Assessing interdependency among sustainable criteria and indicators for developing a building assessment tool

Sustainable buildings can save 36% of total energy use, 65% of electricity consumption, 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 30% of raw materials use, 30% of waste output, and 12% of potable water consumption. Several sustainable building assessment tools were used by both developed and developing countries. However, Ethiopia’s buildings were not critically assessed and evaluated from a sustainability point of view because there was no such type of study conducted so far. This paper aims to explore the most significant and widely used tools as well as the basis for other sustainable building assessment tools, such as Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE), Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool), Comprehensive Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme (CEPAS), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB), and Green Mark and Green Star. The methodology employed is the selection of the 10 most commonly and widely utilized sustainable building assessment tools (SBATs) from the 57 SBATs based on desk review and document analysis. The results of the study identified that all 10 SBATs have their own assessment categories and criteria based on many factors, such as climatic conditions and availability of resources, plus methods employing demographic dynamics and legal aspects of the sector for assessing the sustainable/green buildings. It distinguishes the most commonly and repeatedly used assessment categories and criteria and uses a consensus-based approach with experts in the building sectors, a four-quadrant model, and a circular and helical flow model, to develop a new sustainable building assessment tool suitable for Ethiopia.

Enhancing staff's satisfaction with comfort toward productivity by sustainable Open Plan Office Design

The rapid growth of urbanization and economic development has led to a significant increase in household waste, highlighting the necessity for developing sustainable waste management processes. Traditional waste sorting methods are based on manual processes, leading to high labor costs and low efficiency. This makes waste management systems less environmentally and economically sustainable, especially in densely populated areas. Furthermore, these methods reduce the efficiency of recycling processes and waste valuable resources by making it difficult to correctly sort waste by type. The time-consuming nature of manual methods and the risk of human error necessitate technological solutions to improve these processes. In this context, artificial intelligence-based technologies play an important role in waste management processes. Artificial intelligence reduces costs and increases efficiency by minimizing human errors through fast and accurate sorting processes. This study employed a publicly accessible dataset containing 22,564 images classified as recyclable and organic waste to train Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models. The models’ performance was assessed using metrics such as validation accuracy and validation loss. The findings indicate that the Optimized Convolutional Neural Network (OCNN) model achieved superior generalization capacity with a validation accuracy of 90.41%, outperforming the traditional CNN model, which attained 88.26%. This study aims to increase environmental sustainability and improve economic efficiency in waste management by using innovative methods. The proposed approaches are developed to increase the efficiency of waste classification processes, thereby supporting the conservation of natural resources and promoting higher recycling rates.

The construction projects have a significant influence on achieving sustainable development in developing countries due to the increasing demand for sustainable construction practices. Hence, project sustainability should be addressed mostly in developing countries, like Sri Lanka, where a large number of construction projects are currently in progress and remain to emerge in the future. However, the country is facing not only environmental issues but also economic and social issues due to the unavailability of proper sustainable project feasibility criteria to be considered at the project inception stage. This paper intends to provoke thoughts on the necessity of embracing a new approach to conduct project feasibility studies by answering a few questions i.e. ‘What is the relationship between project feasibility studies and assuring sustainable construction?’, ‘What sustainability criteria have already been achieved by project feasibility study?’, and ‘How do government policies assure sustainable construction at project feasibility stage?’, which were answered in the study via an extensive literature review. Accordingly, 57 peer-reviewed journal articles on the confluence of feasibility and sustainability concepts of construction projects were analysed. The research findings highlight that economic performance has given the major consideration in the current practice of project feasibility study while less attention to social and environmental performance was being paid. Further, sustainability assessment tools have given priority to environmental criteria and their applicability at the project inception is still questionable. Hence, developing effective sustainable project feasibility evaluation will help to ensure sustainability performance from the project inception stage.
 Keywords: Environmental Sustainability, Economic Sustainability, Social Sustainability, Construction, Feasibility, Policies.

The rapid growth of urbanization and energy demand has intensified the need for efficient monitoring and theft detection in power distribution systems. The classical electromechanical and non-mechanical meters are inaccurate and prone to manipulation, which has caused utility providers to lose a lot of revenue. The given research provides an IoT-based smart energy meter monitoring and anti-theft device that incorporates embedded voltage/current sensors, tampering detection units, LoRaWAN-based communication, edge analytics, cloud integration, and hybrid detection algorithms. This suggested system uses Raspberry Pi as an edge processor, Azure IoT Hub as a cloud-processing unit, and distributed databases in order to scale data storage. The hybrid CNN-SVM approach is used to identify the abnormal consumption patterns and it is supplemented with the rule-based logic to detect the tampering events that includes reverse current flow and bypass connections. Experimental analysis illustrates that the suggested solution attains an average monitoring accuracy of 98.3% to energy consumption and a theft detection accuracy of 96.8% compared to the baseline models such as SVM, Random Forest and CNN-only models. Security analysis indicates that AES and ECC-based encryption have less than 3.5% overhead which guarantees confidentiality as well as efficiency. The findings confirm the effectiveness, scalability, and feasibility of the suggested system to be used in reality. In the future, this framework will be expanded by introducing federated learning to detect theft privately and verify the use of blockchains to validate energy transactions, which will enhance trust and transparency in smart grids. This is a major contribution that is aimed at developing sustainable, smart, and inaccessible energy distribution ecosystem.

