Analytical Comparison between Global, Arab and Iraqi Green Rating Systems

Abstract

The increase in population led to a great demand on natural resources and their consumption due to dependence on fossil fuels to provide energy, which made the world try to solve these problems in all fields and within these areas was architecture because of its direct or indirect impact on the environment, whether during its construction or occupation or renewal or its demolition then after. Green buildings is new trend in construction which try to construct buildings that respect the environment and reduce its need for energy consumption. Several evaluation systems are used for green buildings evaluation divided into categories containing international and local standards and adopt several levels corresponding to grade points to award certificates indicating the classification. The code of Iraqi Green architecture was the first of the local attempts. As it will be presented, global systems (the British Prime System and the American LEAD System) and Arabic system (the Qatar Comprehensive Sustainability Assessment System, the Egyptian Green Pyramid Evaluation System and the Cedar System for the Lebanese Buildings Assessment), categories and the importance of each category and levels of certification will be discussed and its architecture compared with the Code of Iraqi Green Architecture. Therefore, our research aims to identify common standards and differing standards between global and Arab evaluation systems and the Iraqi Green Architecture Code by making a comparison of their categories. The results showed that there are relative differences in the importance of each category for each system. And that the energy category was of the highest importance in all systems, then comes water and internal environment ... etc. The research also presented several recommendations that can be taken into consideration for the purpose of developing the Iraqi Code in its next version.