TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL

AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GREEN BUILDING RATING SYSTEM

FOR NIGERIA
by
Prof (Mrs.) Bogda Prucnal-Ogunsote 1, Prof Olu Ola Ogunsote 2,
Arc. Ola Anna Ude 3 and Arc Voitek Bola Ogunsote 4
1
Department of Architecture, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria
2
Department of Architecture, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
3
Department of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland
4
Department of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

ABSTRACT
The conference on promoting Green Building Rating Systems (GBRS) in Africa
recently organised by UN-HABITAT in Nairobi, recommended the development of
national and sub-regional green building rating systems, and the establishment of
national or sub-regional Green Building Councils (GBCs) which are non-profit,
member-based coalitions that develop objective, voluntary tools for rating the
environmental performance of buildings. This will promote the use of appropriate
building materials, technologies, services and processes that reduce the impacts of
new buildings on the environment and human health. This paper documents on-going
collaborative research by fourteen Professors of seven Built Environment and
Computer Science professions drawn from eight Universities in West Africa aimed at
promoting the establishment of a GBC for Nigeria and the West African sub-region
and the development of a Green Building Rating System for Nigeria. The objectives
are to, among others, develop a web portal for sustainable building; collect, digitize
and disseminate through the web portal, recent research on sustainable building in
tropical climates; supervise, and provide research support to postgraduate students
conducting research into sustainable building; promote green rating of building
materials; initiate the establishment of GBCs; and promote the development of GBRS
through international conferences and collaboration.
Keywords: Green Building Council, Green Building Rating System, Nigeria,
Sustainable Building, Web Portal

1
1. INTRODUCTION
The commitment of professionals towards environmental sustainability is increasing
in the building industry in Africa and particularly in Nigeria. The 3rd Architects
Colloquium in 2010 and the Archibuilt 2010 Forum were the two largest yearly
events of Nigerian architects organized in the capital city Abuja, which tackled
sustainability issues. According to Prucnal-Ogunsote (2010), more than half of the
sub-themes in the Colloquium were dedicated to maintenance and materials policy
for sustainable infrastructural development, global warming and green architecture.
The Archibuilt Forum offered sessions related to sustainable development of mega
cities in emerging economies while the exhibition promoted renewable and
alternative energy sources.
A conference hosted by UN-HABITAT in Nairobi from May 4 to May 6, 2010 on
“Promoting Green Building Rating in Africa” had a big impact on the African
community. The participants from 20 African countries concluded the conference
with the “Nairobi Declaration on Green Building in Africa” (UN-HABITAT, 2010a).
South Africa assumed a leadership position in sustainability issues which was
evident during the conference and its outcome related issues. It has an e-Journal of
Green Building which is distributed to more than 40,000 built environment
stakeholders each month. The e-Journal enjoys good readership and includes
approximately 12 cutting edge articles in each issue (Green Building South Africa,
2011).
South Africa has the first and only GBC in Africa and it now has the first online
sustainable search engine (Greenfan, 2011), a sustainable product supplier and a
green business community. It gives access to resources related to sustainability issues
of the country; it promotes green products such as green roofing and energy saving
products. It demonstrates green solutions in building and provides news about green
building, and it has many more features. This search engine has many characteristics
of a web portal and it gives a good impression of the anticipated outcome of the on-
going research in Nigeria presented in this paper. This on-going research and paper
address issues related to developing a Green Building Council (GBC) and the
development of Green Building Rating System (GBRS) for Nigeria.

2. WORLD GBC
The World Green Building Council (WGBC) was formally incorporated in 2002 with
its headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Its primary role is to formalize international

2
communications, help industry leaders’ access emerging markets, and provide an
international voice for green building initiatives (UK Green Building Council, 2007).