The stability of the development of the coal industry is largely determined by factor proportions linking its resource potential with production and market opportunities. Therefore, when developing projects for strategic modernization transformations of the coal industry, it is important to identify how their implementation will affect the parameters of sustainable development of the industry. The purpose of the article is to study the prospects for using the relative break-even indicator to ensure sustainable development of the coal industry in Russia in the face of significant external challenges. The hypothesis of the study lies in the assumption that the use of the relative break-even indicator in the development of strategic directions for the development of the coal industry will ensure a dynamic balance of economic and technological aspects under the conditions of significant exogenous shocks. In this work, a parametric model was used that allows one to investigate internal relationships between the economic and technological components of coal mining. The values of the parameters of the parametric model were determined in accordance with the target indicators of the Program for the Development of the Coal Industry of Russia through to 2035. The peculiarity of the proposed methodology for assessing the parameters of the dynamic equilibrium is that it integrates the methods of system dynamics and sustainability, allowing for deep understanding of the relationship between the economic and technological activities of coal mining production. As a result of the study, the conditions for maintaining the relative break-even point of coal-mining industries were determined, taking into account the current trends of changing factor components and the tasks set for the modernization of the coal industry: achieving an increase in coal prices of at least 3%; reduction of the cost of coal mining by at least 14%; an increase in coal production and sales by at least 45%. The conditions for maintaining the parameters of the dynamic equilibrium of the coal industry under various scenarios of changes in world prices for coal have been determined. The conclusion is made about the possibility of using a parametric model of the relative breakeven of production for modeling the parameters of sustainable development of the coal industry. The practical results of this study can be used in the formation of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the strategic development of the coal industry and in the development of appropriate planning and management decisions.

Chapter 15 - Barriers identification and prioritization for sustainability enhancement: Promoting the sustainable development of the desalination industry

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in a nation's development, making it essential for their growth to align with sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. Considering their fundamental role in teaching students at several levels, HEIs should exemplify sustainability. This study seeks to integrate educational indicators into a sustainable assessment tool (SAT) to evaluate green HEIs in Malaysia, addressing the urgent demand for sustainable development and the existing deficiency of green HEIs in the country. Although Malaysia has developed various SATs, none are suitable for evaluating green HEIs due to the lack of education-related indicators. To accomplish the research aim, this study has two objectives: to analyze potential education indicators and to propose suitable education indicators. As far as the authors are aware, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in Malaysia has not introduced any specific guidelines for incorporating sustainable education criteria into HEIs. The study employs a qualitative and quantitative data collection method via a questionnaire survey in 9 selected public HEIs in Malaysia, targeting academicians from specific faculties to validate these education indicators. The questionnaire survey results were analyzed using descriptive analysis with the aid of SPSS software, and the results have identified 30 important education indicators that should be considered in measuring sustainable HEIs. The top five indicators were identified as: (1) funding for program development, (2) funding for research and innovation, (3) funding for training, (4) sustainable courses, and (5) sustainable research. The findings will initially support the MOHE, policymakers, and green associations in creating a dedicated evaluation tool for assessing the green campus and guide other Malaysian HEIs in their journey toward becoming green campuses.

The core infrastructure of a smart city Components means - Ensuring adequate water supply Including generated electricity, Solid waste management is sanitary, efficient urban Mobility and public transport, and affordable housing, especially for the poor, is a strong source of information Technological connectivity, digitalization, good management, Smart Cities Mission is an Indian Urban development of Govt Ministry-led rehabilitation and An urban renewal project. Smart cities are information for city management and Information Communication Technologies (ICT) Incorporating metros, them from traditional to digital, improving the efficiency of operations and with the aim of providing services. A smart city is an information and information Communication Ability to operate using technologies (ICT). Increase and share information with the public, Quality of government services, and welfare of citizens it is the municipality that promotes both. Smart Town Bhopal has been ranked first in the latest assessment Central housing by 2022 and by the Ministry of Concrete Affairs. It is the central Capital of the territory and population of 2.5 million contains the amount Key to Smart City The objective is to improve city functions, Improve economic growth, and smart Citizens through technologies and data improving the quality of life. Analytics. Alternative: Treatment, controls, differentiation and T-State. Evaluation Option: Total patent applications to the EPO, to the EPO High technology patent applications, to the EPO Smart for ICT patent applications, and City Patent Applications. EPO City Patent Applications. from the result it is seen that Total patent to EPO Applications and received first rank whereas is the Total patent to EPO Applications and received got is having the lowest rank. The value of the dataset for Range of smart city in WASPAS Method shows that it results in Total Patent applications EPO and top ranking.

