The Pearl Rating System
As Estidama has evolved in its philosophy and reach, the Pearl Rating System is being refined and expanded. Originally drafted for new buildings in 2007, this program was complemented in 2008 by the Interim Estidama Community Guidelines (IECG). Both documents have found significant interest within the marketplace, but have been limited by a lack of alignment around a set of core principles and a foundation built upon the region’s resource imperatives. Through current efforts the program has recently been restructured in several ways:
1) The Pearl Rating system will be a voluntary program, to be made available to developers seeking to achieve recognition for pursuing a higher level of green building and development.
2) Ratings will be based on a new Foundation Document (to be created in early 2009) that will form the basis of assessment, guidelines and rating systems. This document will contain two primary components:
Vision and Purpose – which sets out the vision, aspirations, beliefs and core principles for Estidama.
Core Criteria – which will include all criteria for a Pearl Rating, and the reference standards – regardless of product type. This critical document has benefited from lessons learned from other leading Green Rating tools. It is recognized by pioneer programs that creating multiple tool documents has led to redundancy and inefficiencies in the review and rating process.
3) A simplified, but compelling structure for the rating program has been developed as the working construct for the Core Criteria and Product Tools. Five main categories are meant to convey the important relationships and resource requirements of our region. The working titles at this time are:
- Living Systems
- Liveable City
- Precious Water
- Resourceful Energy
- Stewarding Materials
4) Prerequisites for Pearl Ratings will be embedded in development codes and regulations, as opposed to being isolated in the rating criteria. This accomplishment will mean that every project developed in Abu Dhabi will achieve a higher level of sustainability by simply meeting code, and Pearl Rating team members can partner in a more significant way with those developers that are seeking to achieve a higher quality of sustainable development. This is an innovation that has not be achieved anywhere in the world today.
5) Alternate Compliance Path is another innovation. It was recognized early on that significant industry knowledge and capability has been created around widely adopted green building programs such as BREEAM, LEED and Green Star. Rather than create a new program, Pearl rating system is striving to harmonize the criteria within these programs, so that developers and their consultants can draw upon programs with which they are most familiar, in the pursuit of a Pearl Rating. It is not envisioned that a BREEAM or LEED rating would equal a Pearl Rating, but that much of the criteria and reference standards could be aligned. The remaining criteria would be unique to Estidama and hence the Middle East, making a Pearl Rating a higher level of professional standard, and more responsive to the cultural and resource issues of the region.