The Common Carbon Metric

The World Green Building Council’s strategy to promote the global reduction of
carbon emissions is to enforce the Common Carbon Metric. This is a protocol for
measuring energy use and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from building
operations (Plate 1). The Common Carbon Metric will enable the grading the energy
usage for all buildings irrespective of geographic location or function. Using the
Common Carbon Metric will aid member countries in reducing carbon footprint and
meeting the Carbon Emissions Commitments (Bldgsim, 2011; UNEP SBCI, 2011).
The Common Carbon Metric will enable the realisation of cost-effective carbon
mitigation potential of buildings, which accounted for around 40% of the world’s
energy use and 33% of global greenhouse gas emissions (German Sustainable
Building Council, 2009). It is piloted by the leading green building rating tools, and
made available to all those who are dedicated to promoting the understanding and
development of a green, low-carbon and sustainable built environment. The metric is
recognised by the UNEP Sustainable Building and Climate Initiative.

3. GREEN BUILDING COUNCILS IN AFRICA

The conference on promoting Green Building Rating Systems (GBRS) in Africa
recently organised by UN-HABITAT in Nairobi, recommended the development of
national and sub-regional GBRS, and the establishment of national or sub-regional
GBCs which are non-profit, member-based coalitions that develop objective,
voluntary tools for rating the environmental performance of buildings. This is to
promote the use of appropriate building materials, technologies, services and
processes that reduce the impacts of new buildings on the environment and human
health. The membership status of African’s countries in the WGBC is listed in Table
1. Currently, only South Africa has an established Green Building Council (UN-
HABITAT, 2010b).

3
 Plate 1: Common Carbon Metric Protocol. Source: UNEP SBCI (2011).

Table 1. Membership status of African countries in World GBC.

Country Name of the Council Membership Status
Botswana Botswana Green Building Council Associated group
Ghana Ghana Green Building Council Associated group
Kenya Kenya Green Building Council Prospective GBC
Mauritius Mauritius Prospective GBC
Nigeria Nigeria Green Building Council Prospective GBC
South Africa Green Building Council of South Africa Established GBC
Source: World Green Building Council (2011a).

4
4. TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A GREEN BUILDING
COUNCIL FOR NIGERIA
The body that should be consulted when establishing the GBC is the World GBC. To
date this body was able to keep track of the global development. Compared to other
continents, Africa is still in its infancy and is encouraged through the organisers of
the UN-Habitat Nairobi Conference to host their resources on GBC on their website
for consistency. Initially, as a resolution of the conference, the African Network was
to be temporarily hosted by the Green Building Council for South Africa (GBCSA)
but after consultations with the World GBC they were advised to host their resources
on their website - so everything is focused in one place, and accordingly the World
GBC now has a page for the Africa Regional Network with the address
www.worldgbc.org (Kehew, 2010).
Nigerian initiators can follow the step-by-step instructions on establishing a GBC as
presented by the World Green Building Council (2011b). The guide provides an
introduction to GBC formation, describing the major activities involved (Plate 2). It
provides a functional framework for the establishment of national GBC’s. The
document comprises of chapters explaining how to establish a core founding group,
develop a business plan, form a founding board, and secure initial funding and many
other key chapters. The interested parties after submitting the Expression of Interest
and upon its acceptance gain access to detailed multiple tools that support each
activity which comprise of spreadsheets, case studies, guides and others.
In addition to this, a national input is very important and this paper focuses on how to
guide the interested parties and prioritize the national resources by introducing the
concept of a regional portal for sustainable building and GBRS in Nigeria.

