A comparative study of DGNB, LEED and BREEAM certificate systems in urban sustainability

Certification systems are generally used for the purpose of sustainability assessment in buildings or neighbourhoods, and indexes mainly focus on construction issues related to the civil engineering activities but not usually in urban management programs. As an attempt to tackle this issue, the “German Sustainable Building Council” has created and developed a certification system according to the three aspects of economical, ecological and social culture in planning, construction, and operation of buildings in Germany. This paper focuses on the brief history and introduction of these three kinds of certification systems named as DGNB, LEED and BREEAM. The certification process, certification types, their criteria and rating system are all reviewed in five sections of this paper. Finally the results of analysis and comparison of these systems along with the advantages and disadvantages of them which will be helpful for assessment of two main subjects of “sustainable urban development strategies” and “tools for sustainability assessment in urban communities” are discussed. As a conclusion it is shown that certification systems are quantitative standards to measure the concept of sustainable development in any region. By defining a set of criteria and a rating system to score them, these systems assess projects during a specific process. The result of this assessment can be useful for different groups, e.g. national and local governments, users, planners, builders, owners, investors, etc. It can be concluded that identifying comprehensive objectives, adopting proper strategies to realize those objectives, applying certification systems to control the performed activities, and correcting the objectives and strategies will definitely guarantee sustainable development achievements.