Challenges in creating a sustainable building certificate for single-family housing in Denmark through an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) lens

Abstract

Voluntary certification schemes are a necessary driver for sustainable transition in the building industry. In Denmark, the primary scheme is DGNB with its holistic understanding of sustainability, rewarding environmental, social, and economic sustainability equally. The DGNB scheme, however, does not currently have a manual contextualized for smaller building projects with corresponding economies, such as single-family housing. This research article explores what is needed to create and diffuse a certification scheme for small-scale building projects on the Danish market. It explores how standardized building companies present a unique opportunity for entry as they comprise a substantial market share. It also explores how enrolling a new user-base comes with new challenges, such as marketing sustainable building to ordinary people, balancing the reduction of complexity and need for documentation with retaining impact, and overcoming the knowledge gap on sustainable housing. The ambition of the research paper is to map the field of sustainability certification in the Danish building industry and help make visible some of the challenges to support the process of developing a new sustainable certification scheme for single-family housing or further development of this research field.