5
Plate 2: World Green Building Council Roadmap. Source: World Green Building
Council (2011b).

6
5. SELECTION PROCESS FOR A GREEN BUILDING RATING SYSTEM
The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) is developing an energy and
water benchmarking rating tool for existing buildings. The council reports that this
tool, which still has to be launched, will eventually plug into the Green Star SA
rating tool for existing buildings, which will serve both the private and public
sectors. According to GBCSA technical executive Manfred Braune, “The energy
and water benchmarking tool is still in the early stages of scoping and development,
while the GBCSA is in the process of selecting a technical consultant to undertake
the intensive research and development work on the project” (Green Building
Council of South Africa, 2011).
The range and spectrum of the choices of rating systems can be appreciated by the
study for selection of a sustainable rating system for the General Services
Administration (GSA) in USA which provides a summary of the information found
for each sustainable rating system. The aim of the study was to select sustainable
design tools which could be used for GSA projects and which will necessarily set
parameters to:
 improve quality,
 decrease the life cycle environmental impact, and
 optimize life cycle costs of the buildings.
The selected tool (GBRS) must support long-term performance for an innovative and
flexible future. GSA must evaluate its buildings consistently using one system in
order that the projects can be compared equally with:
 other GSA buildings,
 other Federal buildings, and
 the U.S. building market.
According to Fowler and Rauch (2006) using one sustainable building rating system
allows for comparisons and benchmarking of existing buildings as well as a
mechanism to track GSA’s progress toward designing and operating the best
buildings for their occupants.
The research considered systems marketed between January and May 2006 which
were analysed through extensive reviews of over 100 references and rigorous
analysis. Their overview gives a broad spectrum of rating systems and directs the
focus towards sustainable rating systems (Table 2) and identifies others as not
appropriate (Appendices A, B and C).

7
 Table 2. Sustainable Building Rating Systems recommended for GSA.

Sustainable Building Rating Systems Development Basis

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment's Original
Environmental Assessment Method)
BREEAM Canada BREEAM
BREEAM Green Leaf BREEAM, Green Leaf
Calabasas LEED LEED
CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for Original
Building Environmental Efficiency)
CEPAS (Comprehensive Environmental Performance LEED, BREEAM, HK-BEAM,
Assessment Scheme) IBI
Earth Advantage Commercial Buildings (Oregon) Undisclosed
EkoProfile (Norway) Undisclosed
ESCALE Undisclosed
GBTool Original
GEM (Global Environmental Method) for Existing Green Globes Canada
Buildings (Green Globes) – UK
GOBAS (Green Olympic Building Assessment System) CASBEE, LEED
Green Building Rating System – Korea BREEAM, LEED, BEPAC
Green Globes Canada BREEAM Green Leaf
Green GlobesTM US Green Globes Canada
Green Leaf Eco-Rating Program Original
Green Star Australia BREEAM, LEED
HK BEAM (Hong Kong Building Environmental BREEAM
Assessment Method)
HQE (High Environmental Quality) Undisclosed
iDP (Integrated Design Process) Original

8
 Sustainable Building Rating Systems Development Basis
Labs21 Original
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Original
Design)
LEED Canada LEED
LEED India LEED
LEED Mexico LEED
MSBG (The State of Minnesota Sustainable Building LEED, Green Building
Guidelines) Challenge '98, and BREEAM
NABERS (National Australian Built Environment Rating Undisclosed
System)
PromisE Undisclosed
Protocol ITACA GBTool
SBAT (Sustainable Buildings Assessment Tool) Original
Scottdale's Green Building Program Undisclosed
SPiRiT (Sustainable Project Rating Tool) LEED
TERI Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment Original
TQ Building Assessment System (Total Quality Building Original
Assessment System)
Source: Fowler and Rauch (2006).

Analysis and usefulness in the Nigerian context

Concluding on the multitude of possible approaches in selecting a GBRS, it is
obvious that detailed and well-funded research is much needed to produce an
appropriate solution for Nigeria.

9
6. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GREEN BUILDING RATING SYSTEM
FOR NIGERIA
Prucnal-Ogunsote, Okwoli and Ude (2011) defined green and sustainable
architecture and evaluated the usefulness of a number of GBRS in the Nigerian
context. Among them are the Building Research Establishment Environmental
Assessment Method (BREEAM) and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED). The authors also gave an overview of energy rating software and
tools such as the CarbonLite program, as well as energy modelling software and
tools in sustainable building design such as ENERGY-10. They discussed challenges
and strategies for their incorporation in Nigerian scenarios through education. This
however was the first attempt in categorizing the resources from which Nigerian
GBRS may be initiated. The magnitude of the problem calls for much wider and
broader cooperation and the on-going research presented in the next section will
provide many more answers to the problem and guide in final decisions of
appropriate bodies and of a prospective Nigeria Green Building Council (NGBC).

