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Bulgaria to draw up national green building standard

Friday, Oct 08, 2010

Bulgaria will design a national standard to determine the criteria for the construction and operation of buildings that exert minimum impact on the environment, Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev told an industry event on October 7 2010.

A working group will be put together of ministry officials and industry associations, who will work on coming up with a certification mechanism for green construction.

"From now one everyone will profess to be green so the government should set clear indicators in terms of green standards," Plevneliev said.

The working group of officials from the ministries of environment, regional development, economy and finance joined by representatives of the Bulgarian Green Buildings Council will tap into international green building experience.

Globally, a number of certificates including the UK’s BREEAM, Germany’s DGNB and the US LEED are awarded to buildings to show that they consume the least possible amount of water and electricity, have been built using sustainable and, if possible, local materials, and substantially reduces generated waste.

The office of the United States embassy is Bulgaria’s sole fully certified green building at the moment.

According to Bulgaria’s Regional Development Ministry, an energy efficiency makeover of all of the country’s prefab concrete apartments would cost four billion euro. This investment would result in annual savings of 560 million euro, the ministry estimated.

Source: thesofiaecho.com