Chapter 4 - Indicators for sustainability assessment of biofuels: Economic, environmental, social, and technological dimensions

Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools are voluntary rating systems for certifying sustainable neighbourhoods in case of new constructions or urban renewals. They consist of categories and indicators to value specific performances. Their purpose is to objectify planned interventions assigning a final score which identifies the overall performance of the district in terms of sustainability. However, is it possible to affirm that these systems actually contribute to the improvement of inclusiveness and healthy living in the neighbourhoods? This question arises as a reflection on the two main issues that contemporary cities have to face urgently which are urbanization and ageing population, focusing attention on developed countries. In this regard, “new” urban spaces are called to achieve inclusion and healthy living for all the people and the neighbourhood represents the right scale for reasoning about. The present study investigates some of the most commonly used neighbourhood scale tools (BREEAM Communities, GBC Italia, DGNB Districts, Living Community Challenge, EcoDistricts) looking at how these systems can help to create more inclusive districts. In particular, the analysis aims to understand how much the social pillar of sustainability affects on urban wellbeing. In fact, there is the evidence that in most NSA tools environmental dimension shall prevails on the others. Through a review of each protocol’s “social” categories and of the recent literature on these topics, the study wants to underline criticalities and potentialities of NSA systems and tries to understand in which way a new protocol should act in order to help municipalities, planners and stakeholders in designing inclusive and accessible environments for all.

The rice industry is vital to Malaysia's food security and sustainability. However, rice farmers in Malaysia still face environmental degradation and socioeconomic challenges. Various sustainability criteria have been developed locally and internationally to address the challenges; however, context-specific criteria for rice farmers in Malaysia remain limited. Thus, the study proposes to finalise 27 sustainability criteria for rice farmer practices based on five agricultural sustainability standards or frameworks: the SAFA, MSPO, RSPO, MyGAP, and SRP. A qualitative approach was employed, utilising both online and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 17 experts in sustainability and rice cultivation practices. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The study findings show ten environmental criteria are zero burning practices, water resources, pre-planting, harvesting and post-harvesting, efficiency of energy use, waste management and disposal, planting material, pest input control, fertilizer input and species diversity, five economic criteria are traceability, stability of production, stability of supply, liquidity, value creation and five social criteria are quality of life, capacity development, right to use land, employment condition and workplace safety was finalised. This finding provided context-specific and foundation sustainability criteria for enhancing environmental conservation practices, economic resilience, and social well-being of rice farmers in Malaysia.

With rapid urbanization and population growth in urban areas, urban development is\n\nnecessary and urgent. However, with tight land supply from expropriating new\n\nfarmland, redeveloping urban villages at central urban area would be full of potential.\n\nBasically, an urban village is the byproduct of rapid urbanization, with\n\ncollective-owned non-agricultural use land surrounded by a state-owned urban area.\n\nBecause of the particular land ownership structure in urban villages, conventional\n\nurban redevelopment methods are not suitable for the redevelopment of urban\n\nvillages, public-private partnerships had been introduced into urban redevelopment\n\nto integrate the power and resources of private sector into the process of urban\n\nredevelopment with a legal contract, to form a collaboration between public and\n\nprivate sections, and to share the profits and benefits. A study on such partnerships in\n\nthe redevelopment of urban villages could be instructive and enlightening for the\n\nfuture redevelopment of rural non-agricultural land in China.\n\nThe major aim of the research is to discover the conditions under which partnerships\n\nfor the redevelopment of urban villages could be established in China. The\n\nredevelopment of three urban villages in Shenzhen, namely the villages of Yunong,\n\nGangxia and Huanggang, were thoroughly studied. A research framework has been\n\nestablished by examining the power relations of such partnerships and has been\n\ntailored to the scenario of redevelopment of urban village in China. The partnership\n\nsynergy between local government, urban village communities and private\n\ndevelopers, and role conflicts of each participants have been analyzed by considering\n\nthe impact factors inherent in the institutional context of municipal government and\n\nthe cultural context of urban villages in Shenzhen. These factors affect the\n\ncomposition, the process and the outcome of partnership in redevelopment of urban\n\nvillages.\n\nThe study found that because institutional support and land resource are exclusively\n\nand irreplaceably provided by the local government and the urban village, local\n\ngovernment with systematic power is the primary partner who influences the\n\npartnership in redevelopment of urban villages the most. The local government\n\narranges and executes the redevelopment timetable, decides the objective of\n\nredevelopment and devises rules of redistributing redevelopment profits. Under some\n\nconditions like better location, larger size and well-organization and efficient\n\nleadership, the secondary dominator namely village community becomes more\n\nimportant on the power balance of partnership. Private developer has no unique\n\nadvantage in the partnership and could only be the follower of other two partners.\n\nCase studies from different cities with diversified institutional and cultural context are\n\nexpected to be included into the future research areas.

Developing the methodology for determining the relative weight of dimensions employed in sustainable building assessment tools for Brazil

Sustainable building assessment tool development approach