was officially formed to bring all the GBCs under one roof. GBCs from Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and USA were the founding members. As of 2018–19, there are 69 Green Building Councils under the World Green Building Council organization. Goals and benefits of building certification The goal of all certification rating systems is to provide tools and methods to assess the environmental and resource-efficient performance of a building. The main objectives of such tools are: optimize building performance and minimize environmental impacts provide a way to quantify a building's environmental effects set standards and benchmarks to assess buildings objectively Furthermore, the result of such an assessment is to provide a certificate verifying the achievement of the desired performance and quality of the building. Some benefits of certifying a building or a property include: the negative impacts of a building on the environment can be better understood and this knowledge can be utilized to reduce such impacts. holistic sustainability considerations will be made for the fulfillment of technical, economic, social and functional requirements of the building. promotes sustainable design and construction principles throughout the building lifecycle. increases the monetary value of a building or a property in the real estate market. Building certification systems used around the world Germany The German Sustainable Building Council (Deutsche Gesellschaft für nachhaltiges Bauen e.V., DGNB in German) introduced its own green building certification in 2009 together with the German Federal Ministry of Traffic, Construction and Urban Development (Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung in German). The DGNB certification is voluntary and is based on German codes and standards (DIN and VDI). It is generally regarded as more comprehensive than BREEAM and LEED. The DGNB System is based on the three main paradigms of: Life-cycle assessment Holistic sustainability (environment, economy and society) Performance-based approach. It also takes into consideration the economic aspects and as such, also assesses the associated Life Cycle Costs and Value Creation of the building. It has six assessment categories and further assigns different weights to each category indicator. The assessment is done by an auditor who is appointed by the project contractor. The auditor supports the contractor and supervises the construction process from the initial registration up to the certification and the project conclusion. Sweden The Sweden Green Building Council introduced its own certification system in 2011 with Miljöbyggnad which is based on Swedish standards and legislations. It is