Recommendation
To make it easy to communicate a building’s sustainable achievements with the
others, the authors of this presentation recommend that a particular Green Building
Rating System should be adapted for Nigeria, or a new one should be developed.
This implies that the selecting process should be carefully established and this may
be possible if all stakeholders of the building industry and affiliated professions will
participate. This may be done through a regional portal as explained below.

7. THE REGIONAL PORTAL FOR SUSTAINABLE BUILDING AND

GREEN BUILDING RATING SYSTEM IN NIGERIA
A web portal was defined by Ogunsote, Prucnal-Ogunsote and Ola-Ude (2010) as a
place where people go to get information about a multitude of subjects, and even to
chat, send email, shop online and form online communities. A web portal is a site
that functions as a point of access to information on the World Wide Web. Portals
present information from diverse sources in a unified way. The use of web portals
makes searching for information easier and faster, while the integration of online
communities into portals promotes academic discourse and social interaction. The
use of wiki applications encourages contributions by visitors to the portal, thus
giving the portal’s content exponential growth potentials, a universal outlook and a
democratic countenance.

10
Ogunsote, Ogunsote and Prucnal-Ogunsote (2008) at the E-Learning Africa 2008 3rd
International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training in Accra,
Ghana, proposed ArchNetNG - a web portal for Nigerian architecture, an online
community for the Nigerian architect, planner, urban designer and for everything that
is Nigerian in architecture. The web portal presented in this section is a
documentation of the Education Trust Fund (ETF) research proposal by the Federal
University of Technology, Akure (Ogunsote 2011).
The development of a web portal is necessitated by the demand for sustainable
building and the on–going research in Nigeria involves eight ECOWAS universities,
fourteen scholars and seven professions (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Participation of academics, professions and research institutions in the

research.

7.1 Research Aim

The aim of this research project is to develop a web portal for sustainable building
and GBRS in Nigeria. It also seeks to leverage this resource for postgraduate
research into sustainable development towards achievement of the vision 20-20-20
goal of providing sustainable physical infrastructure in Nigeria.

11
 Figure 2: Aim of the Research.

7.2 The Objectives of the Research

The objectives of the research are to:
1. Develop a hosted, domain-specific, environmental, regional portal for
sustainable building in Nigeria.
2. Provide the following services through the web portal: directory services,
library services, online publications, news services, building laws and
regulations, professional forums, blogs, chat rooms, members’ areas,
email, applets, website hosting services, advertising services, customised
search engine and mirroring of popular web resources.
3. Collect, digitize and disseminate through the web portal, research done in
Nigeria in the last 50 years that are relevant to current research on
sustainable building in tropical climates. This will cover research in the
following disciplines: architecture, building, civil engineering, computer
science (social software development), electrical engineering, estate
management, mechanical engineering, meteorology, project management,
quantity surveying and urban and regional planning.
4. Develop a framework for the green rating of local and imported building
materials and provide intellectual support for the establishment of a
Nigerian Green Building Council and also develop a Green Building
Rating System for Nigeria.

12
 5. Supervise and provide research support to PhD and MPhil/MTech/MSc
students in conducting research into sustainable building in tropical
regions by leveraging the materials available through the web portal.
6. Organize two international conferences and two workshops with themes
directly related to sustainable building in tropical regions and produce
two books of readings from the presentations made during the
conferences as well as reports from the workshops.
7. Provide a platform for collaboration by the academia with government
agencies, non-governmental organizations, building materials
manufacturers and building contractors and other stakeholders for the
promotion of sustainable building practices and for the dissemination of
research findings.

