BOMA BEST is set to become a cross-border benchmark for sustainable building performance through a pending agreement to launch the 18-year-old Canadian certification program in the United States. Representatives from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada and U.S.-based BOMA International announced their intent late last week, with the expectation of a formal pact in time for BOMA International’s 2023 Conference & Expo in Kansas City, Missouri, in late June.
The BOMA BEST metric for existing buildings assesses performance in 10 categories related to sustainable management and operations, and translates resulting scores into four levels of levels of certification — certified, silver, gold and platinum — that have become intuitively recognized in the Canadian commercial real estate industry. Certification imparts assurance of third-party verification, while the program, which is soon to introduce version 4.0 of prerequisites and credits, is committed to pushing the sustainable performance bar higher.
“BOMA BEST provides a manager/owner with continuous access to a tool to monitor and measure performance, demonstrate improvement, benchmark and aggregate reporting across all property types,” observes Don Fairgrieve-Park, executive vice president of operational excellence for QuadReal Property Group in Canada and a member of BOMA International’s executive committee.
In the U.S. market, BOMA BEST is projected to be a good fit for BOMA International’s 360 Performance program, which awards the designation to buildings that comply with identified best practices across six broader operational categories. Uptake of the new certification will also create an added revenue stream for BOMA chapters in the U.S.
“It’s going to be a big change for all of us and will have a huge impact on sustainability, frankly, around the world,” maintains Randal Froebelius, the chair of BOMA International.
