Regulations

A minimal prerequisite for green building rating systems is to comply with all applicable regulations covering planning, design, construction and handover (occupancy) of new, refurbished, extended or modified buildings, and operation and use of existing buildings. Regulations may be country, state, city or other jurisdiction in which the building is located.

Generally speaking, building regulations cover only new buildings, refurbishments and extensions, setting a minimum standard of performance usually as prescriptive requirements, although performance-based requirements may be specified as an alternative compliance path.

Approved Documents

Approved (or compliance) documents are similar to standards and codes in detailing how a building or part thereof meets the requirements of a particular building regulation. Several approved documents are published to aid designers meet particular requirements of the UK building regulations. There purpose is to provide practical guidance with respect to the technical requirements of the regulations.

Standards

Standards may be evoked by regulations or planning requirements but are usually called up in specifications and drawings covering selection, performance, installation, testing, acceptance, and use, etc. of building components, materials, equipment, systems, or the whole building.

The energy performance standard adopted by LEED is ASHRAE 90.1. The pre-requisite requirement now requires a minimum of 2 credits as assessed by the cost budget approach defined in Appendix G. This requires that the energy analysis done for the Building Performance Rating Method include all of the energy costs within and associated with the building project. To achieve points using this credit, the proposed design:

# Must comply with the mandatory provisions in Standard 90.1-2004 (without amendments);
# Must include all the energy costs within and associated with the building project; and
# Must be compared against a baseline building that complies with Appendix G to Standard 90.1-2004 (without amendments).

For LEED new buildings (including Core & Shell projects) this is a 14% improvement over benchmark for new build, 7% for renovations. Existing buildings are judged against Energy Star criteria.

Codes of Practice

Other than OTTV requirements building regulations in Hong Kong do not cover energy performance. BEAM makes reference to the local energy codes to establish a baseline for assessing the energy performance of new designs.