Green Africa Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry through the USAID-UNDP funded Low Emission and Climate Resilient Development (LECRD) Project has prepared the GreenMark Standard for rating and certification of Green Buildings in Kenya. The Standard has been developed by a large team of technical experts from the government, private sector, civil society and academia, convened under the standing Technical Committee and the GreenMark Standards and Certification Board.

A green building, synonymous with sustainable building, is a structure that is designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in a resource-efficient manner. Green buildings are designed to meet certain objectives such as protecting occupant health; improving employee productivity; using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently; and reducing the overall impact of the environment.

The GreenMark Standard for Green Buildings provides a localized benchmark and guideline for assessing extent to which the development of new and existing buildings address climate change and environmental degradation. It highlights best practices in building design and construction, operation and maintenance so as to reduce or eliminate the adverse climate change and environmental impacts on both the building and occupants. The Standard will provide a basis for assessing the sustainability performance of existing and new buildings holistically over the entire life cycle, thereby providing a definitive standard for 'greening buildings'. It also considers the fact that greening of buildings has a role in achieving sustainable development in Kenya and the Africa region given that shelter is a basic human need.

The Standard was initially conceived and developed by Green Africa Foundation in 2011 as the 'Green Africa Building Standard' which has been modified to the 'GreenMark' Rating Tool after a broad stakeholder consultation and incorporating various modifications by technical experts convened under the standing Technical Committee and independent GreenMark Standards Board. It takes into account the provisions of the Building Code, National Building Regulations 2014, the Physical Planning Act 2012, the Energy Management Regulations, the Environmental Management and Co-Ordination Regulations, the Environmental (Impact Assessment and Audit) Regulations 2003 and other IS codes, local bye-laws, other local standards and laws. The system, by its qualitative and quantitative assessment criteria, would be able to 'rate' a building on the degree of its 'greenness'. The rating will be applied to new and existing building stock of varied functions - commercial, institutional, and residential.

Internationally, voluntary green building rating systems have been instrumental in promoting sustainable design. However, most of the internationally devised rating systems have been tailored to suit the building industry of the country where they were developed. In Kenya the US based LEED rating system has been applied in rating a number of buildings, guided by individual accredited LEED professionals. The South African rating system, the Green Star SA, is being promoted by Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) since 2015. Keeping in view of the Kenyan unique climatic and socio-economic conditions, a Kenyan Standard for Green Buildings - the GreenMark Rating System has been developed with consideration for all kinds of building in varying climatic zones of the country.

The GreenMark Standard for rating and certification of green buildings Tool is currently awaiting Validation on Wednesday 12th of September, 2018 as well as inputs and comments from relevant stakeholders.

Below is the Zero Draft GreenMARK Standard Tool and the Template for comments submission.