7.3 Project Goals

The development of a green building rating system for Nigeria will require
collaboration between various disciplines in the academia, the building industry and
government agencies. There is need to provide a platform where there can be
exchange of ideas and information to promote best practices and to avoid duplication
of effort. Given the diversity of interests and the large geographic area involved, the
most appropriate network should be cybernetic. This project has 5 primary goals
(figure 3).

1. The primary goal of this research is to foster collaboration by creating a web

portal -- an Internet resource that provides information from diverse sources
in a unified way -- to collect information about research and researchers in
the area of sustainable building, organise these documents, and make them
available in a comprehensible yet comprehensive manner.
2. Creation of a current and accurate database for sustainable building. The
relevance and comprehensiveness of documents available through the web
portal can be promoted by emphasizing extensive coverage of academic
institutions, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, building
contractors and building materials manufacturers in Nigeria. This will help
identify areas where there is urgent need for research and documentation and

13
 thus guide the allocation of project topics to postgraduate students attached to
the project.
3. Publicising and promotion of the resources available to encourage full
participation by all stakeholders through mailing lists, chat rooms, members’
area, seminars, conferences and interviews publicised on radio and television.
4. Human capital development through the training of a group of experts in
sustainable building by supervising and supporting postgraduate students.
5. The development of a green building rating system and the establishment of a
green building council for Nigeria.

Figure 3: Clustering of goals.

14
7.4 Distribution of Universities participating in the research:
There are seven universities participating in the research project (Figure 4).
1. Federal University of Technology, Akure
2. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
3. Federal University of Technology, Minna
4. University of Jos, Jos
5. Federal University of Technology, Yola
6. Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka
7. Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma
8. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi

Figure 4: Geographical spread of participating universities.

8 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research project is quite unlike the standard laboratory or survey based research
where a few hypotheses are formulated and the researcher designs a method of
testing whether they are true or false, and probably also examines the relationships
between cause and effect. This research is more like prototyping or product/service
development. The acceptance of the resulting prototype or product is subject to the

15
preferences of the end-user, and while a prototype or product can be deemed to be
successful, it can never be perfect since there is always room for improvement with
advances in technology and knowledge. Bruseberg and McDonagh-Philp (2000)
recommend the following methods for user-centred design research.
1. Corporate planning – design planning.
2. Preparation and understanding of the problem.
3. Idea generation.
4. Concept selection.
5. Embodiment and detail design.
Power Decisions Group (2009) further specified the following stages for new product
development:
1. Concept generation.
2. Concept evaluation.
3. Concept spin-off and development.
4. Quantitative concept testing.
5. Prototype development.
6. Pre-launch market test.
8.1 Steps involved in developing a Green Building Rating System
The recent conference on development of green building rating tools for Africa
deliberated on the processes involved in developing a green building rating tool. The
tool development structure is made up of a technical working group, consultants and
sponsors. The process starts with a pilot tool development followed by a pilot and
feedback period. The first version of the tool is then launched. This is followed by
revisions.
8.2 Approaches and methods
With the active participation of over a dozen members of the research team, dozens
of academic institutions and research institutes, dozens of postgraduate students, and
hundreds of other stakeholders, all working on several objectives sometimes
simultaneously, the most difficult task is probably coordination and keeping the
project on track to achieve the stated objectives within the projected time frame. In
this situation it is necessary to develop a strategy, set clear goals and use an incentive
system in mobilizing participants to achieve specific targets. Team work is essential,
and it is important for each participant to understand how his or her contribution will
advance the overall goals.

