Abstract
Buildings and the built environment in cities are seen as both a source of, and solution to, today’s economic, environmental and social challenges. The audit process to collect data and rate their sustainability levels is a demanding process given the complexity of the issues involved. Stakeholders often lack advanced knowledge on the sustainability issues involved, access to practical tools that match the local priorities and the overall resources to diagnose and evaluate the current state, analyse, assess and rank different scenarios, and monitor implementation and progress towards meeting sustainable development goals and local priorities. A new multicriteria European built environment assessment method that is supported by practical tools was developed in a transnational collaborative effort to support the assessment, planning, monitoring and overall decision-making process for rating the sustainability at the building or neighbourhood scale. The assessment system addresses the main sustainability issues (e.g., site and infrastructure, urban systems, energy and natural resources, emissions and environment, service quality, social aspects, economy), which are described and quantified with an “exhaustive” list of ~180 sustainability criteria and indicators, and a manageable number of common mandatory key performance indicators. The assessment system can satisfy the public administrations’ needs for being easy to use, open access, flexible and adaptable tools in order to facilitate their efforts for developing effective sustainability plans.
Highlights
The European buildings sector represents 41.7% of the total annual final energy in the EuropeanUnion Member States (EU-28) or 442 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 2017 (Figure 1), and is responsible for ~30% of the total carbon dioxide emissions [1]
The following sections outline the main structure of the method and tools for addressing the sustainability issues for buildings and neighbourhoods, the generic framework with an emphasis on the energy and environmental indicators, the key performance indicators, the results from nine European pilots, providing details for the application in Greece, and the training system that includes educational material developed for decision-makers and technical professionals
These results enable a consistent comparison of the key information on the exchanging and sharing information practices between different areas, cities, information regions and sustainability performance of buildingsand andgood neighbourhoods for exchanging and sharing countries
Summary
The European buildings sector represents 41.7% of the total annual final energy in the European. The main aspects for sustainable cities address similar performance indicators like the ones for building scale, and include more categories, for example, urban transport, supply and distribution networks, social factors, etc. The following sections outline the main structure of the method and tools for addressing the sustainability issues for buildings and neighbourhoods, the generic framework with an emphasis on the energy and environmental indicators, the key performance indicators, the results from nine European pilots, providing details for the application in Greece, and the training system that includes educational material developed for decision-makers and technical professionals. The approach taken in this work was to first develop a generic framework that includes an “exhaustive” list of sustainability indicators that cover all relevant themes, given that there is still no consensus on a specific number or types of indicators This way one can have access to a comprehensive database that includes different performance indicators from which to select the ones that meet local priorities and needs, or best fit the project intent. Some KPIs were excluded due to the limited availability of the input data, e.g., quantities of building construction materials and recyclable content that have been used for existing buildings or other public works in the area, ensuring the applicability of the approach and the use of the indicators in the field
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