Applicability of LEED assessment criteria for the context of GCC countries

Abstract

Since the 1980s, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region has experienced a period of rapid economic growth. This, in turn, has led to the acceleration of urban development that relies totally on the consumption of non-renewable resources (e.g., fossil fuel). It has been claimed that continuing on this way of growth will put our ecosystem under great pressure. However, according to many scientific research papers, the principles of sustainability development (SD) were identified as effective strategies for preserving the world's ecosystem. In the developed world, a number of different sustainability rating schemes such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has been developed, attempting to put SD into practice. In fact, it is difficult for any rating scheme to be a globally relevant scheme, as LEED has been strongly criticized as an inappropriate tool for many locations around the world. This is due to many differences, such as climatic conditions, natural resources, and the social, cultural, and economic aspects of each region. Yet, the GCC countries have adapted their own rating schemes. These schemes have also been criticized for being greatly influenced by the LEED rating scheme. Therefore, the purpose of this critical study is to determine the level of applicability of the LEED assessment criteria in the context of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and to highlight its main weaknesses and inadequacies. Key findings reveal that the objective-based and subjectivebased criteria have been combined to provide a single rating expression. This paper, therefore, proposes a framework to differentiate between subjectivebased and objective-based criteria in an attempt to improve the accuracy of the overall building assessment within the GCC context.