How to Assess Sustainable Planning Processes of Buildings? A Maturity Assessment Model Approach for Designers

Marco Scherz,Bernd Markus Zunk,Helmuth Kreiner,Christian Steinmann

doi:10.3390/su14052879

Abstract

Over the past decades, it has become apparent that increasing demands in the construction industry have repeatedly led to project delays and increased project costs in practice. These demands have increased as a result of international and national action plans that have been developed to achieve the climate target paths and, therefore, the necessary reduction of CO2 emissions in the construction industry. We address this problem by developing a sustainable construction maturity model (SCOMM) to answer the following research question: “What is a holistic quality assurance tool for the early design phase of buildings to monitor (sustainable) planning practices in order to achieve better certification results?”. The model includes a self-assessment procedure for the building design process, based on Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (SPiCE) and the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) building certification system. The results show that systemic interactions between sustainability criteria can be identified in the early design phase, allowing the quality of planning practices to be evaluated and early project management to be implemented to achieve the best certification results. Our findings will enable clients and users of the construction industry to better manage the complexity of the sustainable design process and avoid undesirable developments in building projects.

Highlights

Due to increasing climate change, both clients and users of the construction industry have recognized the growing importance of sustainable construction [1]
By developing the sustainable construction maturity model (SCOMM), we have developed a model that enables an assessment to be performed at the building level
Our specific focus was to adapt the fundamental principles of Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (SPiCE) for use in sustainable construction based on the DGNB building certification system

Summary

Introduction

Due to increasing climate change, both clients and users of the construction industry have recognized the growing importance of sustainable construction [1]. This form of construction demands the consideration of the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social) throughout the life cycle stages of a building. Since the last decade of the 20th century, the use of assessment frameworks to evaluate sustainability in buildings has been firmly established [2–4], resulting in the development of more than 600 available assessment methods [5]. Building certification is basically carried out to improve the building–user–environment system, requiring various sustainability aspects to be considered.

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Conclusion