16
8.3 Distributed management
The management of the project will be shared among all research team members who
will be responsible for their institutions, geographical area, fields of specialization,
and postgraduate students. This responsibility will be matched by control over
approvals and expenditures that fall within these domains. The regular coordination
meetings and monthly reports to the principal researcher will allow reallocation of
duties and resources to meet specified targets when it becomes inevitable. The
deliberate overlap of domains is expected to encourage team work and to compensate
for any temporary shortfalls in performance by a research team member.
8.4 Web portal design specifications
The web portal is envisaged to be a hosted, domain-specific, environmental, regional
portal. It is hosted because it is designed and maintained by a group, instead of by a
government, corporation or association. It is domain specific because it concentrates
on the sustainable building and it is regional because it contains local content from
Nigeria and the West African sub-region. The services proposed include directory
services, library services, online publications, news (competitions, conferences,
software reviews, featured architects and projects), building laws, professional
forums, blogs, chat rooms, members’ area, email, website hosting services,
advertising services, customized search engine and mirroring of popular web
resources. Most services will be accessible to all visitors, although specific
operations will require registration.
The portal will provide a single point of access to specialist information through a
secure web browser. This will eliminate the need to conduct separate searches across
various systems.
Architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, engineers and other
consultants in the building industry form the main target audience of the portal.
Students, lecturers, contractors, federal and state agencies, building materials
manufacturers and other service providers in the building industry are an equally
important target audience. This population is mainly defined by occupation,
profession, geographic location, interest, education and level of computer literacy.
The graphical layout of the portal will be simple and revised periodically to keep up
with user expectations and technology. Generally, there will be advertisement bands
on the top and right of every page, while links to external web pages will as much as
possible be displayed in a window and not on the whole screen. Advertisements will

17
be context-sensitive but as unobtrusive as possible. Display on handheld devices,
such as mobile phones and tablets, is planned for future versions.
8.5 Data collection
The data collection in this research project falls into three categories:
1. Collection of data by postgraduate students and researchers for specific
research topics.
2. Collection of data for dissemination through the web portal.
3. Collection of data for developing a green building rating system.
In the first case, the data collection methods will be specified for each project in the
proposal which will be approved by the research team.
Collection of data for dissemination through the web portal will mainly employ the
web portal for capturing this data. The starting point is obtaining lists of staff from
academic and research institutes, and request for Curriculum Vita through mailing
lists created from these lists. This will be used to generate a database of researchers
and publications. These publications will then be collected by direct request or
purchase from the authors and publishers, purchase on the open market, and
borrowing from libraries. This will be supplemented by Internet searches, requests
for collection listings from libraries, advertisements in online editions of popular
newspapers requesting for contribution of research papers, interviews, and
questionnaires. These questionnaires will be administered by postgraduate students.
The hosting on online journals by the web portal will also allow the capturing of not
only current publications, but also archive issues. These publications will be mainly
books, journals and monographs, but will also include drawings and audio-visual
media.
Collection of data for development of a green building rating system will be
incorporated into the research conducted by selected PhD students who will
determine the most appropriate techniques subject to the approval of the research
team.
8.6 Instruments for data collection
The instruments used for data collection will depend on the category of data being
collected as described in the section data collection above. These instruments will be
designed for specific projects and will include questionnaires, interview forms, etc.

18
8.7 Meetings and consultations
Meetings and consultations with research team members, postgraduate students, and
other stakeholders will be an important source of data. Apart from face to face
meetings and consultations, there will also be online meetings: chat rooms, bulletin
boards, members’ areas, blogs, etc.
8.9 Sampling techniques and sample size
The choice of sampling technique and sample size will be determined by the nature
and characteristics of individual research projects.
8.10 Analysis and organization of data
Analysis of data for each research project will be carried out by postgraduate
students and researchers that collected the data using methods approved by the
research team. The organization of data will depend on the nature and quantum of
data collected, but it will also depend on feedback from end users. The use of
distributed databases is essential to meet the standard requirement of searches and
refreshing of web pages not taking more than ten seconds. Postgraduate students will
be assigned specific topics in the development of data collection methods, database
design, user interface design, site security and achievement of reliability through
redundancy. They will be assisted by technologists and computer programmers
employed for the project, and in special circumstances, by external consultants.
8.11 Dissemination of research findings
The research findings will be disseminated mainly through seminars, conferences,
workshops, and interviews on radio and television. The web portal will also be
designed to ensure that the site is ranked high by popular search engines when search
terms related to sustainable building in Nigeria and West Africa are entered. Other
methods will include use of mailing lists, subscriptions by visitors to monthly e-
bulletins, chat rooms, blogs and members’ areas.
8.12 Seminars
Seminars will be organised regularly to present the proposals, data from field work
and data analysis of postgraduate students. These seminars will be hosted by the
institution where the student is registered, but the paper and comments will also be
posted online on the web portal.

