Sustainable building assessment tool development approach

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.

Sustainable development is quite popular scientific concept in a recent time, which formed the basis of the Ukrainian regional development strategic planning and regulation of urban development activities. However, the meth-odological basis for assessing the sustainability of the territorial development is still not developed and formalized enough. Methods for assessing the sustainability of territorial systems development in the economic, environmental and social spheres are still uncertain.Therefore, selected purpose of the study is an analysis of the existing methods of environmental assessment of the territorial development set forth in the legislative and regulatory documents, with further determination of the their suitability for conducting an assessment of the territorial development based on the sustainable development concept, which will form the scientific novelty of this study. To achieve this goal, the legislative and regulatory framework analysis was carried out in the field of territorial development, the main regulatory documents were identified. Subsequently, the definition of ecological assessment and its purpose for each of these basic documents was analyzed, environmental assessment methods and their application suitability for the environmental assessment of the territorial development based of the sustainable development concept were considered. It is concluded, that the environmental assessment methods proposed in these documents have numerous signifi-cant shortcomings when used for ecological assessment of the territorial development sustainability. There is no any formalized methodology for determining the sustainability of the relevant systems development in considered legisla-tive and regulatory documents. There is also an intersection of proposed environmental assessment methods with social and economic assessments. The optimality justifies of the adopted project decisions set issuing exclusively from the environmental and sanitary legislation requirements is incorrect in terms of sustainable development. The conclusion based on the obtained results was made about the need to improve the environmental assessment methods in their abil-ity of sustainable development concept implementation. The assessment of the current territorial state in the economic, social and environmental spheres must be carried out separately from each other while regional development strategies forms on the basis of sustainable development. It will pro-vide further assess of each sphere development balance and form a strategy direction for additional needed measures.Carrying environmental assessment, the strategy analysis for compliance with legislative and regulatory con-straints is insufficient in terms of the sustainable development concept. The assessment of environmental impacts should be carried out both for negative aspects and for positive, where the last are not normalized. Conclusions based on the negative environmental impacts absence are insufficient to consider strategies for developing such territories, as national parks or nature reserves. Therefore, the existing indicators system of environmental pollution levels by human activity as a basis for ecological assessment needs to be finalized, since it does not allow measuring the positive effects of some nature-recovery projects on the environment. Finally, it is necessary to formalize in legislative and regulatory documents the methods for the integrated sustainabil-ity assessment as a basis for consideration of alternative concepts for the territorial development. Formation and implementa-tion of appropriate methods can be selected as a direction for further research by the author on the chosen topic.

In this research, the Building Research Establishment and Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) tool, which is the longest serving tool of its kind in the world, is evaluated using a robust Landscape Framework. The BREEAM tool evolved in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1990 to address critical environmental issues such as climate change, the fossil fuel crisis and rapid urbanisation. The English planning system encourages new buildings and major refurbishment to adopt this tool to promote Sustainable Building Development (SBD). Recently, landscape practitioners in the UK have raised concern that the tool focuses around energy, transport, materials, and ecological aspects (such as native species), while other fundamental landscape values are not considered. Landscape is fundamental in terms of building and infrastructure, as it is a combination of different components such as land use, nature and wildlife and is a key aspect of culture. The SBD context is often characterised as comprising three pillars - environment, society and economy. However, to fully integrate landscape, this research incorporates a fourth pillar, that of culture. A Landscape Framework is developed as part of this research using these four pillars and captures fundamental values of landscape in relation to SBD from both the academics’ and practitioners’ perspective. The evaluation exercise identified that the BREEAM tool has a significant gap, which is in addressing the landscape. The evaluation of other building and infrastructure assessment tools emphasise that a sustainable approach is required from the outset of a building development until the end of its life. Consequently, a Sustainable Landscape Development Framework has been proposed as part of this research to be integrated with the existing BREEAM tool, by setting out five stages to capture the full life cycle of building development. This approach redefines SBD and reconnects people with the surrounding environment.

Towards defining a quantitative methodology to enhance the sustainability performance of major international events.

