Building Environmental Assessment in a Global Market

The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of building environmental assessment methods by countries worldwide for application within their respective domestic markets. However, the demand for "brand recognition" in a global market, the desire for international standards, the emergence of the World Green Building Council and other organizational alliances, and the motivation of the organizations to expand the adoption of their respective systems abroad, are among many of the forces driving toward the increased international use of the two most established methods — LEED® and BREEAM. This paper examines the development of this phenomenon of the expanding the international use and adoption of the BREEAM and LEED®.