Abstract:
Well-being is an important aspect determining the quality of life of an occupant. Hence, it is essential
to have a good indoor environmental quality, as it affects the productivity and health of such
occupants. Further, indoor air quality, acoustic, day-lighting and thermal comfort contribute to better
indoor environment quality, and have a positive effect on an occupant's productivity and performance.
Accordingly, many studies believed that the green building design will become more common practice
once the human benefits are identified, primarily the productivity gains believed to be associated with
the provision of high quality indoor environments. Hence, buildings are increasingly designed or
required to be ‘green’ in recent years, giving the quality of the indoor environment new importance.
Therefore, several green building assessment tools have been applied worldwide namely, Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Building Research Establishment Environmental
Assessment Method (BREEAM), Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental
Efficiency (CASBEE) and Green Star etc in facilitating high quality indoor environment. Indoor
Environmental Quality (IEQ) has considered as a major criteria in such tools. Thus, various IEQ
factors relate to temperature and humidity, acoustic, ventilation, indoor air quality, day lighting and
lighting quality, thermal comfort and access to views have been considered in these techniques.
Similarly in Sri Lanka, GREENSL® Rating System is applied for buildings in local context so as to
obtain green certification. Even though, it emerges IEQ as an important aspect, it is considerably less
compared to other domains. Thus, four green assessment tools were suggested which can be applied
for buildings in Sri Lankan context through the review of key research papers. Accordingly, such green
building tools can be considered for Sri Lankan buildings as a new concept/tool or even the existing
system can be further enhanced so as to provide a better quality indoor environment for building
occupants.
