U.S. LEED Green Rating System Faces British Competition

The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green rating system, used globally in about 150 countries, is about to have more competition. BREEAM, the leading UK green-building rating system, has crossed the pond and is looking to take on its U.S. counterpart. BREEAM, the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology, is managed by London-based Building Research Establishment, or BRE, and is also used in countries around the world. BREEAM has been the dominant environmental assessment system for buildings in the UK for almost two dozen years. It has completed more than 542,868 certifications and has more than 2,242,262 registered buildings in 77 countries. In contrast, U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED has completed about 80,000 certifications and has about 1 million buildings getting certified. Others, like the Green Globes, have tried to encroach on LEED’s dominance in green building market share, but for many in the U.S. green building certification has been synonymous with LEED.

Like LEEDv4, BREEAM pushes for responsibly-sourced materials, which potentially gives the concrete producer more influence on building projects. NRMCA recently completed a pilot responsible sourcing program integrating BREEAM’s criteria which will go live later this year.