The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has released a report looking at how the three major green building rating systems match up to its own criteria for what a rating system should include.

"Quantifying Sustainability" explains the AIA's 16-point criteria for rating systems that it laid out in late 2005 when it adopted a sustainability position statement.

In the report, the AIA sees how its criteria stacks up what is included in LEED-New Construction 2.2, Green Globes for New Construction and SBTool 07.

The three are the most widely used rating systems in the U.S., and the AIA intends for the study to be simply an analysis of how the systems support the AIA's goals without ranking or grading them.

None of the three is fully in line with the AIA's criteria. They all address most of the same points as the AIA, but not as strictly as the AIA. In most cases the systems do not require the same actions the AIA would like to see, but instead encourage those actions, in areas such as sustainable sites, water efficiency and indoor environmental quality.

Green Globes, for instance, does not require specific goals for significant reductions in energy use, which the AIA criteria call for. Instead, Green Globes encourages such action and awards points for doing so.

SBTool07 is designed to take into account national, regional and bioclimatic differences, unlike the other two systems, which do not address all three.

While LEED-NC meshes with the AIA criteria of requiring a minimal level of indoor air quality, is does not require life cycle assessment data to be used as the basis for design and construction decisions.

View the full report to see how each system stacks up, point-by-point.