19
8.13 Conferences
Two international conferences will be organised around the theme of sustainable
building and green building rating systems. Emphasis will be on research findings.
Online participation and video recording of all proceedings will be made available
online through the web portal.
8.14 Broadcasting of interviews on radio and television
Monthly or quarterly interviews on radio or television by a member of the research
team or PhD student to discuss the project will be arranged.

9. DESIRED OUTPUTS
The measurement of the success of the research will be by the following parameters:
1. Development of a vibrant and expanding intellectual community built
around the web portal.
2. Access to current information about sustainable building and the building
industry in the study area.
3. Development and testing of a green building rating system.
4. Establishment of green building councils.

10. CONCLUSION
This paper gave an overview of all the issues related to the development of GBC and
GBRS for Nigeria and it demonstrated through the on-going research how to foster
the progress associated with this development.
In establishing the Nigerian GBC, it was concluded that the initiators can follow the
Guide by the World Green Building Council by using the step-by-step instructions
published on their website. National input is very important and this paper
demonstrated how to guide the interested parties and prioritize the national resources
by introducing the concept of a regional portal for sustainable building and GBRS in
Nigeria.
To make it easy to communicate a building’s sustainability achievements with the
others, the authors of this presentation recommend that a particular GBRS should be
adapted for Nigeria, or a new one developed. This implies that the selection process
should be carefully established and this may be possible if all stakeholders of the
building industry and affiliated professions participate. This may be done through the
proposed Regional Portal. In addition, in view of the multitude of possible

20
approaches in selecting GBRS, it is obvious that detailed and well-funded research is
much needed to develop an appropriate solution for Nigeria.
Finally the last emphasis is on the timing: THE TIME IS NOW.

9. REFERENCES
Bldgsim (2011). Tools for better and more Sustainable Building Design: Common
Carbon Metric. Retrieved from: http://bldgsim.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/
common-carbon-metric-protocol-for-measuring-energy-use-and-reporting-
greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-building-operations/
Bruseberg, A. & Deana McDonagh-Philp, D. (2000). User-Centred Design Research
Methods: The Designer’s Perspective. Department of Design and
Technology, Loughborough University. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=37240595088F2FE
A8C79ADB10A8A7192?doi=10.1.1.99.7523&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
Fowler K. M. & Rauch E. M. (2006). Sustainable Building Rating Systems
Summary. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Retrieved from:
http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-
15858.pdf
German Sustainable Building Council (2009). Global Green Building Organisations
Agree Common Carbon Metrics. Retrieved from
http://www.dgnb.de/de/news/presseinfos/detail.php?we_objectID=3218.
Green Building Council of South Africa (2011). Council Developing New Rating
tool. Retrieved from: http://www.gbcsa.org.za/home.php
Green Building South Africa (2011). The South African eJournal of Green Building.
Retrieved from: http://www.greenbuilding.co.za/content/green-building/
ejournal.html
Greenfan (2011). Online Sustainable Product Supplier and Green Building
Community. Retrieved from: http://www.greenfan.co.za
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APPENDICES

Appendix A. GBRS Pre-Screened from the Analysis.

Source: Fowler and Rauch (2006).

24
Appendix B. GBRS Pre-Screened from the Analysis.

Source: Fowler and Rauch (2006).

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Appendix C. GBRS Pre-Screened from the Analysis.

Source: Fowler and Rauch (2006).

26