Lessons from Ostrom & Hess theory of Commons: Participatory Guarantee Systems, a new form of governance for assessing the sustainable built environment

Abstract

Third-party certification is the mainstream method for assessing the built environment. Independent accredited external experts evaluate the built environment according to standards generally decided upon at a broad level (national, international).Yet, assessment tools and certification methods should be contextualized to be consistent with local practices and have a broad impact among stakeholders in the local society. This is the case of Participative Guarantee Systems (PGS), which can be considered as knowledge Commons, in the sense of Hess and Ostrom (2007), proposing a new governance approach for designing, implementing and assessing the sustainable built environment.A participative study at European level, under the direction of the CESBA (Common European Sustainable Built Environment) association, explored how the PGS principles could be applied to approaches assessing the sustainability of the built environment. A benchmark has been made of the PGS which is in use worldwide for certifying organic farming, as an alternative to third-party certification, creating a new form of local governance by the Commons.The principles identified through the benchmark were then compared with the actual practices of envirobatBDM, association set in southern France, for certifying sustainable buildings and neighbourhoods. EnvirobatBDM approach is in many ways similar to PGS. The system gives much place to the active participation of the association’s members throughout the evaluation process: co-development of the framework and criteria, support for projects, open evaluation by peers in public events. This assessment process helps to offer a three-loop learning process to generally enhance the quality of decision making, planning, implementation and usage.This comparison raises the question of whether, as for organic farming, this participatory evaluation could challenge third-party certification offering a path for new forms of locally responsible governance. PGS helps to involve users, raises their capacity to act (empowerment) while being totally focused on local needs. PGS initiates a learning process, diffuses and upgrades knowledge of stakeholders. Interviews with stakeholders in Europe show a rising interest. Could it be a desirable future for sustainability assessment of the built environment?Topics: New governance approaches for a sustainable built environment