CASA Guatemala is a voluntary certification system for sustainable housing developed by the Guatemala Green Building Council. Certification is achieved through a point-based system by meeting specific criteria in each category of the CASA Guatemala application guide. CASA Guatemala encourages projects to take measures related to ecology and proper site management, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, responsible material selection, and indoor environmental quality.

Guatemala Green Building Council has created a pilot tool to measure risk from seven threats within the CASA Guatemala rating system: floods, landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, water availability, increased precipitation, and heat waves.

Risk assessment and adaptation measures are essential for ensuring the safety, sustainability, and long-term functionality of buildings. Therefore, certifying a project requires evaluating these risks and implementing appropriate adaptation measures. Certification ensures that the building is constructed with these risks in mind, providing higher safety standards for its occupants in addition to the implemented efficiency criteria.

Certification system

CASA Guatemala is a certification system for sustainable housing. Currently, it is a points-based certification system. Projects are voluntarily registered, and by demonstrating compliance with various sustainability measures and achieving certain performance levels, they are able to earn points within the evaluation system.

The Application Guide and the current evaluation sheet (checklist) is available for download: https://casagt.org/que-es-casa/

Guidelines and indicators

Within the Application Guide, you will find the compliance requirements that the project must demonstrate across various categories (responsible site management, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials, and indoor space quality). Each category includes the available measures called “Logros” (Achievements). Each Achievement presents the compliance requirements associated with the impact on each of the categories; some are quantitative, while others are qualitative evaluations. Each Achievement has a weighting valorization related to its importance in the local context and the technical implications for the project. These requirements and valorizations are indicated in the Application Guide.

Evaluation criteria

The certification system uses various international performance standards, depending on their application. For example:

• For energy efficiency, it uses the ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1,
• For indoor air quality and environment, it uses the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1,
• For comfort requirements, it uses the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55,
• For water consumption requirements, both indoor and outdoor, it uses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) baseline,
• Where applicable, it uses local regulations or reference requirements.

Projects must provide the required documentation (as requested in the Application Guide) to ensure compliance with the “Achievements” that the project is applying for. The technical team at the Guatemala Green Building Council verifies that the project has satisfactorily met the requirements established in the certification system.

Risk measurement tool

Currently, at the Guatemala Green Building Council, we are working on a risk and resilience identification tool to be incorporated into the next version of CASA Guatemala. The tool is currently in the final stages of development, so it is not yet an official part of the certification system. This semester, we will be making the necessary updates to enable the tool’s usage phase starting next year. To date, we have conducted an internal pilot process with projects undergoing certification with the previous version of CASA Guatemala so we can finish tuning up the tool.

This tool will be incorporated into the project evaluation methodology alongside the evaluation sheet. Using various risk maps, the project will identify any risks or vulnerabilities to different threats.

Additionally, the CASA Guatemala Application Guide will incorporate adaptation strategies to address climate risks. Beyond the points earned, projects undergoing certification must demonstrate that any identified vulnerabilities are being addressed, and risks will be minimized.

Risk measurement

This platform will be a dynamic tool installed on a website, using geographic information systems (GIS) for the generation of risk maps.

The risks that have been incorporated are:

• Floods
• Landslide
• Earthquakes
• Volcanos
• Water availability
• Heat waves

The tool will also include a catalog of adaptation measures, allowing the project to identify adaptation strategies and assess its level of adaptation to the identified risks.