Our built environment is responsible for some of the most serious global and local environmental change. The construction industry, therefore, faces pressure to increase the sustainability of its practices reflected in the development of stringent regulations and environmental assessment methods, designed to mitigate such negative impacts. However, these well-known methods (e.g., BREEAM, LEED, SBTool, and CASBEE) have not originally been designed to suit developing countries (including Saudi Arabia). This paper proposes to customize an adapted weighting system that prioritizes Saudi environmental assessment method (SEAM) categories. The research methodology involves the use of analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Expert choice software was the main tool to analyze the input data. This research instrument involves the participation of a number of leading, global experts in the field of environmental and sustainable development, as well as professionals and highly informed local experts from government, academia, and industry. The results reveal that well-known environmental assessment methods are not fully applicable to the Saudi Arabia built environment, as reflected in the resulting categories, criteria and weighting system of SEAM.

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

Social sustainability and sustainable urban developments are major challenges across the world both developed and developing countries. In general there is a conflict between the approach of sustainable development and social sustainability in the urban context. The concept of sustainability brings a key framework for extensive literature on urban design, architecture and planning. Nevertheless there is a considerable overlap between the social dimensions of sustainability and the theories or notions, for instance the ‘sustainable societies’ that are highlighted in the midst of other aspects: social equity and justice. Such society is widely expected to offer a situation for long-term social relations and activities which are sustainable, inclusive and equitable in a wider perception of the term (environmentally, socially and economically). The method adopted to address this aim involves a content analysis of available academic literature, with focus on the planning sustainable development, built environment, social sustainability, and urban planning fields. The findings demonstrate that in spite of some opposing evidence, many studies have confirmed that there has been displacement of the debate on the term of ‘sustainability’ from ‘ecological and environmental aspects into social and economic aspects’. It is related to how the community feel safe and comfortable living in their own communities, how have they felt of proud of the place where they live. The aim of the paper is to improve our understanding of current theories and practices of planning sustainable development and discuss whether the approach of sustainable development aligns with social sustainability objectives.

Certification systems are generally used for the purpose of sustainability assessment in buildings or neighbourhoods, and indexes mainly focus on construction issues related to the civil engineering activities but not usually in urban management programs. As an attempt to tackle this issue, the “German Sustainable Building Council” has created and developed a certification system according to the three aspects of economical, ecological and social culture in planning, construction, and operation of buildings in Germany. This paper focuses on the brief history and introduction of these three kinds of certification systems named as DGNB, LEED and BREEAM. The certification process, certification types, their criteria and rating system are all reviewed in five sections of this paper. Finally the results of analysis and comparison of these systems along with the advantages and disadvantages of them which will be helpful for assessment of two main subjects of “sustainable urban development strategies” and “tools for sustainability assessment in urban communities” are discussed. As a conclusion it is shown that certification systems are quantitative standards to measure the concept of sustainable development in any region. By defining a set of criteria and a rating system to score them, these systems assess projects during a specific process. The result of this assessment can be useful for different groups, e.g. national and local governments, users, planners, builders, owners, investors, etc. It can be concluded that identifying comprehensive objectives, adopting proper strategies to realize those objectives, applying certification systems to control the performed activities, and correcting the objectives and strategies will definitely guarantee sustainable development achievements.

