| Abstract: | The construction and property sector has seen the development of a number of methods for evaluating the 'greenness' of buildings in the 1990s - both for new designs and existing buildings. These range from very detailed life cycle assessment methods, which account for all the embodied and operational environmental impacts of building materials, to higher level environmental impact assessment methods, which evaluate the broader implications of the building's impact on the environment. In between these two are environmental assessment methods such as BREEAM, BEPAC, LEED, and GBA. In this paper, we discuss the potential market applications of these systems and compare and contrast several of the major environmental assessment methods. Le secteur de la construction et de l'immobilier a ete le temoin du developpement d'un certain nombre de methodes permettant d'evaluer les performances ecologiques des batiments dans les annees 1990, tant sur le plan des nouveaux concepts que des batiments existants. Ces methodes vont de l'evaluation tres detailee du cycle de vie, qui tient compte de l'impact specifique et des incidences operationnelles des materiaux de construction sur l'environnement, jusqu'a une evaluation de l'impact environnemental a un niveau plus eleve. Entre ces deux extremes, on trouve des methodes d'evaluation environnementale telles que BREEAM, BEPAC, LEED et GBA. Dans cet article, nous examinons les applications commerciales potentielles des ces systemes; nous comparons, en les opposant, plusieurs methodes majeures d'evaluation environnementale. |
