Whilst there has been fragmentation of rating systems as shown in figure 1, it is argued that the World Green Building Council has the largest global coverage (figure 5). There are common links in the US and Canada, some parts of Europe, Japan, Australia an South Africa.
Global tools
The importance of sustainable development has been mooted for many years (Bruntland 1987) and gathered momentum, as a result of major economic reports in developed countries, such as the Stern Report to the UK government (Stern 2005) and the Garnaut Report to the Australian Federal Government (Garnaut 2007). Both reports concluded that a ‘business as usual’ approach in respect ofgreenhouse gas emissions would lead to global economic and environmental catastrophe in the long term. Both accepted the IPCC predictions on climate change, the impetus to the adoption of sustainability within the built environment gathered pace. It is now the case that a majority of professionals and scientists accept that action is needed to mitigate climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emission in particular and the adoption of sustainability practices (Reed and Wilkinson 2008).