Currently, sustainable development has become one of the most fundamental priorities for decision-makers and policy formulators to build a healthier environment, an advanced social setting, and a more robust economy. As one of the sectors with the most significant and complex production system pressures worldwide to achieve sustainable development goals, the construction industry has an essential contribution in the context of economic growth and improves living conditions without damaging future generations' opportunities or depleting natural resources. Because of the complexity and wide range of activities in the supply chain in this industry, it is necessary to employ proper methods and approaches to optimize performance, decrease costs, and use resources more efficiently. Thus, adopting new technologies and understanding their attributes offer promising solutions. This research proposes a model for incorporating Integrated Project Delivery and Internet of Things technologies in supply chain management for construction projects in Iran, focusing on sustainable development. The study comprises three phases: (I) Criteria Collection and Validation: Identifying effective parameters from integrating IPD and IoT on supply chain performance with a sustainable development approach; (II) Importance Weight Calculation: Using the fuzzy SWARA method to determine the significance of each criterion and sub-criterion; (III) Objective Prioritization and Solution Proposals: Employing the fuzzy ARAS method to prioritize objectives and propose solutions. The findings indicate that project savings (cost and time) and operational efficiency are top priorities from the perspectives of project management, technical factors, economic factors, and industry growth. Operational efficiency and project savings, with desirability scores of 78.77% and 78.36%, rank first and second, respectively. Supply chain visibility, remote operations, and augmented reality, with desirability scores of 70.77%, 70.66%, and 69.71%, follow in priority for integrating Internet of Things and Integrated Project Delivery in supply chain management performance within the construction industry, focusing on sustainable development.

Sustainable value assessment of farms using frontier efficiency benchmarks

The unplanned and rapid growth of urbanisation and energy demand leads to environmental degradation, social inequalities, and economic instability. These global problems have forced society to rethink infrastructure development to evolve the concept of sustainable development in the construction industry. Technological advances have always been the cornerstone in mitigating the unavoidable side effects of development. To rejuvenate ideas of Reuse, Recycle, Reduce, Renew, and Regenerate (5 R’s) into implementable solutions, the technological dimension is necessary to form a Quadruple Bottom line (QBL) approach i.e., Social, Environmental, Economic and Technological (SEET) for achieving sustainable construction. To tackle and monitor the enormous changes in urban transformation in developing countries, it is important to assess the sustainability of building performance. The objective of the study is to establish the interdependency between criteria and indicators for assessing building sustainability. The findings reveal that the criteria Materials & Waste Management (MW) and Energy Efficiency (EE) secured the highest weight among the eight criteria in the Technological aspect. The study facilitates to understand the interrelationship between the criteria and indicators and will be useful for the development of a new sustainable building assessment tool.

The Choice of the Sustainability Assessment Tool Matters: Differences in Thematic Scope and Assessment Results

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

Although it is increasingly recognised that higher education institutions have to play a critical role in the progression towards a sustainable development, the question of what fields and issues universities should attend to in their attempt to become more sustainable remains subject to debate. In recent years, sustainability assessment tools have begun to play a prominent role in strategies to reorient higher education institutions systematically and holistically towards sustainability. In the course of their further advancement, sustainability assessment tools have not only become instrumental facilitators of change processes towards sustainability, but also established implicit normative standards by framing the overall understanding of what fields and issues a sustainable university should engage with. So far, researchers in the field have paid little attention to the understandings of a sustainable university that are underpinning and informing sustainability assessment tools. This paper addresses this gap. Based on a comparative analysis of indicators and criteria, as well as introductory passages in supporting documents of twelve sustainability assessment tools, the authors sketch the dominance and marginalisation of different fields and issues. In doing so, the paper contributes to building the capacity for a more sophisticated and reflexive engagement with different approaches to assess and evaluate sustainability in higher education institutions.

ABSTRACTThe Danube River is both the international waterway E-80 and the Rhine-Danube Core Network Corridor of nine European corridors in the trans-European transport network, and it is the core area of the most significant Danubian development axis in the Republic of Serbia. The present research focus of this paper is the integrated impact of spatial planning on achieving the sustainable territorial development of the Rhine-Danube Corridor through Serbia and its potential transboundary impact. Integrated assessment (environmental and social), based on the combined application of the standard strategic environmental assessment (SEA) method and the newly presented adapted strategic environmental assessment (ASEA) method, has made it possible to predict the effects of future activities on the sustainable territorial development of the waterway corridor, not only in Serbia, but also in other Danubian countries. The applied combination of the SEA and ASEA methods is presented in the form of key planning solutions in three selected sectors: international inland waterway, water management infrastructure and tourism. The results indicate that the negative impacts of potential conflicts between the planning solutions are far greater than the negative impacts of individual planning solutions, and that it is more difficult to control and mitigate or neutralize them.