Green Building Concept of Residential Housing in Lebanon

Recent years has seen a gradual increase of interest in green buildings due to their many advantages and positive effect on the environment, economy and our lifestyle. Hence, for achieving more benefits from green buildings, there is more research into this subject in order to further improve this concept. In addition to incentives provided for building green in developed countries like United States and United Kingdom, with the support of non-government organizations assessments based on green certification programs, such as, BREEAM and LEED has been established. On the other hand, countries like Lebanon are still unable to implement green buildings in an efficient manner. The purpose of this study is to discuss the importance of green building concepts for residential buildings and investigate the situation in Lebanon. For this reason, a survey was conducted targeting the Lebanese general public and professionals for better understanding of their knowledge and awareness regarding green buildings. The residential building Factory 4376 is located near the Lebanese capital city of Beirut. It is the case study that was evaluated by using the BREEAM certification categories and as a result it was promoted to BREEAM "GOOD" classification, ranging from 45% to 55%. The survey results are presented through which the problems affecting the development of green buildings in Lebanon are identified. Thus, it is expected that this study will contribute towards understanding matters relating to sustainable development in general and green residential buildings in particular. Keywords: green building in Lebanon, BREEAM, LEED, green products, Lebanese market.