Abstract

This paper is the first in-depth review of the state of the art of environmental impact indicators for adaptive reuse of cultural heritage (ARCH) buildings from a circular economy perspective. Buildings are a necessary component of sustainability planning because they are significant consumers of natural resources, producers of construction and demolition waste, and contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, buildings, particularly ARCH buildings, are long lasting; therefore, measuring and managing their environmental impacts is crucial to achieving the universal vision of a sustainable, low-carbon economy. The research answers the questions, ‘What are the environmental impact indicators used by individual ARCH building project analyses?’ and ‘Are the most commonly used indicators reflecting Circular Economy concepts?’ It synthesizes and defines current practice in the field whilst highlighting the gaps between practice and policy. Although the term ‘Circular Economy’ is not explicitly and routinely used in the literature, related concepts such as life cycle analysis, energy consumption reduction, energy efficiency, and embodied carbon/energy are evident at the project level. Concrete and measured environmental indicators are not mainstream. However, narratives of environmental protection feature prominently in the literature, indicating an environmental motivation for repurposing cultural heritage buildings. Further, there is a gap between common indicators of circularity and the ARCH building project level indicators shown in the dataset.

Highlights

  • There is a gap between common indicators of circularity and the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage (ARCH) building project level indicators shown in the dataset

  • This paper reviews the state of the art of environmental impact indicators for adaptive reuse of cultural heritage (ARCH) buildings from a circular economy (CE) perspective

  • The aforementioned studies report on one environmental aspect, embodied carbon and energy performance of Double-Skin Facades (DSFs), our research reports on all of the environmental indicators mentioned in the literature

Read more

Summary

Introduction

This paper reviews the state of the art of environmental impact indicators for adaptive reuse of cultural heritage (ARCH) buildings from a circular economy (CE) perspective. ARCH buildings anchored in rural landscapes such as windmills in Estonia or paper factories in Sweden are living connections to an impactful shared past. Listed ARCH properties are a tiny percentage of the culturally significant buildings that are not recognized by an international organization but are formally and informally recognized by their communities as forming the fabric of daily life across the world. About 17% of buildings in the United States were built before the end of World War II (Elefante 2007). While all old buildings are not listed, many are preserved because they are crucial to local cultural heritage and identity.

Objectives
Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call