Comparison of Certifications for Sustainable Buidlings

Abstract

In construction, quality assurance (QA) can be defined as the “part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled” (Winch, 2010). It includes all planned actions necessary to achieve a satisfactory performance, although it does not identify conformity or non-conformity.

Among the three basic systems to identify the procedures to follow, the third-party ones have now been proven to be the best practice as they follow international standards such as ISO. These systems consist of independent third parties that certify the QA system. Thus, many independent third parties such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and WELL Building Standard have emerged in the last 15 years. LEED certification provides independent verification of a building or neighborhood’s green features, allowing for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of resource-efficient, high-performing, healthy, cost-effective buildings. (LEED, 2017)

On the other hand, WELL is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and wellbeing, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. (WELL, 2017)

The aim of this report is to compare the requirements and goals of both certifications. However, since they have different approaches, it is expected that the connection between them will be of complementation rather than of exclusion.

INTRODUCTION

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Quality can be defined as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements” (Winch, 2010). One of the objectives for the Quality Management Systems is to make clear that non-conformance in a product is somebody’s fault. Thus, workers are encouraged, reward-based, to take responsibility when achieving high quality. There are four main basic approaches to make sure that high quality has been reached and these act as complement rather than as alternatives: • Inspection: physical check. • Quality Control (QC): management control techniques. • Quality Assurance (QA): externally accredited procedures. • Total Quality Management: continuous process improvement.

QUALITY CONTROL

Quality Control is “a part of quality management focusing on fulfilling quality requirements” (ISO 9000, 2015) and consists of all the actions that have to be followed to reach high quality. Therefore, the product is verified according to the customer’s requirements until the output conformance reaches the desired quality levels. Some of the techniques include testing, inspections and walkthroughs.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Quality Assurance can be defined as the “part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled” (ISO 9000, 2015) by supplying a set of processes than can be applied to ensure high quality in the output. QA can be considered as a Strategy of Prevention for its main focus is to plan, document and set guidelines at an early stage of the project to prevent defects from penetrating into the solution (Arthur, 2017). Thus, engaging with QA already at the starting point of the project is crucial to reduce the risks identified in specification phases. According to (Winch, 2010), there are three basic types of QA: • First-party systems: are responsibility of the company concerned. • Second-party systems: suppliers are accredited by buyers using proprietary standards. • Third-party systems: consists of independent and certified third-party systems. Although the three systems are widely used, the third-party systems are now considered to be best practice for they usually follow the international standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Thus, many independent third-parties have emerged in the last 15 years.

THIRD-PARTY SYSTEMS

Third-party systems have advantage over the other two because they consist of an objective audit, not dependent on the company´s or personal interests. Its particular responsibility is to asses a quality system for conformance compared to the standard and issue the certification of conformance when the quality level is successful. Many parties are included in project execution, opposed to the project definition where only the client and the agent (an architect or engineer) are involved. In Figure 2.1, the third-party system for quality control is represented as “Control” and is included only in the project execution.

Figure 1. Professional Syste]]m Dia]]gram (Winch, 2010)

Since the third-party systems are the most frequent practice, many independent third parties such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and WELL Building Standard have emerged. As mentioned before and contrary to QC, QA is the process of managing for quality and it is not used to verify the quality of the output (Arthur, 2017). However, LEED and WELL fall into both categories because they focus on the managing process as well as in the quality verification of the output.