Sustainable building assessment tool development approach

Following expansion in the field of environmental assessment methods, existing methods cannot be applied to all regions for a number of reasons, one of which is regional variation. This paper investigates the most important and globally widespread environmental assessment methods: BREEAM, LEED, SBTool, and CASBEE. It identifies areas of convergence and distinction in order to enable the consolidation of environmental criteria into new potential schemes. As well as considered a starting point for the procedure of consensus-based process, it also provides a generic model for the development of an effective environmental assessment method intended for the establishment of environmental assessment method suited to Saudi Arabia. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.