certification standard

A definition of environmental sustainability goals that a building must meet in order to qualify for certification. A non-profit organization typically administers a certification standard, defines the criteria (or credits) against which a building is measured, and assess if the building meets the criteria. The certification standard may offer various certification levels (such as Acceptable, Excellent, Outstanding) to show how well the building meets the certification standard.

LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) and BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) are examples of certification standards that define environmental sustainability criteria. Both of these standards offer a scoring process so that a building can achieve a particular level of certification, such as the BREEAM Outstanding rating or the LEED Gold rating.