-consumption of
resources and the environment is the same as doing harm to human beings themselves.

2.5 Factors considered in implementing green building rating system

A. Stakeholder involvement
After the increasing popularity of quality management systems in the construction sector in
the mid-90s, a system based approach to sustainability was suggested by many researchers.
The protocols published by the British Standards Institution highlighted the significance of
identifying the roles and concerns of the stakeholders. This shows that incompatibility of
interests among stakeholders causes clashes and disputes in construction. However, the
holistic inclusion of various interests from stakeholders and the involvement of the general
public in planning as well as integrating the different interests of the stakeholders should be
crucial for the preparation of GBRS’s.

B. Leadership and responsibility

The leadership and responsibility of industry stakeholders should play important roles in the
achievement of GBRS’s. In this way, common objectives (such as reducing energy
consumption and pollution as a result of construction activities) can be engendered through a
decision-making process well managed by business leaders, who act as champions. Under
social principles, studies have indicated that outlined standards and legislation are two of the
tools for attaining sustainability. Professionalism should hold paramount the welfare of the
public, and avoiding conflicts of interest is an essential part of professionals’ efforts to get the
trust of the public. Prevention of bias toward specific products or processes should be vital
for standards preparation.

C. Principles and techniques

Historically, the construction sector has mostly concentrated on the use of techniques for
reducing pollution or increasing efficiency to meet the regulatory requirements or to reduce
cost. GBRS’s set out the building processes or the requirements of the materials resulting in
the final built object serving its occupants’ needs in a sustainable manner.

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D. Feedback and building public confidence

The availability of reliable GBRS information and feedback from stakeholders should affect
the quality of GBRS’s. Moreover, various interpretations of standards, criteria and indicators
of sustainable characteristics between different stakeholders precipitate disagreements,
disputes and litigation, and ambiguous words or phrases are often the focal point of disputes.
Thomas et al. clearly described that green characteristics for prescriptive specifications (e.g.,
by stating the maximum permitted content of contaminants in recycled aggregates) and
verifiable green performance criteria for performance-based specifications (e.g., by stating
the energy efficiency requirements of lighting installations) should be important ingredients
for the preparation of GBRS’s. It is only when quality and efficiency is built in and disputes
are minimized, that the public confidence will be placed on the use of GBRS’s.

3. "Results and Discussion"

The sustainable future idea adopts on the understanding and the involvement of individuals as
well as on the awareness of the implications of people’s actions. The government and non-
public sectors have started to take measures recognising the value of sustainability and green
building. The rate of success towards sustainability in construction would depend mainly on
enhancing awareness, knowledge and understanding of the influences of people’s actions.
The objective of the survey was to investigate the degree of public awareness about the green
building concept, and what their anticipations of the outcome and the impression of this
concept in the foreseeable future. For the purpose of this research, a questionnaire was used
to determine a baseline of the public’s awareness of green buildings and also what
encourages people to participate in green building programmes. The survey was also used to
determine current awareness levels. Identifying the opinion of the public was established with
the use of a one page survey instrument. An email survey was the most appropriate tool to
obtain a wide representation of all of the sectors. The email survey did not only serve as a
baseline for campaign measurements but was also used to develop a comprehensive
campaign plan with techniques designed to achieve maximum results. The research was also
a guide to the development of messages and creative tools. A total of 100 questionnaires were
sent by email in which 50 percent were returned. The data gathered was analysed as follows.
According to the survey conducted, one of the questions that most of the people gave a high
priority was ‘What does “green building” mean to you?’ About 30% believed that green
building was all about environmentally friendly, and about 38% considered that green
building was all about Energy efficiency. 17% considered that better and healthy indoor air
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quality was what makes green building popular while 10% said that it cost them less in terms
of maintenance. Meanwhile, only 5% said that they did not have any idea about green
building. The study also discovered that most of the people heard about the green building
concept, which was about 83.3 %, while only 16.7% said that they had never heard of green
building. When people were asked where they had first heard about Green Building, most of
them said that the concept of green building was known to them on internet which about 45%
while 30% said through magazines and Newspapers. Another 8% said that it was through
their real estate agent and 2% said by Home Shows. Meanwhile, 9% said through a
Builder/contractor/supplier and only 6% said by family/friends. From this result, it was
deduced that the majority of the respondents did not live in a green building, which was about
80% while about 15% did not know even know the type of building the were living in.
moreover, only 5% said they were living in an environmental friendly building. For the
question ‘When defining green building to someone with no prior knowledge of the concepts
of green building, which one area do you focus on the most’, most of the respondents said
environmental sustainability had to be the first thing to educate people about because of the
importance of the environment to the society, this was about 33% while, about 12% said
healthy homes. Energy and water efficiency consisted of about 30% while life cycle savings
consisted of about 25%. The majority of the respondents believed that the most effective
ways for delivering information about green building was through advertisements about the
concept on TV and radio, which about 34% while 24 % said by organising seminars,
workshops and conferences which was 24%, about 27% said by educating people on the
internet because it is the most wide source of information used now. Only 15% said by using
billboards and banners; this mostly because those people that are not well educated can easily
see the sign and understand what it is all about. To investigate further, it was asked if the
respondent’s community leadership placed a high priority on environmental sustainability;
some of the respondents disagreed about this, which was about 22%, while most of the
respondents agreed that their community leadership was trying to deal with the sustainability
issue. This consisted of 60%, while 12% said they did not know if the leadership was taking
sustainability issues seriously and only 6% was neutral about this question.

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Environmentally 90% 83%

friendly 80%
5% Energy Efficiency
10% 70%
30%
60%
17% Healthy
Environmental 50%
Indoor quality 40%
Operation and
maintenance 30%
38% 17%
Don't Know 20%
10%
0%
Figure 1: What does green building Yes No
mean to you? Figure 2: Have you ever heard of green
building

Internet 90% 80%

6%
9% Magazine/Newsp 80%
2% apers 70%
8% Real Estate 60%
45% Agent
Home Show 50%
40%
Builders/Contrac 30%
30% tors/Suppliers 15%
Family/Friends 20%
10% 5%
0%
Yes No Don't
Know
Figure 3: How did you first learn Figure 4: Do you live in Green home
about green building?

Environmental
Tv/Radio
Sustainability
25% 15%
33%
Heathy Home 34% Seminars/Worksh
op/Conferences

12% 27% Internet

Energy/Water
efficiency
30%
24% Billbord/Banners
Life Cycle
Saving

Figure 5: when defining green Figure 6: what type of event is the

building to someone with no prior most effective for delivering
knowlwdge, which area do you information to public about Green
focus on most? Building

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70% 60%
60%
50%
40%
30% 22%
20% 12%
6%
10%
0%
Agree Disagree Don't Know Neutral

Figure 7: Are your community leadership places high priority on

environmental sustainability

4. Conclusion

As more developers, owners, consultants, designers and vendors are participating in the
global green building movement, the action is gaining at rapid pace. The mixed effort of
people and organisations to switch towards green buildings is having a remarkable impact.
The humankind has such an influence on the worldwide natural environment as to twist its
stability. As a result, nowadays, as the dependents of the environment, at whatever stages in
the community we are, it is time of all of us to take responsibility and to open wide our sight
in the direction of transforming our perceptions and way of living.

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