Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Environmental Studies

Advisor(s)

John Van Buren

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of green building certifications in addressing global warming. The growing trend of pursuing certificates, such as LEED or BREEAM, can be perceived as a great symbol of resilience and desire to improve the quality of our environment. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases, developers or companies use sustainable labels more as a marketing tool than a real commitment to environmental effectiveness. This paper explores whether green building certifications effectively reduce global warming and how they may serve as tools for greenwashing. Chapter One lays the foundation for why green building certifications exist and why they are controversial. Chapter Two traces the history and spread of green building certifications. Chapter three examines how certification systems are designed, where they succeed in driving real sustainability, and where they fall short by rewarding symbolic or misleading measures. Chapter four is about how green certifications intersect with costs, profits, consumer demand, and broader ESG-driven pressures in the marketplace. Chapter five turns to the real-world performance of certified buildings through environmental auditing. Building on the examinations and conclusions from the previous chapters, Chapter 6 rethinks the certification system's future. It critiques a current model and proposes alternatives or reforms that could be implemented to make the system more credible.

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