Sustainability Assessment of Recent Buildings Using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Criterion: The Case of Addis Ababa Commercial Buildings "
Creators: name: Girmaw Kiflu
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2022
Subjects: Commercial buildings, Green building, LEED, Sustainability

description: Due to, quick running out of resources, it’s necessary to consider how the construction<br> industry impacts the environment using different materials, and sources during all the<br> building’s life cycle. For this reason, in every transformation phase, it’s necessary to<br> consider concepts of sustainability and green buildings. Commercial buildings are a<br> key feature of our urban and suburban fabric allowing, the flourishment of economic<br> activity; however, it also causes energy sources depletion and has a significant<br> pollutant to the existing environment. It is rare to find researches which address this<br> topic except some master’s thesis conducted by a few researchers and this researches<br> focused on opportunity, constrain and application of green buildings not standardizing<br> measuring and labeling buildings according to their stand to the environment, with<br> that, this thesis assesses the sustainability of recent commercial buildings in Addis<br> Ababa using leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) in order to<br> understand the existing situation of the selected buildings in terms of LEED standard,<br> examine the relevance and practical applicability of LEED based on its own assessment<br> criterion perspective and identify the benefit of using LEED that help to adapt the<br> environmentally sustainable buildings concept for the Addis Ababa. This research used<br> a case study design and utilized qualitative data and data has been collected through<br> site observation using the LEED checklist, interview, and literature review. Qualitative<br> researchers select their cases gradually, and not limiting the number of selected<br> participants until the data reached saturation point, with that ten commercial buildings<br> built within the past five years were selected using purposive sampling technique. Since<br> the data is qualitative it analyzed through transcription, coding and verification. In my<br> interviews I asked questions relating to LEED criterion which are indoor air quality,<br> material, transportation, energy and, water usage. what came out of it was that LEED<br> can be important for those buildings, also there is a lot of potential as a communication,<br> goodwill and documentation tool in LEED. Results show that all the assessed buildings<br> are not environmentally friendly, in terms of construction material and sustainable site,<br> also lacks most of the green features that can encourage: use of renewable energy,<br> alternative transportation, and recycling or reuse of storm water, but a good indoor<br> environmental quality is seen compared with the other LEED criterion in all buildings<br> that leads to less indoor pollution and improves occupants’ productivity with good user<br> experience. I believe that an attempt must be made to warrant the end-user a certain<br> efficiency in resource consumption, to reassure sustainability. Additionally, to that, I<br> also think that much more hard facts and figures that support sustainable building<br> performance over time are needed. Finally, the study recommended that commercial<br> buildings should be designed, constructed, and used incorporating environmentally<br> sustainable and green building concepts