Evaluation of credit achievements of leed-certified buildings

Nowadays, the concept of green building is no longer an alternative but a necessity. The acceptance of a building as “green” depends on having a certificate. LEED is one of the widely used green building certification systems in Turkey. The main objective of this study is to find out whether there were statistically significant differences between the credit achievements of 105 newly constructed and certified buildings in Turkey, which were certified according to four different levels, and to determine which of these credit achievements are weak. For this purpose, Kruskal-Wallis and MannWhitney U tests were performed and the findings were interpreted. Findings revealed that the highest level of achievement of these buildings was in sustainable sites, water efficiency, innovation in design, and regional priority credits, while the lowest level of achievement was in energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality credits. Analyses revealed that the achievements in the energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality credits of green buildings are relatively low when compared to the ones in other credits. There may be several reasons behind these low levels of achievement such as poor green culture, high investment cost of necessary systems, absence of reusable, recycled, and renewable materials. If these problems, most of which are peculiar to developing countries, can be overcome, higher certification levels can be achieved.