【正文】 rk needed to make apleted building ply may be too extensive, costlyand time consuming (Crawley and Aho 1999). For example, replacing an existing ventilation system by installingmore windows to allow for natural ventilation and daylightmay be impracticable, difficult, or expensive to facilitate.Environmental assessment methods have been appliedpredominantly to new construction, but while refurbishment and maintenance of existing buildings are also animportant part of a sustainable future (Ding 2020), effort inthis area is not yet sufficient.In this paper, the following four major BEA tools areexplained in detail:Sustain Sci (2020) 6:233–246 235123? BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), UK? LEEDC210(Leadership in Energy and EnvironmentalDesign), USA? GBTool, Canada? CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System forBuilding Environmental Efficiency), JapanThe characteristics of the four major BEA tools aresummarized in Table 1.BREEAM and development of BEABREEAM is known as the first mercially available andmost widely used method, which established a prehensive means to simultaneously assess a broad range ofenvironmental concerns about buildings. BREEM has beendeveloped by the BRE (Building Research Establishment),UK, and has been used since 1990 (Cole 2020。 however, exact requirements and aplex weighting system require expertise and the cost ofpliance can be high.Following BREEAM, many other assessment methodshave been developed around the world. Building environmental assessment methods have been developed worldwide while methods or tools have been adapted to variousbuildings and characteristics of the region. An initial version of BREEAM was released as a credit award system fornew office buildings, and similar schemes were developedin Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore,and Hong Kong. BEPAC (Building Environmental Performance Assessment Criteria) was developed by the University of British Columbia, Canada in 1993 (Cole 1998).BEPAC is similar to BREEAM, but is a more detailed andprehensive assessment method. HKBEAM (HongKong building environmental assessment method), established in 1996, places emphasis on the lifecycle impacts ofenvironmental issues (HKBEAM website). Green StarAustralia, developed by the Green Building Council ofAustralia, is Australia’s first prehensive method forevaluating the environmental performance of mercialbuildings (Green Star website). BREEAM Green Leaf waslaunched in 1999 and was transformed into a Webbasedassessment and rating tool and released as Green GlobesCanada in 2020 (Cole 2020, LEED and mercial useLEEDC210, developed in 1998 in the USA, is another famousscheme, and similar schemes are used in Canada, India,Mexico, China, Hong Kong, and Korea (Fowler and Rauch2020). LEEDC210is owned by the USGBC (US GreenBuilding Council, who releasedthe first draft proposal for new and existing office buildingsin 1998. In 2020, LEED v2 was created based on modifications of the previous system, which then continued toevolve in response to the needs of the market. The newestversion, LEED v3, was released in 2020. While LEED doesnot require training, credit is available if an accreditedprofessional (AP) is used. The role of the AP is to helpgather evidence to evaluate according to the framework ofLEED and to advise the client as to the assessment and thedesign. The evidence is then submitted to the USGBC,which does the assessment and issues a certificate of thescore. LEED is a voluntary, consensusbased, marketdriven buildingrating system based on existing proven technology. This system evaluates environmental performanceover a building’s life cycle. It is designed for rating bothnew and existing buildings, mercial, institutional, highrise residential buildings, interiors, the shell and core ofbuildings, retail building, and schools, for example. Withinthe system, points or credits are earned for satisfying eachcriterion, and these points or credits are based on the givenevaluation schema, and then different levels of greenbuilding certification are awarded. There are six maincategories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy andatmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmentalquality, and innovation in design. LEED awards ratings orCertified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Around 2,000buildings, mostly mercial, have acquired LEED ratingand more than 17,000 projects have registered by 2020.LEED is a selfassessing, voluntary, consensusbased,marketdriven building rating system (USGBC 2020, in widespread use across NorthAmerica, and has had great success. As of August 2020,international projects prised 27% of all square footageregistered for LEED qualification. The number of registered projects outside the United States went from only 8 in2020 (pared to 380 within the United States the sameyear) to 1,120 in 2020. LEED provides attendant softwaresupport tools.BREEAM and LEED are the two most representativebuilding environmental schemes (Lee and Burt 2020).BREAM has a long track record in the UK, but it is notused extensively in the US. However, the coexistence ofsystems in the same market is influenced by other systems(Cole 2020). Through the recent introduction of GreenBuilding Initiative’s Green Globes rating system into theSustain Sci (2020) 6:233–246 237123US market in 2020, the market in North America ischanging (Cole 2020).On average, LEED buildings used 18–39% less energyper floor area than their conventional counterparts. However, 28–35% of LEED buildings used more energy thantheir conventional counterparts (Newsham et al. 2020).Small buildings that consist of 60% of the total number ofbuildings consume only about 10% of energy。 Larssonand Cole 2