Green building certification systems have been developed in many countries, due to the significant environmental impacts caused by the construction industry. In Brazil, there are a few projects already certificated, and many others are still in process, even by foreign systems. These certification systems comprise a set of criteria which take into account different environmental aspects, organized in a set of categories. The certification is issued according to the evaluation of the building performance, based on those criteria. This paper presents the results of a case study, in which the authors analyzed the existence of significant differences in the project management process of a building for which it was intended to get a green building certification, compared with a usual one, with no interest in certification. The authors aimed to identify usual and new management activities. The research strategy adopted was a case study during the production phase of a commercial building that was aiming gold level of LEED certification. The results show that the certification system required more involvement of designers, in ordinary activities. In production phase, besides a stronger involvement of the building company, the authors identified new management tasks, as well as the need of more detailed technical information from the suppliers of the construction materials and components.
Civil construction; Environmental impact; Green building certification