GSAS Certifications

District scheme is used for evaluating the planning and design of an urban developments that work to improve the welfare of people and their communities by creating more convenient, equitable, healthful, efficient, and attractive places for present and future generations. In developing the plan for a community, a wide array of issues to be considered such as use and protection of land, outdoor environment, sustainable energy production, materials and water consumption. Districts can be of a mixed-use type that caters to the varying needs of the population or can be of a specific nature with a specific purpose e.g. an economic zone/city, an entertainment city, a media city and a health district etc. Districts typically consist of various building typologies and include several components such as infrastructure networks, transportation networks and public or open spaces. GSAS Districts can be applied to any combination of buildings and any size of development.

Neighborhood scheme is used to assess a zone within a district. It may comprise of different building typologies designed for a specific functionality or use. The assessment of some categories for the main building will be based on the scheme relevant to the main use, i.e. commercial, educational or hospitality and all other buildings will inherit the scores achieved by the main building. The assessment of other categories will be conducted for each building within the neighborhood and aggregated score for all buildings will be issued for the project.

Parks scheme is used to assess the ecological impacts of new and existing parks, including its onsite amenities, such as landscape areas, walkways, and picnic spaces, as well as any minor service facilities including restrooms, storage sheds, or small information centers. It is used for the design assessment of different types of parks including mini park, community park, district park, large urban and zoos.

Offices scheme is used to assess buildings developed for business and/or merchandising purposes, such as offices, conference rooms, foyers, retail spaces, and ancillary areas.

Commercial scheme is used to assess and rate the environmental performance of new core and shell construction covering basic building elements such as structure, envelope and mechanical systems, and where the infill of the building is wholly or partly not designed, such as shopping malls, retail shops, enclosed and strip malls. The criteria and measurements focus on verifying the performance of basic building elements to allow flexibility for developers and future tenants to implement separate sustainable design strategies at different times during the lifecycle of the building. 

Homes scheme is used for the assessment of residential homes, such as single-family villas or attached or detached houses. 

Residential scheme is used to assess multiunit apartments, condominium buildings and high-rise buildings.

Mosques scheme is used to assess congregational worship areas and ancillary buildings such as the Imam house. 

Hospitality scheme is used to assess hospitality buildings, such as hotels, resorts and hotel apartments. This building type includes variety of spaces or zones; such as guest rooms, lobbies, banquet halls, offices, conference halls, dining areas and kitchens, fitness centers, retails spaces and ancillary areas.

Light Industry scheme is used to assess warehouses and workshops. The assessment does not consider the production line or process hosted by such facilities. 

Education scheme is used to assess education facilities. Typical building types include kindergartens, schools, colleges, universities and research institutes. This building type includes various spaces or zones; such as classrooms, libraries, auditoriums, cafeterias, kitchens, offices and other spaces that are part of academic buildings, such as research laboratories.

Sports scheme is used to assess sport buildings or venues that are designed to host a sporting event and support activities for athletes or competitors, support staff and spectators, whether indoor or outdoor air-conditioned or non-air-conditioned stadiums. 

Railways scheme is used to assess and rate the sustainability and ecological impacts of railway station buildings. Station types include underground, at-grade and elevated stations. Main station building includes spaces or zones that serve various functions of a railway station such as; platform, concourse, offices, station control rooms, ticketing, retail, food/beverage areas and ancillary areas. 

Healthcare scheme is used to assess healthcare buildings. The building type includes specialist hospitals, general hospitals, out-patient hospitals, primary care health centers and especially bio-medical research laboratories.  This building type includes various spaces or zones such as; patient wards, offices, outpatient departments, intensive care units, cafeterias and training halls. The scheme can also be used to assess research laboratories conducting biomedical activities.

Interior scheme is used to assess the building finishing works, i.e. fit outs.  Fit-out is a term used to describe the process of making interior spaces and servicing of the building to meet the specific needs of an incoming occupier. 

Renovation scheme is used to assess and rate the sustainability impact of the major renovations on an existing building of any type, where more than 50% of the building is renovated or retrofitted. The scheme provisions take into consideration the constraints that an existing building is subject to in terms of location, site, form and structure.

Bespoke scheme is used to assess building types which are not covered and do not fit by the schemes described above. The scheme covers car parks, museums, data centers and any other non-conventional building types.

GSAS SEER Tool™ is a unique tool used developed by GORD to assess energy centers through calculating the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER). SEER is the ratio of the total amount of cooling energy provided, divided by the total energy input to the cooling plant within the year. The SEER calculations should be conducted in accordance with the local climate and operating conditions for the specific cooling load profile of the project.