GOST – a Guideline to Follow

Since March 1, 2013 the first in Russia national green standard has joined into force – State Standard R 54964-2012 “Conformance evaluation. Environmental requirements for estate property” which was elaborated by Non-commercial partnership“GREEN ST AND ARDS Eco- Certification Center” together with Ministry of Nature of Russian Federation and NCP “AVOC ”. What is the meaning of this document for a market development of stable building in our country? With this and other questions we have addressed to the Chairman of Board of a Council of Ecological building in Russia, General Manager of “Prosperity Project Management” company Alexey Polyakov.

Alexey Nikolaevich, before coming to the discussion of a new State Standard we would like to talk about what are green standards in general outline?

Green standards in building always and in all countries differ from the existent normative base first of all by the fact that their requirements are considerably higher. Actually, they define prospects of development of the branch, that is, they are reference points which we need to aspire to. As the market is developing and starts to correspond to the standards, they are revised, supplemented and new versions are released, and this happens every 2 – 4 years. Green standards are always higher than the market - it is the first thing. Secondly, they are always voluntary; the state does not require their execution as opposed to technical regulations which are compulsory.

What is a stimulus for their application?

Correspondence to the standards is a kind of a “quality mark” which gives developers and market advantages which let single out advantageously their object among others. Moreover, in many countries green standards while being voluntary are also recommended for application by state organs at building of objects at the expense of budgets of various levels. Being an owner of buildings and constructions the state has a right to demand their more high-quality characteristics both from the point of view of maintenance and people’s health, who are going to live and work there. Accordingly, the third argument is that the state can encourage application of green standards at the expense of measures of administrative, financial, economical, tax, tariff or other pattern. And as a result this has an influence on development of the whole building branch.

What is the difference between green standards and the system of certification?

Standards is a set of criteria which you can either follow or not, and the system of certification is compliance with these criteria in a varying degree. The system of certification arises from green standards when the assessment is introduced, for example, in the form of points for realization of their requirements. Depending on a quantity of collected points a building gets its rating in the given system. The more full and exact the requirements of the standard are met, the more points it gets and the higher the rating is. So, such empirical assessments as “like – don’t like” or “ecological – non-ecological” fall away and the exact assessment in points, which states conformity to the standard, remains. It lets compare buildings of various functional purpose on the basis of the individual approach. For example, a warehouse, which has got 80% of possible points, and a residential building, which has the same result that make them comparable from the point of view of their influence on environment.

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Interviewed by Alevtina Sorokina