Definitions

BOMA BESt Buildings Program

BOMA BESt is the next evolution of BOMA Canada's Go Green program. BESt stands for Building Environmental Standards, and represents the direction of the commercial real estate industry in Canada and BOMA Canada's role in providing the mechanisms for common practices across the industry.

With four possible levels of certification, users can progress through the program and continually use the framework of the Go Green Best Practices and the Go Green Plus assessment to improve environmental performance and management. The BOMA BESt certification builds on Go Green and Go Green Plus by harmonizing these separate certifications into one program.

BOMA BESt The first level of achievement – BOMA BESt Level 1, indicates that a building has met all of the BOMA Go Green best practices. Level 1 demonstrates compliance with the best practices BOMA looks for. The Go Green Best Practices include performing an energy audit and a water audit, continually monitoring resource consumption and having a preventative maintenance program. These basic elements and the other best practices are the foundation of good environmental management.

BOMA BESt BOMA BESt Level 2 certified buildings meet not only all of the BOMA Go Green Best Practices, but also have a score of 70-79% on the Go Green Plus assessment. Managers of these buildings have gone through the entire Go Green Plus questionnaire, entered 12 months of consumption data, and taken advantage of the scoring and benchmarking opportunities. BOMA BESt Level 2 demonstrates that a building is moving towards excellence in energy and environmental performance through better management. Level 2 shows that a building's management understands that they need to benchmark their performance, and that they have a clear understanding of what they can do to improve performance.

BOMA BESt BOMA BESt Level 3 certification is for buildings that meet all of the BOMA Go Green Best Practices and achieve 80-89% on the Go Green Plus assessment. Buildings at this level of certification have higher performance and demonstrate excellence in management. Level 3 buildings typically have been managing with energy and environmental performance in mind for several years. Management in these buildings is usually forward-thinking with flexibility to pursue environmental initiatives.

BOMA BESt The highest level of achievement is BOMA BESt Level 4. Level 4 certification is for buildings that achieve over 90% on the Go Green Plus assessment and meet all of the BOMA Go Green Best Practices. This is no small achievement, as these buildings must be high performers with low energy consumption. The opportunity to implement new technologies and excellence in management and tracking are common for buildings that achieve BOMA BESt Level 4.

For more information please visit the BOMA BESt web site at http://www.bomabest.com