BOMA BESt is the next evolution of BOMA Canada's Go Green program. BESt stands for Building Environmental Standards, and is representative of the direction of the commercial real estate industry in Canada and BOMA Canada's role in providing the mechanisms for common practices across the industry.

With four possible levels of certification, users can progress through the program and continually use the framework of the Go Green Best Practices and the Go Green Plus assessment to improve environmental performance and management. The BOMA BESt certification builds on Go Green and Go Green Plus by harmonizing these separate certifications into one program.

BOMA BESt Level 1 indicates that a building has met all of the BOMA Go Green Best Practices. These buildings have opted not to enter data into the Go Green Plus assessment, or have scores below 70%.

BOMA BESt Level 2 certified buildings meet not only all of the BOMA Go Green Best Practices, but also have a score of 70-79% on the Go Green Plus assessment.

BOMA BESt Level 3 certification is for buildings that meet all of the BOMA Go Green Best Practices and achieve 80-89% on the Go Green Plus assessment.

BOMA BESt Level 4 certification is for buildings that achieve over 90% on the Go Green Plus assessment and meet all of the BOMA Go Green Best Practices.

With the addition of an online application process, the way that applications are received and processed will change.

BOMA Locals will no longer receive paper or hard copy applications for buildings that want to enter the program. Users will set up their own user id and request a building online. The BOMA Local will be notified with an automatically generated email from info@greenglobes.com. This notification will trigger the local to proceed with obtaining payment from the applicant and approving the building request.

Users will complete an online assessment whether they are pursuing BOMA BESt Level 1 certification (Go Green Best Practices) or a higher level (Best Practices and 70% or higher on Go Green Plus assessment). An abbreviated survey is available for users who want to pursue BOMA BESt Level 1, and do not want to go through the larger Go Green Plus assessment.

When a user completes the survey and locks the building data for certification, the BOMA local will receive an automatically generated email from info@greenglobes.com. The local is then responsible for arranging a verifier appointment.

After verification, certified buildings will have access to common templates for marketing collateral through PosterOne (www.posterone.com). These will be available to certified buildings, though participants are free to use other suppliers. Any material should follow the BOMA BESt graphic standards and guidelines, and should be reviewed by the local first.

BOMA BESt Application Fees

For more information about BOMA BESt, please go their website at www.bomabest.com or contact our local BOMA office.